The Brooklyn Trolley Blogger: NFC Championship

Correct me if I'm mistaken, but the Chargers entered last week's game rated among the top defenses in the AFC, no? As I was saying ... Paper Tiger! Bill Belichick, Tom Brady, and the New England Patriots completely short circuited the ~~San Diego~~ Los Angeles Bolts by playing fundamentally simple, no-nonsense, unadulterated smash mouth football. No gimmicks, just in your face pigskin. They called formations and plays straight out of the 1960s. The only thing missing were leather helmets. It was beauty to behold. That's why I ignore those who scream from the hilltops about how the game has changed. The Patriots possessed the ball for over 38-freaking minutes! Change that! Know why the Pats possessed the ball for so long? They rushed for 154 yards and four touchdowns, while Julian Edelman/James White accounted for another 248 yards receiving. In other words the Chargers had no answer; didn't know how to adjust ... that's why. Along with Brady, the four Minutemen put forth such a dominant effort that (hobbled) Gronk was only asked to make one reception all game. Otherwise, he was busy creating daylight with great effectiveness for RB Sony Michel. If the Patriots managed 40-points against the Bolts, what do you suppose can happen against a porous Chiefs defense that allowed 421 regular season points (26.3 points per game)? I know I said that last week, but I'll also reiterate the Colts looked more ready for the glue factory than for an NFL playoff game. Furthermore, I maintain the Patriots defense is underrated. Just ask a disrupted, harassed, and ultimately beaten-down Philip Rivers, who completed a miserable 25 of 51 passes with an INT. He was sacked twice and roughed-up another seven times. Playing from behind throughout, the Chargers rushed just nine times all game. All this being said, there was little or nothing about Kansas City's victory over the Colts that I found the least bit impressive. I repeat, nothing. Dare I say the Colts flat out sucked. Kansas City really had nothing to do with Indy's futility. The Nags did everything imaginable to kick themselves in their own posterior. As Charles Barkley would say, "Trrrible." Then there's Andy Reid. When it comes to coaching, this really is a battle of the have and have-not. Reid just can't seem to get over that hump. Sure Belichick has lost big games before - lots of times. But he's won a lot of big games as well. These teams last met in Week Twelve; the Patriots won by three. Brady put in his typical work, and Sony Michel rushed for over 100 yards. Pat Mahomes on the other hand threw two picks and Kareem Hunt is no longer on the team. If bad weather becomes a factor, I like the Patriots even more.
WIN; 37-31 Patriots

NATIONAL FOOTBALL CONFERENCE

SAINTS -3 (Rams)

I was long ago convinced the Saints would wind up in the championship game. But now what? What can a bad shoulder do to a quarterback's game, much less his season? Ask Cam Newton. He sucked this season and nobody really knew why. Turns out he played hurt and the Panthers wound up losing seven in a row. I bring this up, as I was pointed out by the TV pundits how Drew Brees was under-throwing his receivers last week. And by-golly, they're right! The question then begs to be asked: is he really hurt? Consider how the ~~Eagles lost!~~ Saints won. Just a thought. Drew Brees was actually 28/38 for 301 yards, two TD's, and one big WTF interception. The Saints also ran the ball 31 times, and therefore maintained a measure of play calling balance. The O-line only allowed two sacks, and that's my biggest question concerning the Rams: can they get to Brees? The Rams finished t-19 in the NFL with 38 sacks, and just one last week against he Cowboys. The Cowboys managed 22-points against the Rams; the Saints 20-points against the Eagles. Dallas nor the Chargers get after the QB like Philly or the Saints can. New Orleans finished the season t-5th with 49 sacks, but none against the Eagles. The Saints/Rams met midway through the season. Neither QB was sacked; the Saints got in five QB hits, and the Rams four. Goff threw three TD's and one pick; Brees threw four TD's and no picks. Ironically, the Rams were better this season at picking off passes than New New Orleans. How'd that work out for them? Both teams feature the so called offensive triumvirate; both teams scored over 500 points this season. The Saints are 6-2 at home; the Rams 6-2 on the road. Yeah ... at the end of the day, this boils down to defense. Time for stupid math tricks. The Saints allowed 353 regular season points; the Rams 384; for a +31 in favor of New Orleans. What that means, I'm not sure. But I do know the Saints defeated the Rams by ten points back in November. The Saints defense kept Nick Foles and the Eagles scoreless over the final three quarters of last week's game ... barely! I believe they can beat the Rams by four.
Loss; 26-23 Rams

Saints got screwed ...!

Monday, January 23, 2012

N.Y. Giants ~ Back To The Land of Giants

From the desk of: DO IT FOR THE DUKE

John Mara Leads Team Back To

THE LAND of GIANTS

Pre-Game Post: A Transcendental Championship Game

NEW YORK GIANTS FOOTBALL: "Did Ya See Us Last Night Pop? I Told You I Got This. And You Would Have Been Proud of Mom Too."

It wasn't freezing this time like on that night in Green Bay four years ago; just extremely wet.  The game wasn't played in the legendary frozen tundra of Lambeau Field either. Although the Media chill Tom Coughlin suffered this season would have broken a lesser man. But he, and we, have been there and done that. Instead, Sunday night's setting was a blast from Big Blue's past. The New York Giants went back to a place where they made history once before by willing their way through one of the most tightly contested upsets in NFC Championship Game history.

This Sunday's game was another classic played in one of today's grandfathers of football stadiums against the 49ers. The contest evolved similarly to the game played twenty-one years ago replete with stout defense, fumbles, and field goals. In 1991, Lawrence Taylor recovered a Roger Craig fumble. Matt Bahr then nailed a 42 yard field goal sending the Giants to Super Bowl XXV. Twenty-one years later, the Giants returned to a rain-soaked Candlestick Park this time; recovered a fumble; and kicked an NFC Championship winning field goal....again. Only this time it was a new generation of Giants that broke the hearts of San Francisco and propelled them into another Super Bowl. Unlike that team of twenty-one years ago, this edition needed overtime to finalize victory, which just made it sweeter; and colorfully more historic. But for more than a dozen or so Giant players and the Head Coach, STILL HERE since the 2007 season, they are now trying to get Lombardi Trophy number two; just like that NFC Championship team of 1990-91 was.

In the unlikeliest of manners, the Giants beat the 49ers with Special Teams.  San Francisco was supposed to be a superior team than us in that respect.  One the one hand, they were that good.  On the other, Giants' Special Teams have always had their problems.  And for portions of the game, it seemed as if the Niners held a huge advantage in that respect. But in classic confrontations such as this one where mistakes were held to a minimum, the team who made the last mistake lost.

*Thank You - Steve Weatherford whom I've jokingly but routinely dubbed our pseudo-MVP this season, for continuing to have a great season punting the ball. When it comes to matters of field position, he's been more than just a punter. He's been a force. Once upon a playoff era, Bill Parcells would have been proud of his kicker on a night like this. This Sunday, Ol' Tom Coughlin was the beneficiary of his fine performance.  And glory be to Weatherford for getting that last snap down!

*Thank You - Devin Thomas for his effort to get down field after getting pushed out of bounds by two 49ers blockers, and for having the presence of mind to recover a live ball touched by the Niners.

*Thank You - Jacquian Williams, the rookie, similarly for his down field punt coverage, and for sticking his hand exactly where it needed to be when the Giants needed a big break most.

*Thank You - Lawrence Tynes for planting one sure foot into the soggy Candlestick turf and using the other foot to keep kicking Big Blue forward.

That 49ers' defense was as tough as advertised. They completely dominated the Giants' Offensive Line all night long - (more about that later today!) They totally took away the run right up until the very last few rushes by Ahmad Bradshaw which set up Tynes' field goal. How good was the Niner Defense? The Giants held the ball more than ten minutes longer than the 49ers and ran thirty-three more plays than San Francisco. Yet we only out-gained them in total offense by twenty-four yards.

They beat, battered, pummelled, and pounded Eli Manning. Sometimes Eli saw the rush coming. Sometimes he didn't.  It didn't matter because he knew the rush was coming regardless, and that it was going to hit him; and that it was going to happen throughout the game. Eli took hits; many hits; hard hits; and looked downright dishevelled at times. He got sacked six times. But he never fumbled. Eli never even blinked with the Niners and the rain continually in his face. He just kept staying tough and launching footballs into the heart of San Francisco. Fifty-eight times Eli tried defying mother nature and the Niners. Thirty-two passes found safety in the wet hands of his receivers. By the end of the night, Eli Manning had thrown for 316 rain-drenched yards. The Niners could have had interceptions, but missed their chances. Instead, what they got were two more touchdown passes from The Aw-Shucks Kid. In yet another great Championship Game, Eli stood out as the game's greatest player.

But none of this happens without another Herculean effort by the Defense. The stats say San Francisco did so much more with their possessions than the Giants did with theirs. With less time of possession and less plays from scrimmage, the Niners wracked-up almost as many yards as Big Blue. The Giants may have given up over one-hundred yards rushing between Frank Gore and Kendall Hunter, and still more through catches out of the back field. But they were controlled yards. Instead, the Giants stymied San Francisco by dominating third down. The Niners were held to one first down in thirteen tries. And other than two TD passes to Vernon Davis, Alex Smith, the 49er offense, and Vernon Davis himself, could muster little else.

Chase Blackburn played huge. JPP was a Wall of One. And pass coverage was outstanding; save two plays. Over the last few weeks, the Secondary has become a blanket. In turn, the Secondary's success is coming from the Giants ability to maintain quarterback pressure with four guys. Led by Justin Tuck, they flushed Alex Smith from the pocket, batted some passes, hit him often, and sacked him three times. Together with overall good tackling, the Defensive effort was just enough to get the Giants through regulation, overtime, and off to Indianapolis to play in another Super Bowl.

The night ended perfectly as Terry Bradshaw was forced to look at winning coach Tom Coughlin in the eye yet again. That was always Bill Parcell's favorite part; proving the naysayers- "The Commies" - "the subversives from within" ..., wrong. But even before that, the re-education of Terry Bradshaw had begun. The Family would have their say first. Watching John Mara; the man who believed in Tom Coughlin; and his Mom; - Mrs. Duke - Mrs. Ann Mara - THE MATRIARCH - just destroy Terry Bradshaw and telling him Where to Stick It was the most satisfying part of the whole night. Don't Worry Pop. I Got This!

Now That's GIANTS FOOTBALL!!

YEeeeeeeeaAHH!

Mike.BTB

Sunday, January 22, 2012

N.Y. Giants ~ A Transcendental Championship Game

From the desk of: DO IT FOR THE DUKE ~ Championship Game Edition

National Football League
Playoffs

* * * * *

National Football Conference

CHAMPIONSHIP GAME

NFC EAST CHAMPS
NEW YORK GIANTS

vs.

NFC SOUTH CHAMPS

San Francisco 49ers

FROM

Rainy and Soggy Candlestick Park

NEW YORK GIANTS FOOTBALL:

The Giants-49ers Rivalry Transcends a Big Blue Generation.

MY CIRCLE OF LIFE

In a very literal sense, I spent the 1986 season alone in Texas, far away from the friends I grew up rooting-on the Giants with since the days of Ray Perkins and back to 1977 when I was eleven years old and new to the neighborhood. In 1986, I was a very young man in the Army and not yet a father. Serving in Texas at the time was a double whammy for a Giants fan from Brooklyn for quite obvious reasons. Needless to say, I celebrated victory over the 49ers, the Redskins, and winning Super Bowl XXI, alone. Which was quite fine with me. Besides, that team, that year, didn't make me worry about much, for they dominated. That season was the culmination of childhood to adolescence for me. It was a smooth and glorious ride through the playoffs. As the lone Brooklynite/New Yorker in my unit, I felt it my responsibility to talk mega-smack on our behalf to all the middle-American and Left Coasters in my presence; especially the 49er fans. There wasn't a Broncos fan in the house. There's a preponderance of Californians in the Army though. I wonder why?

Then, twenty-one years and two days ago, on January 20, 1991 - My bio-physiology barely survived watching one of the most gut-wrenching, mentally torturing, heart stopping, not to mention hardest hitting contests I ever saw. The Giants won one of the greatest games in their history that day when they defeated the perennial Super Bowl Champions; the San Francisco 49ers; with five field goals to win the NFC Championship on their home field. I was out of the service by then and my newborn son, no larger than a football himself, was less than a month old the day Matt Bahr nailed that game winning field goal propelling the Giants to Super Bowl XXV. I counted every rotation as that football closed in on the uprights 42 yards away until finally making it's way through for the win. The Giants were alive and well. Me? I survived. My son...? When Bill Parcells left the Giants a couple of weeks later, I thought to myself, woe is us.

I did not watch Scott Norwood miss wide-right in Super Bowl XXV. I couldn't. I was on my knees praying to the TV with my head buried face down in the floor. I was resigned to letting the crowd's reaction tell me the outcome of that kick. It turned out to be the most isolated three seconds of my life. For three seconds, there was no breath, no thoughts, no feeling, and even less of a sense for where I was. There was only the darkness of my closed eyes and the silence of Space. That part I was used to. I was less than one year out of the military by then and they train you in stuff like that. But that kick; that game; those two games; were far worse for me personally, mentally, and physically, than anything Uncle Sam ever put me through. My son spent both games sleeping in his crib like...well, a cute little baby without a care in the world.

A decade after the 49ers game of 1991, the improbable 2000 NFC Champions made a lasting impression on my ten year old son. The Giants cemented a moment in time for my young impressionable boy with that game and wound up marking his most obvious destiny. At ten years old, my son was a Giants Fan for life. His team card was stamped right around the same time in his life that it happened to me. But unbeknown to him, I festered inside watching our former two time Super Bowl coach bounce around the League. I also felt bad for my son when the Ravens blew us out. That Super Bowl, and life in the post-Bill Parcells Era plus ten years - came at a fortunate time in my life. By then, I learned how to compartmentalize. But 2000 and the Jim Fassel era, finally allowed me to move on from my post-Bill Parcells anger.

There is something that will always be all-together different about the 2000 NFC Championship. I was the Pop of a ten year old. And as a Pop watching a jubilant Wellington Mara hold up the George Halas Trophy and chiding the Media about it, I knew John Mara's time was coming soon as The Duke was getting on in years. I also remember thinking in regards to my own situation that Sunday - Welcome to the Big Blue Family son.

For me, unlike ten years prior, there was nothing really to worry about in that game against Minnesota. The Giants had the Vikings wanting to go home after the first five minutes. Only League rules prohibited them from exiting Giants Stadium before their destruction went final. Then the Ravens happened which left me thinking, - Oh My! What Have I Done to my Son? But then again, what do ten year olds really know about suffering through their team's worst times like Super Bowl XXXV when there are Power Rangers and Toy Story action figures to be played with?

By 2007, my son was a fine adolescent specimen in full Giants Fan bloom. After seventeen years on this planet, my son was finally exposed to the real pain that comes along with a Super Bowl run. His right of passage was upon him. By then as a fan hitting my forties, I was familiar with the long night ahead versus the Packers. If you're my age, we've learned a thing or two about our games when they start to take on certain characteristics. But for my son, only then did he learn and come to understand how these games can take years off our lives.

He and I watched the 2007 Championship Game together; alone; in the dark; and in relative silence. Age allowed me to examine the game and watch it develop. Speaking as a long time fan, we knew that game. We've seen it before. However, age and inexperience reduced my son to schizophrenia. On that night, he learned what the 1991 Championship Game did to me. And he achieved a great understanding into mood management to say the least. And as is the case with many Giants Fans, he may have also lost a year or two off the back of his life as Lawrence Tynes kept missing field goals.

The 2003 playoff loss to the 49ers was merely a blip I once had to advise my then thirteen year old. What he understands today about the rivalry the Giants have with the 49ers he came to understand through me, and through DVD's of those times that I lived through before and right up to the day he was born. What I tried imparting to him over the years is to be thankful to the 49ers for our glorious Giants history. The Giants won two Super Bowls during the heights of the San Francisco Dynasty of Joe Montana and Jerry Rice and Co. - Two Super Bowls for Bill Parcells and the Giants in five years, and each time we beat the 49ers and demolished Joe Montana on the way. Of course, they bludgeoned us back then as well. That's precisely what made those days glorious. We destroyed each other un-mercilessly. And because we beat one of the greatest teams of All-Time, our own Giants' greatness was and is undeniable.

Today is not just the NFC Championship Game against an old rival. Today, on January 22, 2012, at 6:30 p.m., my Circle of Life will have made it's way completely around a Generation of Giants Football. My son is a raging twenty-one year old full blown mass of testosterone-fueled man now, with an insane voracity for Giants Football. As a Giants Fan, he's come a long way. He has over a decade's worth of experience and strong convictions under his belt. And he has one Super Bowl; just like I did when I was twenty-one.

Today, Pop and Son are both going back in time; back to a time when the Giants were gunning for their second Super Bowl in 1991. That boy of mine will come to bear witness and live what I lived through during that 49ers game back in 1991 when he was still the size of a Football. Twenty-one years later, he will finally and truly understand why both our lives are destined to be snipped off at the edges. Blame the 49ers and Big Blue's penchant for the most dramatic Giants Football moments imaginable. Everything comes with a price.

I told him in 2007 as I have told him since, if you think that game against the Packers was a near death experience (in a totally metaphorically and Football sense and manner...of course), well then you better prepare yourself to die against the Niners. They, the 49ers, are us. We are them. I don't know whether to feel sorry for my boy; wish him luck; or laugh at him. But I warned him. Today's game will rank among the greatest games these teams have ever played against each other, and will without a doubt, leave an indelible impression upon the rest of his (our) Big Blue Life, just like that game twenty-one years ago did to me when I, like my son today, was gunning for my chance at a second Super Bowl.

He's come a long way alright. He's learning that with age comes experience. Calling upon what he felt during that Packers game in 2007 and even last week, I hope helps his frame of mind today. Because me? I was a freakin' wreck in 1991. If he could only have seen his father then. But then again, he did. In 2007 against the Packers, when Ahmad Bradshaw seemingly broke away for a touchdown, he and I jumped into full blown celebration mode. We jumped, and screamed, and hugged like newly married brides. THEN, the flag! Holding - NYG! We collapsed in place and died of utter disbelief. So yeah, he knows a thing or two about pain. And yeah, we've been there together before. I've always told him - Giants Football is never fun until the game is over, and then only if you win.

He's going for his second Super Bowl in five years just like I was in 1991, and I wish him well. I remember what that was like and the wars we had to fight to get it. But unlike him, I had a greater understanding into the magic of Giants Football in 2007. And I'm sure many Giant Families have similar stories, for this organization transcends generations. For the third time in my son's life, but for only the second time together like Giant Blue Brothers in Arms, we'll be watching again today, alone, in the dark, and in relative silence again.

The Giants are playing for the NFC Championship again. A little later today, he'll come to understand everything there is to know about the Giants/49ers rivalry. This rivalry is something wholly different than the ones we have against the Cowboys, Eagles, or Redskins. This rivalry in part made the Giants one of the greatest franchises in all Football History. Today my son will come to realize the true sacrifices needed to be made on a football field. This contest redefines what it means, and takes, to become great. He's going back in time to the moment his Pop was twenty-one years old and learning all this for the first time. Just ask Mom. She watched me suffer every Sunday for the past twenty-three years. Like I said, 1986 was the first Super Bowl. It was magical, but it came on like a stream roller. No one had a chance against us that season. And I hadn't had the pleasure of meeting her, nor the notion to raise a little Giants Fan of my own yet.

This is the 49ers. This is the last part of your Big Blue indoctrination son. We'll do it together this time, both as men. And by the way, Welcome to my World.