I've always heard it said that repeating is the hardest thing to do. I guess I really never understood. I figured people thought it was hard because the team wouldn't be hungry. I figured that people thought it was hard because the team would feel so satisfied from winning that they wouldn't come in to training camp with the same desire. I thought people figured after winning a Super Bowl, most guys would spend their whole off season sitting in a beach chair with a cocktail. I had no fears like that about the Giants this season, because so many guys on the team were young. They would still be hungry, and eager to prove that last season was not a fluke. Well, I have been humbled, and now I understand more.
What makes repeating so hard is not a lack of desire in the returning players. It actually has more to do with the timeline of the season. There were all types of questions swirling around the Giants in the preseason. People wanted to know if they were going to be a legitimate threat to defend their title. This put a lot of pressure on them to come out perfect when the year started. The situation created by winning a Super Bowl forced the Giants to treat the first few weeks of the season as though they were must-win statement games. And, they did. But very few teams (New England last year) can maintain a level of play that high throughout the season. When you work so hard to convince the critics and yourself that you are for real at the beginning, how could there not be a let down, especially when everyone annoints you immediately? We see it every year. It's all about how you play at the end of the season.
On the day that the Giants beat the Ravens, I decided that I was not going to set lofty expectations for the team. They were playing at a higher level than I could ever remember, but I just didn't feel like they were as good as people in the media believed. Remember, this was a team that was playing without arguably their two most important defensive players from the season before (Strahan, Umenyiora). I decided that regardless of what happened I would just enjoy the fact that I got to see them defend their championship so honorably during the season. It's a good thing that I made this decision, because nothing could have prepared me for how the season ended.
I will not disrespect the Eagles or the rest of the Giants' offense by blaming yesterday's loss on the absence of Plaxico Burress. However, I will say that losing him made it nearly impossible for this team to repeat. No matter how good the chemistry is, you need a big playmaker. We had all gotten to the point (partly because the media said so) that we thought maybe they could keep winning despite a huge downgrade in talent. People were actually saying "with Domenik Hixon in there instead of Plaxico Burress, this team might actually play better." That's ridiculous.
Think about the throw down the field yesterday in which Eli Manning and Hixon connected. It was one of Eli's few good throws of the day. He dropped it perfectly into Hixon's arms. There was a very small window for error. If that had been Burress he was throwing to, all he would have needed to do was get it somewhere in the vicinity. On top of that, having Burress on the field would have totally changed the way that Philly played defensively and it would have allowed the Giants to get more on the ground.
In the end, I can't be upset. At the start of the season, I was worried about the loss of Strahan and Umenyiora. If you had told me then that we'd lose Plax as well, I would have expected that the Giants would be sitting in third place in the NFC East. But, an exciting season filled with victories over teams like Dallas, Washington, Philly, Pittsburgh, Baltimore, and Arizona plus the top spot in the NFC......I can't be upset. What hurts more than anything is that it came at the hands of the Eagles........
As my closing thought, I'd just like to say that I've always wanted Donovan McNabb to do well. But, I've always wanted it to happen with another team. I didn't want the Giants to draft Eli Manning, but I certainly got on board when they made the move. The fans in Philadelphia have treated McNabb like dirt despite the fact that he's given them the best years in the organization's history. I'm happy for him. Only him.
No comments:
Post a Comment