As is often the case, the statistics from this week's Giants game will not tell the real story. Anyone that reads the statline without having seen the game will assume that Eli Manning played horribly (completion percentage less than 50 for the game and he has struggled lately). The truth of the matter is that although Eli didn't play a great game, what hurt the Giants most was the lack of execution on the part of their receivers. I've never seen so many passes dropped by one team in a game. I thought that Eli did a great job of putting the Giants in a position to win in the second half. His guys just weren't making plays. This includes several drops that hit Brandon Jacobs right in the hands, one huge play that bounced right out of Amani Toomer's (our franchise's all-time leading receiver) hands, and a whole bunch more. Along with this, there were two instances in which Sinorice Moss caught a first down, backtracked in order to try and turn his catch into a huge gain, and was tackled behind the marker forcing the Giants to punt. Look, this wasn't Eli's best game, and he did have the most incompletions in a game in the NFL since Joe Namath in 1967 (a stat that really hurts my case for him here, but I feel obliged to include it). But, it takes two to complete a pass. I can think of five drives off the top of my head right now in which a Giants' receiver's hand made contact with the ball past the first down marker and no catch was made. It should be noted that Brandon Jacobs had an outstanding day running the ball.
Am I giving up on this team? Absolutely not. Look, tonight was a huge setback. But, these NFC East games are crazy. Philly beat Dallas. I'm sure you're all familiar with the old man phrase about hard-nosed rivalry games, "you can throw the records out the window with this one." The NFC East is really the only division in the NFL where that is virtually true every year. These four teams always play tight games and always bring out the best and worst in each other. I'm surprised that we didn't split with the Eagles and Cowboys as well. Jeremy Shockey's fractured leg is a crushing blow. I haven't mentioned it before now because there's really not anything to say. But, I still believe this team can be playing in the second round of the playoffs. They're still in the drivers seat for the fifth seed and they've been playing so inconsistently this year that anybody who says that they can count on anything with this team is just lying to themselves. They could lose out and not even make the playoffs or they could be in the super bowl. You really don't know. Neither do I. So, until we do know, I'm not giving up on them. One thing I will say, a win against Buffalo is imperative so that we can lock up the playoffs before Randy Moss comes to town.
In one of our staff meetings last week, I made the statement that I really think Hole gets a raw deal when people look back on the music of the '90s. Although there overall body of work isn't overpowering, Live Through This was a great CD. I never liked any of their other stuff, but that one album to me can stand on its own.
I really don't think that there has been a more significant event (excluding injuries) in fantasy football history than the snowstorm that hit New England yesterday. I'm sure there were countless people like me who checked their playoff matchups last week and said "goddamit!" as they saw that their opponent had Tom Brady playing against the Jets. Well man, I'm not going to lie, I thought my bid for a three-peat was over. It wasn't until after hearing the forecast on Thursday that I became the slightest bit optimistic. At work yesterday morning, I volunteered to spend most of my shift shoveling out around the dumpsters and then the front patio. I shoveled my ass off in hopes that karma would reward my noble efforts with a poor fantasy performance from Brady. Well I got it, and now I am winning by 31 points and he only has Adrian Peterson (the good one) still to play. He had, by far, the best team in the league. I'm sure that this was true of many people who had Brady and Randy Moss out there. It's really amazing to think that this real world storm could affect so many people's fantasy worlds.
Well man, Babcock and I have both shared our views on the Mitchell Report. I just want to say one more thing about it and then I hope that this whole thing will go away. A great deal has been made lately about the fact that Jose Canseco said that he was shocked that A-Rod was nowhere to be found in the Mitchell Report. Look, I understand that Jose's book was one of the things that got this whole thing going, but I simply refuse to operate under the "well, Jose Canseco said so it must be true" premise.
Seriously. I understand that a bunch of guys that he said took steroids ended up on the list. I also understand that the whole idea that a book by Jose Canseco was one of the main leads of the Mitchell Investigation shows just how uncomprehensive and unofficial the report was. A-Rod has been playing at an extremely high level for an extremely long time. He has been playing for a while now with the new policies in place. Can we please wait until he fails a test or some evidence is found before we make these potentially career-ruining accusations. Please, something other than "Well, Jose Canseco said it, so it's probably true." For once, I agree with dipshit Dan LeBatard, who likened this whole thing to McCarthyism.Riley and I will be heading to the Middle East once again on Tuesday night to check out Dillinger Escape Plan, Genghis Tron, and (just added, very excited) Stolen Babies. Should be sick. We'll definitely have a review ready for you. Ted saw Dillinger and Genghis Tron on Saturday night in Philly and said it was sick.
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