Giants Pass Rushers Eschewed By ESPN Panel
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Justin Tuck and Osi Umenyiora had a very good 2010. They both made second team Pro Bowl status as compiled by the AP, and helped the Giants defense dominate the NFL in forced fumbles and total takeaways, particularly in Osi’s case with 10 forced fumbles last season. But ESPN does not have either one of the Giants dynamic duo in their top 10 pass rush rushers this week. Here’s the list:
Ranking the Pass-Rushers
1. DeMarcus Ware, Dallas Cowboys
2. Clay Matthews, Green Bay Packers
3. Dwight Freeney, Indianapolis Colts
4. Jared Allen, Minnesota Vikings
5. Tamba Hali, Kansas City Chiefs
6. James Harrison, Pittsburgh Steelers
7. John Abraham, Atlanta Falcons
8. Julius Peppers, Chicago Bears
9. LaMarr Woodley, Pittsburgh Steelers
10. Cameron Wake, Miami Dolphins
And to top it off, they decided to show Eli Manning as the QB getting sacked…
Now Dwight Freeney DID have an exceptional game against the Giants but only because David Diehl played SOOO poorly. If I’m not mistaken, Manning’s sack numbers (16) were tied with his brother for fewest in the NFL… even Tom Coughlin thinks Eli should get sacked more. Perception isn’t always the reality here folks. And as good of a year as Tamba Hali had for example, he’s not established himself like Tuck and Umenyiora have for the Giants.
Even ESPN’s NFC North blogger Kevin Seifurt thinks not including Tuck was a big oversight:
"Overall, a total of 17 players received votes, and the crowd was dense enough to exclude established veterans such as Houston Texans defensive end Mario Williams, New York Giants defensive end Justin Tuck… and Colts defensive end Robert Mathis."
I agree, and although it’s an incredibly hard job to distill a top 10 list of anything across 32 teams in the NFL, an organization that gets more and more talented each passing year — I think they got this one wrong. Adding insult to injury by showing Eli getting nailed doesn’t do much for me either. In fact it’s pretty pathetic when you have a whole host of QBs this year that had much worse seasons than Eli when it comes to getting nailed by pass rushers. One comes immediately to mind…
So all things considered, this is an absolute slap in the face to the NY Giants organization. Not including Tuck or Osi in this ranking, and sandbagging Eli once again for no good reason other than the fact the he’s proven to be the mainstream media’s favorite whipping boy.
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