On a night where past and present New York Giants gathered for a good cause, it was the future that was on the minds of the Giants.  Eli Manning has recently said that he is going into the 2012 season looking at the 2011 Giants as a 9-7 team, and not as the Super Bowl champions.  His teammates apparently share in that attitude and are looking to improve–and repeat–in 2012.

I re-watched the game this morning on television, and was surprised at some of the things Fox missed.  This was a game of key turning points and great game planning on behalf of the Giants.  It was also a game where the aggressiveness of a coach may have cost his team a chance at a win.  Here are the keys as I saw them:

First Quarter:  The tone for this game was set immediately by the Giants defense. (11:43)  On the first possession by the Falcons Justin Tuck gets a big hit on Matt Ryan as he releases the ball.  Many Giants players feel that this early hit sped up the clock in Ryan’s head.

9:49 At this point the Falcons look to get Tony Gonzalez into the game.  The Giants defense however has the answer.  On successive plays both Tuck and JPP line up over Tony.  Ryan takes the snap and looks immediately to his side, except he is lying on the ground.  Tuck and JPP dominated Tony G. all day, pushing him back on running plays, and denying him from running his routes.

5:20 J.P.P. again dominates Tony G. and stops Michael Turner for a loss.

:44 Just before the end of the quarter Tuck again gets a nice hit on Ryan.  Then Snelling goes nowhere on 3rd and 1…and then the first mistake by the Falcons coaching staff.  You need to get points…be the first on the board…show something for your efforts.  Instead the Falcons try to draw the Giants offsides with multiple shifts and hard counts.  The idea is to get the Giants to relax and hang back, not wanting to jump offsides.  When Ryan snaps the ball, the Giants are ready and make the crucial stop.

The second quarter begins with the Giants corners being very physical with the wideouts of Atlanta.  Many times you can see Ryan take a quick step and then hold the ball.  The timing of the Falcons was completely thrown off by the Giants defensive plan.

9:00 The leader of the Giants all year has been Eli Manning, and again today it took a play by him to get things going.  The 14 yard run for a first down energized his team, and the stadium.

8:30 Brandon Jacobs runs over the Falcons safety and again gets the crowd and his teammates fired up.

6:30 Eli makes another heady play avoiding a sack by flipping the ball to Bradshaw.

5:56 A great moment for all Giants television watchers.  As Joe Buck extolls the virtues of the Falcons defensive front, and states: “for all the talk about the Giants defense, it’s been the Falcons front that has dominated so far” At this very moment Brandon Jacobs breaks one for 34 yards.  Timing is everything Joe!

5:10 Bradshaw appears stopped in the backfield, but breaks tackles and runs for 9 yards.

3:37 4th and one. As the ball is handed to Jacobs off tackle, the gentleman standing in front of me at the game says ” I hate this play” and with that Jacobs spins off the linebacker and falls forward for the first down.

2:47 All the running pays off as Eli play actions, and finds Nicks in the end zone for the TD. 6 runs and a play action pass.

Halftime:

I guess Mike Smith made two statements at halftime that were very telling.  He said they are blitzing more than normal, and that the crowd noise is affecting a man they call “Matty Ice” a nickname yet to be earned. (more…)

According to Antrel Rolle, if the Giants and the Redskins played 100 times the Giants would win 99 of them They played each other twice in 2011, and the Redskins won both, so the law of averages was defied.

Quite honestly, this was an ugly effort. The Giants reverted to the ghost of seasons past, with dropped balls by wide open receivers, failure to protect the QB, interceptions be Eli Manning, and nothing in the way of a defensive effort. Playing against a Redskins line that was missing its two starting OT’s, the Giants defense registered 1 sack and allowed the ‘Skins 35 minutes of possession. The Giants number 1 draft choice wound up getting benched. The team managed to accumulate 8 penalties and showed no sense of urgency. The coaching staff didn’t appear to have put in an effective game plan, and what was installed wasn’t executed. If there was a bright spot for the G-Men, it was their special teams, which performed adequately.

Incredibly, the Giants still control their own destiny, and if they win out they go to the playoffs. If the Giants can play with fire and passion, they might get to the post season. If my aunt was a man she’d be my uncle. The odds makers have installed the Jets as three point favorites. Right now, I think that’s being charitable.

[via CBS NY]

Listen to the interview here:

Here are some of Rolle’s best comments after week 1:

On the state of the defense after losing in Washington

“I definitely feel there is a lot of work to be done. We have a lot of guys playing different positions. We have to fill in some key areas. We still haven’t found that chemistry yet. It’s getting close and it is definitely getting close. We’re definitely striving to get things on a better track.”

On his outlook on the Giants team in general after week 1:

“As a team and organization we know that the Washington Redskins are not a better team than us. We know that. Hands down. If we played them 100 times they might win 5. They won that day. It never leaves a good taste in your mouth when you lose to an opponent you know you are better than. We understood where things went wrong. I don’t think we played a good game at all as a team. I don’t think we played well on special teams, on defense or offense. I think that is something we realize and once you realize the problem then you could work on fixing it and that’s exactly what we are going to do.”

On the defenseless receiver penalty that lost the game for the Giants

“It was a caught ball and the guy was on the ground and he only had one more yard to get, so as a football player my first instinct is he is going to try to reach and put the ball over that line. Once I felt like he was going to try to reach to put the ball over that 1-yard line my instinct was to go and try to hit him as hard as I can and try to force a turnover. I know he is not going to reach over and have full control of the ball, so my instinct was to go over there and create a turnover the best way I can. My initial target point was definitely not a head shot, but as he started rolling it kind of threw my target off it a little bit. I think what happened is my shoulder definitely hit him first, but as I hit him the back of my helmet caught his helmet. I’m not the one to sit here and say it was a good call or it wasn’t a good call, but in my eyes it was a legit call and something I can learn from. Next time I have to make a smarter play and try to tackle him down and force him with my hands instead of my shoulders.”

[via WFAN]

– There was a huge backlash with Eli Manning saying he is a Top 5-10 quarterback and right up there with the Tom Brady. Obviously, the New York media is starving for a story because what else would you expect the man to say. “Nope, I see myself more in the class of Charlie Whitehurst and Rex Grossman.” Come on now people. And now for my own little rant, Michael Kay should not host a radio show —  he is awful. The combination of him and Don La Greca (even though he is a Giants fan) make for the worst, most uninformed, and biased sports talk in New York. Kay talks more about his wife Jodie Applegate then he does sports. We get it Kay, she’s hot and your far from it, but enough already.

– Allegations regarding the University of Miami and booster Nevin Shapiro emerged in the afternoon yesterday during Giants practice. Antrell Rolle and Kenny Phillips were both member of UM, and Rolle specifically was targeted by the media. He neither confirmed nor denied the allegations, but did say that Shapiro was just angry and bitter towards the University, and doing anything he could to bring it down.

– Travis Beckum  got reamed out by Kevin Gilbride during practice, and at one point was just told to stand on the sidelines. Not a good day for a man who is fighting for a starting job. Bear Pascoe looks to be the front runner for the starting tight end position.

– WFAN and Mike Francesa (another one who I could rant about all day), had a couple Giants on the air yesterday. Recaps of the interviews are down below by my fellow staff members at gmenhq.com

– Kevin Boss and the Giants supposedly had a verbal agreement, but Al Davis swooped in with an offer that could not be refused. It was also confirmed that Smith was indeed offered a contract that would make him one of the highest paid WR’s in the game prior to his injury.

– Justin Tuck has been bothered by a sore achilles, but do not go into a state of panic. It does not appear to be very serious.

Like I said above I will be in Florida for the next week, so for an update on news, notes, and analysis follow me on Twitter:

http://twitter.com/erobertsny

Webster went from a considerably high 8 Million to 5 Million, while Rolle went from 5.25 Million to 1.25 Million. With incentives and bonuses, both would most likely make even more than their original contracts entailed. Regardless, a very team first move by the two.

For more updates check me out on Twitter:

http://twitter.com/erobertsny