The Giants Find a Way to Win

So, I was in attendance watching the New York Giants make a miraculous comeback against the Denver Broncos, Sunday at Giants Stadium. It was the best non-playoff game I have ever been to. That is excluding the Giants-Eagles matchup the last week of the season three years ago since the Giants had to win that game to make the playoffs so it was in essence a playoff game.
But this week's game came close to that Eagles game.

My Dad and I arrived around 2:30, we had subs and beer. For the record I was wearing my red Manning jersey. We then decided to meet up with some of my Dad's friends and headed over there around 3:00. We finally got to our seats with about 12:00 left in the 1st quarter. Denver was driving after a Tiki Barber fumble. The game moved along very quickly with not too much scoring going on until about 4 minutes left in the first half. At that point I commented to my Dad how the game was moving fast. At that point Denver proceeded to score a TD to take the lead 13-7. Then there was a barrage of incompletions and penalties slowing the game down to a crawl.

The Broncos received the second half kickoff and drove 60 yards in 3 plays and scored to take the lead 20-10. The Giants were playing sloppy on defense giving up huge chunks of yards and not forcing turnovers. On offense there was a couple 3 and outs and they just couldn't seem to find a groove. Going into the fourth quarter the Giants were down 23-10. My keys to the game for the Giants were on Offense to keep from turning the ball over and get Tiki involved with some screens and quick dump passes out of the backfield. They only had 1 turnover so far, with 1 more coming in the 4th quarter. Tiki had run the ball a little more than last week but wasn't getting the ball on swing or screen passes and wasn't really able to get the ball in open space as there wasn't very many open running lanes. On defense my keys to the game were to control the running game and create turnovers. The Bronocs totaled just under 200 yards rushing and had forced no turnovers so far. The result of this was a 23-10 lead for the Broncos.

Things started to change in the 4th quarter however. The Giants drove down and scored a TD to bring the score to 23-17. With 9 minutes left in the game the defense let the Broncos drive down the field and take up some time. With 6 minutes left the Broncos ran a play that got them down to about the 20 yard line and got them a first down, however there was a holding penalty which backed them up to the 40 yard line for 3rd and 15. The Broncos picked up 9 yards on 3rd down to set up a 49 yard FG to go ahead by 9 and thus make the Giants need two scores to win. The FG would have essentially sealed the game for the Broncos. Jason Elam lined up for this second 49 yard FG of the game. His first was with the wind, as this kick would be also, however on his first kick, it barely, and I mean barely, by about 1 foot, cleared the cross bar. So on this kick Elam wanted to put a little more oomph into his kick. It was heading towards the uprights and right around the goalline the ball hooked to the right and was wide by about a foot. That holding penalty loomed very large in determining the outcome of the game. The Giants had the ball back with plenty of time to drive down the field for a TD that would take the lead.

Unfortunately on a 20 yard crossing pattern, Manning overthrew Burress by a little bit and the ball landed in the arms of a diving Champ Bailey. Watching replays it looked like Burress had a shot at the ball and seemed to pull up. It is always hard to tell these things watching replays though. Now with 4 minutes left it was up to the defense.
1st and 10: run for 3 yards
2nd and 7: run for 2 yards
3rd and 5: Tatum Bell comes out of the backfield and runs a 7 yard out. The ball hits him in the chest and Will Allen hits him and the ball comes loose.

The defense held and now its time for a punt. Plenty of time left to drive up the field. The Broncos punt and the Giants get a great bounce and the ball rolls out of bounds at the 28. However there is a two flags on the play. A chop block against Denver. That penalty alone would have moved the ball 15 yards for the Giants meaning they would only have to go 57 yards to score and take the lead however the other flag was on Shaun Williams for unnecessary roughness, a dumb penalty. No reason for it at all, so the penalties offset and there is a rekick and Chad Morton fair catches the ball on the 17 meaning the Giants now have 83 yards to go to score. It was an essence a 26 yard dumb penalty. But the Giants start the drive with 3:29 left on the clock and 2 timeouts. Plenty of time to drive down the field.

Now, before I talk about the last drive, I have two quick things I wanted to say.
One is a quick aside about stadium etiquette. I don't understand why fans do what they do. When the other team's offense is on the field the idea is to make noise when that team is up on the line, this makes it difficult for the QB to call audibles and makes it hard for the players to hear the snap count leading to false starts and delay of game penalties. However, it is also important to make noise when the other team's offense is in the huddle so the QB has trouble hearing the playcall and then relaying it to the rest of the offense. It seems most fans don't understand this. This same principle works in reverse when the home team is on offense. The QB is trying to hear the call and relay it to the offense, then when he is up at the line he needs to call audibles and make sure everyone can hear the snap count so there is no false start. Fans will start cheering like crazy after a big play or when the team gets down near the goalline. Now I understand being excited because I am, but cheer when the team scores or right after the big play. When the offense is huddling or at the line they need to be able to hear and you aren't helping them. I wish more fans would understand this principle.

One is that the Giants have never really had a good offense, nor have they been resilient enough to make comebacks like this. The Giants I have grown to love, just don't come back from 13 points down with 9 minutes left in the game. They will lead the whole game and find ways to lose. Things have started to change with the beginning of the Eli era in NJ. Last year, last game of the year, Giants-Cowboys. The Giants drive down the field and score a TD as time runs out to win the game. Last week, Giants-Cowboys again. The Giants generally played terrible all game but hung around so that they were only down 7 points with time running out in the 4th quarter. Manning drives the team down the field and scores the game-tying TD. They lose in OT but they never had the ball as the Cowboys won the coin toss and just ran down the field and kicked a FG to win. This week, much of the same thing as last week. The Giants played a little better but overall played fairly poorly. However, they hung around and here they are down by 6 with 3 1/2 minutes left in the game, ready to drive down the field to win the game. And I actually started to believe. My body was tense. You could feel the nervous optimism flowing through the stadium. People weren't thinking the Giants were going to mess up somehow, they believed Eli was going to drive the team down the field and win the ball game.

So onto the critical last drive.
1st and 10-83 yards to go: Incomplete pass
2nd and 10-83 YTG: 6 yard pass
3rd and 4-77 YTG: 6 yard pass (First down)
This was a crucial play for a couple reasons, one it was third down and the Giants need a first down. Secondly, Eli was running around like a crazy person, he rolled right then spun back left and found Plax on the sideline for a tough 6 yards. Thirdly, Denver rookie CB Darrant Williams was hurt on the play.
So now, 1st and 10-71 YTG (2:13 left): 7 yard pass and the clock winds down to the 2 minute warning.
2nd and 3-64 YTG: 6 yard run
1st and 10-58 YTG: 9 yard screen pass
2nd and 1-51 YTG: 5 yard pass
1st and 10-46 YTG:9 yard pass to Toomer who gets upended in a pretty cool looking tackle.
Time out Giants. 1 Time out left
It's now 2nd and 1 from the 37 yard line. There is 51 seconds left on the clock, still enough time but the Giants will have to hurry up from here on out.
2nd and 1-37 YTG: 3 yard run
1st and 10-34 YTG: Pass incomplete. The Giants elect to run a quick out to Plax instead of spiking the ball. I like the playcall, unfortunately the pass is behind Plax and he can't hold on.
36 seconds left.
2nd and 10-34 YTG: Pass incomplete. The Giants go for it all with a deep pass to Tim Carter. Carter got behind the defensive back and the ball was thrown perfectly. The ball is coming down and Carter dives towards the back of the end zone and the ball hits him in the hands and falls through. The replay came onto the big screen and you could hear everyone in the stadium groan.
3rd and 10-34 YTG: 26 yard pass to Shockey on a crossing pattern. Shockey looked wide open from where I was sitting however, upon watching replays he was very well covered by Ian Gold and it was a great touch pass by Eli.
1st and goal- 8 yard line: Eli rolls around and throws it away.
2nd and goal-8 yard line: Little screen pass to Tiki, he cuts to the middle of the field and looks like he is heading for the end zone when John Lynch stands him up and plants him at the 2 yards line.
Time out # 3 for the Giants. 10 seconds left. 2 more pass plays to try and score.
3rd and goal- 2 yard line: The ball is snapped DJ Williams is coming off the left side for a blitz, Tiki stands him up. Eli starts to backpedal away from pressure to his left. He slides back to the 15 yard line and fires a bullet while backpedaling and leaning backward high into the endzone while Toomer runs underneath the CB who replaced Darrant Williams and jumps up to snag it out of the air 2 yards deep in the end zone.

The stadium erupts. I started screaming my lungs out. I was jumping up and down, I gave high fives to everyone around me. I think I gave out 20-25 high fives in 20 seconds. It was crazy.
Jay Feely booted the extra point to take the lead by one point and then after a squib kick and an intercepted lateral by James Butler, the victory was sealed.

It was an unbelievable victory for the Giants. A win against a very good Broncos teams after playing fairly mediocre the whole game. This was not the kind of game the Giants usually win. The Giants are looking like a confident team heading into next weeks showdown with division rival, Washington Redskins. It is a huge game... HUGE. I will be there once again. Like this week I will post some pre and post game analysis so look forward to that.

I just wanted to close with a little more analysis of the final play. It was an amazing play all around. Tiki Barber gave a huge block on a blitzing DJ Williams, obviously without that block Eli gets sacked and the game is over. Then Eli's ability to slide away from the pressure while waiting for someone to come open was amazing. He held onto the ball until the last second when he threw the ball up in the air. If you watch the replays you see he can't really see where he is throwing the ball as he has John Lynch in his face. So backpedaling with a man in his face Eli throws a perfect pass blindly. Then Amani Toomer goes up and grabs that ball that was destined to fly out of bounds was amazing. Everything about that play was just sublimely awesome. It was an offense performing in perfect harmony and I cannot wait to see it make some beautiful music again this Sunday against the Redskins.

Ok enough procrastinating and more working.
Keep checking back.