N.Y. Giants ~ Reintroduce Yourselves to Giants Football

From the desk of:   DO IT FOR THE DUKE

OUR BIG BLUE HOME SWEET HOME

PLAYOFFS

WILD CARD ROUND:

Atlanta Falcons      2

New York Giants   29

FINAL

NEW YORK GIANTS FOOTBALL:   Let The Pigeons Loose!Atlanta Falcons Get Feathers Ruffled In A Rout!

In Every Sense,

The Giants Were a BIG BLUE Wrecking Crew.

Ladies and Gentlemen; and Giant Fans of all ages - That was your reintroduction to Classic Giants' Football.  It's predicated on a dominant Defense, and a powerful Running Game.  First, let's please take a moment and thank Atlanta for attending Sunday School and helping out with today's demonstration.




Two games against the Jets and Cowboys to save the season and this Sunday's playoff win over the Falcons is plenty validation for the being a 9-7 NFC East title holder.  Additionally, there's your first playoff win outside of the 2007 season for Tom Coughlin.  So to ALL the members of the Media who called for Tom Coughlin's head with venom dripping from their mouths, humble yourselves.  Your behavior was incorrigible.




And Coach Perry Fewell showed he wants to keep his job too!  There IS a mean streak in Perry Fewell after all, and with all his men relatively healthy and on the field, he put it on full display.  He utilized his boys smartly and aggressively.  For the most part, they remained in man-coverage and blitzed often.  The Defense followed their coach's lead and pitched a shut-out in support of their embattled Defensive Coordinator.




The Defense allowed no touchdowns; no field goals; no points.  The deuce on the scoreboard came courtesy of the home team.  The Giants completely shut-down Michael Turner and Atlanta's running game.  And if you red any of my pre-game posts, you'll know I welcomed the opportunity to stop him. I knew we'd be better against the run.  I felt the Linebackers had it in them this week.  All Atlanta's feature back could muster was forty-one yards on fifteen rushes.  Additionally, the Giants held the Falcons to 4/14 on third-down conversions, and twice absolutely stuffed them on two crucial fourth down and inches attempts.




As expected, Big Blue delivered big time pressure upon Matt Ryan.  They sacked him twice, hit him another seven times, and harassed him all game long.  Osi Umenyiora bent all 308 pounds of Atlanta's LT-Will Svitek backwards like a pretzel, reached over him, and sacked both Matt Ryan and Atlanta's Tackle at the same time to close out the game with a formidable feat of power.  What a Herculean effort! - As was Sunday's entire Defensive effort.




On the back end, the Secondary kept Atlanta's receivers covered.  Matt Ryan was forced to pump, and double pump many times because there was no one open down field.  The Giants forced their third consecutive quarterback to accept the underneath pass, then completed the play with sound tackling.  There have been no major gaffes or break downs in coverage ever since Coach Fewell ditched his zone-scheme.  The Giants had their way with their third consecutive QB indeed.  The  Defense limited Ryan to 24/41; good for a paltry 199 yards passing.  Atlanta's longest pass play of the day went for twenty yards.  And Tony Gonzalez was the recipient of nothing outside a mere four catches for forty-four yards.




On the Offensive side of the ball -   Look Out!  Bad Guys Coming Through!  The Giants' Running Game ran towards glorious Daylight and basked in it's sunshine all game long.  For a day, Smash-Mouth Football was back and as bad as ever.  Like our old mantra says to do, the Giants ran with power.  The Giants' backfield ran the ball twenty-nine times, for which Coach Gilbride deserves a lion's share of credit.   Ahmad Bradshaw and Brandon Jacobs rushed for 155 yards between them.  Both backs found beaming rays of Daylight off Right Tackle again and both uncorked big 30+ yard rumbles.  They also combined on seven catches for thirty yards.




Enter Eli - The Runner!  On one of the most crucial plays of the game, Eli scrambled for a huge first down.  It's the second game in a row Eli has saved a drive by scrambling up field.  And yes, we can finally talk about another three touchdown passes and no interceptions.  Two TD passes went to Hakeem Nicks and one to Mario Manningham.  With just two catches for twenty-eight yards, Victor Cruz averaged fourteen yards a catch.  That was still better than any of Atlanta's receivers!  With the  regular season done and after Sunday's game for sure, the Big Blue Ariel Crew must now be considered among the League's elite passing games.




Even punter-Steve Weatherford was brilliant once again during a first quarter in which the two teams were still feeling each other out.  There is a large role to be played in the battle for field position, and Steve was right on point.  Weatherford pitched a shut-out in his own right.  Atlanta had zero punt return yards the entire game.




This was by far Big Blue's best and most balanced performance of the season.  It was a great return of playoff football to Giants Stadium.  And for those of you who may have forgotten, or lost faith in the Giants' ability to succeed at it, THAT was your re-indoctrination to Giants Football.




Sunday's 24-2 win over Atlanta punches the Giants' ticket for another game.  See you in Green Bay.








Mike.BTB