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New-look Giants stay true to form before Dallas on Sunday

By Nate Rosenblatt | January 11th, 2008

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This is a different New York Giants football team. At the end of the season last year, the debate always seemed to be about us. As in, what is wrong with us? Why can’t we score points? Is it the quarterback? Is it playcalling? Is it injuries? We seemed to harp on the negatives with the false hope that by asking the same questions over and over we would somehow find a solution.

Though to some degree these questions remain, they are not the nagging focal point they once were. This year, particularly in the last few weeks, the way the Giants have handled themselves speaks volumes about their confidence. They are doing all the things a smart team should do before the biggest game of the season, from the coaching staff on down. When Steve Spagnuolo had a chance to interview for the Falcons head coaching position, he reinforced the need to prepare for the Cowboys game and wouldn’t have accepted the request, though it was the Giants organization that denied Atlanta interview rights.

For the players, they are doing much more than not providing Dallas with bulletin board material. All you hear from them is praise for the Cowboys and their pro-bowlers. Antonio Pierce called the game “All-Pros vs. All-Joes.” Michael Strahan said the game against the Cowboys has “Pro-Bowlers and all that stuff going against us slapsticks so it should be interesting, if we’re lucky maybe we’ll have a chance.” This is the kind of attitude championship teams have before a big game: flatter the other team off the field then flatten them on it.

Yet this confidence does not come without some element of pride. When asked if it bothers the team that they are sending only one player to Hawaii as opposed to Dallas’ twelve, Giants pro-bowler Osi Umenyiora remarked, “yeah I think it does, and you know to be honest with you it should, cause I’m not sure that they have that many better players than we do.”

With the combination of confidence, pride, and a chip-on-our-shoulder attitude that comes with being an underdog, the Giants have a mentality that is hard to beat. They will come into Sunday very loose because they know they are playing their best football right now. This is a different New York Giants football team. How far that takes them into the playoffs this season I don’t know, but I love it!

Injury Update: Kevin Dockery did not practice at all, so barring a miracle he is out for Sunday, Sam Madison was very limited and Corey Webster practiced all day with the starters. Shaun O’Hara was playing, Plax was running routes and Kevin Boss is back from his illness.

This entry was posted on Friday, January 11th, 2008 at 1:56 pm and is filed under Shaun O'Hara, Osi Umenyiora, Sam Madison, Kevin Boss, Antonio Pierce, Steve Spagnuolo, Michael Strahan, Corey Webster, Plaxico Burress, Kevin Dockery, Injuries / Injury Report(s). You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

9 Responses to “New-look Giants stay true to form before Dallas on Sunday”

Ray says:

January 11th, 2008 at 3:25 pm

Nate,

Any idea as to what Spags maybe feeling or thinking as far as taking that Atlanta HC job? I know that if Tom Heckert from the Eagles becomes the GM, it is a big chance that we may loose Spags to Atlanta. Tell me some good news regarding Spags if you have any? It will suck if we had to start all over again with a new DC and a new scheme.

Your thoughts!!
danny dan says:

January 11th, 2008 at 3:59 pm

the hell with the spags situation. All I care about is a Super Bowl!
Mooey (Upstate NY) says:

January 11th, 2008 at 4:07 pm

I just heard Burress on ESPN radio say “We are taking it home”. This guys has been the guy that everyone looks to for making plays and standing up to people.

I can’t wait!! GO GIANTS!
Nate Rosenblatt says:

January 11th, 2008 at 4:35 pm

Ray - at this point we can do nothing but speculate…Three things going our way though are that Spags has only been a D-Coordinator for one year, he has a good thing going in NY, and Atlanta is a shambles right now.

The game is only two days away so lets shift the focus to that. We’ll have plenty of time to talk about these sort of things after the playoffs.
MJ says:

January 11th, 2008 at 4:57 pm

If Spags does not (get) take the Atlanta job, the NYG should break him off with a new contract and a raise. He has earned it. Yes, TC is going to get his extension, but perhaps the G-men should look to groom Spags to be the headcoach after TC down the road. No need to just let a guy go just because another team comes knocking. The guy does like it here, so structure a contract that will keep him.
backwoods says:

January 11th, 2008 at 6:54 pm

Plaxico is a sure catch. Eli, just get it to him and to where the boys can’t touch it. Eli, I don’t think you are the same person. You get it. Stay the course. Spag, Give them something that will open the hole that will let a rusher in to screw Romo’s game. He is susceptible to pressure. Gilbride give Eli the right passing targets, the right runs and offensive line, do what you need to do. Gilbride, It seems like you have finally figured it out. Safeties and corners, don’t let TO or Whitten get the free play. Make em work. If they are going to beat us they are going to have to play the game of their lives. Giants if people think that you are 7 and a half point underdogs, show them how wrong they can be. Do they understand the NFC East? Dallas has Romo and TO, Giants have Spag, a revitalized Gilbride,
Eli Manning who will show that he was the right choice and that thing we Giant fans believe in as major factor: Heart.
FactCheck says:

January 11th, 2008 at 7:32 pm

Romo may be susceptible to all the pressure in the world but the Gs front seven has continually shown that they can’t get to him. The Dallas O line is too big and strong for the smaller Gs front so the coords have to figure a way to get around this. Philly did it by loading up the zones and beating the snot out of anyone who caught the ball. NE did it by outscoring the Dallas offense and playing a lot of man coverage (with double teams on TO) when Dallas got into the red zone. The Gs defense need to do something better than in the 2 regular season games.
Rob Z says:

January 11th, 2008 at 8:56 pm

In my unprofessional opinion, i think the way Webster and Ross played against Galloway and crew, and given the injury to Owens, we can single cover owens. With our pass rush Witten will have to pick up more blocks and when he is going out for a pass, we can have the safety punch him in the mouth. I agree that our front is smaller, but spags will give them some news looks, and while they can probably give Homo some time, I think he will have a hard time finding the open receiver. Our speedy front is bound to have Tony’s thoughts on running from gaptooth and Osi instead of jessica. We are a different team since we last played the girls. GO GIANTS
Kevin the Boss says:

January 11th, 2008 at 10:11 pm

Good article nate. sounds just like the championship team from 1990 when Parcells ‘blew smoke up Buffalo’s skirts’ the week before the game… and then proceeded to start Buffalo’s hilarious four-year streak.

I think another important point is that, even though Gilbride has called some great games, let’s not forget that first half of the fourth quarter against the Pats. We had the machine on the ropes and then some passive play calling (minus a wasted play for the Eli fumble) lost us our lead quickly. If we do get a lead on the Cowgirls, we can’t let up on them.

My favorite play in the Bucs game was that third and one play action pass. Let ‘em stack against B-Jake…and let Eli make plays. We all know the girls are going to make Eli win this game.