What Else Can I Say?

It was pure domination, right from the get go. Tiki Barber's 57 yard burst off left tackle set the tone for what would be a long day for the Redskins. In the Giants first game after the passing of longtime owner and NFL patriarch, Wellington "Duke" Mara, they came out and played a game that would have made Duke smile. Tiki ended up with 206 yards on the ground and a touchdown. Eli didn't play so well yesterday, but he really didn't have to as the Giants defense stifled a Redskin offense that scored 52 points last week.

A couple of things I noticed while watching the Giants defense yesterday. Osi Umeniyiora was a house. He was wrecking the Redskins left tackle. On one play early in the third quarter he actually just knocked the left tackle right over, flat on his back, and would have had an easy sack however he tripped over the left tackle who was now on the ground. The Redskins resorted to chipping Osi but it didn't help much as he just dominated the left tackle on basically every play, there were at least 8 occasions where there was blatant holding against Osi, however, none of them were called. I know people will say that there is holding on every play but for me to actually pick out holding penalties is a rarity. Generally only 3-4 times a game will I pick out holding on any offense lineman and I am usually right (or validated by a penalty flag) 75% of the time, however, I noticed 8 instances of holding on one player and not a single time did the flag come out. It was a blowout though and I imagine the refs just wanted to keep the game moving.
Also, the coverage looked great. Will Allen was all over the field and he was actually blanketing receivers. The past three home games I made it a point to watch the coverage and I often saw opposing receivers running free around the middle of the field. Yesterday, I saw lots of man coverage and a great deal of well defended recievers. Curtis Deloatch and Corey Webster also played well as far as I could tell as most of my time went to watching Osi and Will Allen. Hopefully this is a sign of things to come.

My only complaint yesterday was trying to get into the stadium. Because of logistical constraints my father and I headed out to the stadium aroun 10:45. We were trying to meet up with some people by Gate C however, we were unable to make it over there. We drove all around the stadium trying various different entrances and they were all blocked off. After 30 minutes of driving around the stadium we finally ended up back at our normal entrance where we proceeded to drive around the stadium again(which took another 20-25 minutes) and ended up in the usual spot next to the racetrack. It is unbelieveable to me how they close off the stadium parking so much and force you to park in certain areas depending on where you enter the stadium. Not only that but if you enter from Route 3 they dump you in parking lots on the exact opposite side of the stadium after sitting in a line of cars for 20 minutes. It is quite a hassle, only to get worse after the construction of a new stadium begins.

One final comment: there was a very moving video tribute to Wellington Mara at halftime. Of course nothing can really capture the man that Mara was but this video tribute went a long way in helping people understand the enormity of a man who spent most of his time out of the spotlight. There is no doubt, that the NFL would be a different league without Mara's guidance and vision.

I was hoping there would be a stadium-wide "Duke" chant that would occur after the tribute however the stadium crowd never seemed to be able to organize it as it tried to get started.
Something that amused me: With about six minutes left in the game a drunk man sitting 2 or 3 rows in front of me stood up and starting chanting, "Duke, Duke, Duke" he did this for 30 seconds. No one joined him. He stopped and said to himself, "I guess not." At this point he spat on the ground in disgust and walked up the stairs and out of the stadium.

I will be in Boston this weekend and won't be able to watch the game against the Niners this Sunday however I am feeling pretty confident that the Giants will pull out the victory. I will probably post a pre-game analysis on Thursday.