Keith Rivers: Rivers had a fabulous first game as a Giant. No one knew what we would be getting out of Rivers when the Giants traded away a 5th-round draft pick for him this offseason, but he has the potential to be a steal if he keeps playing like he did last night. Rivers had 7 tackles, second most on the team, and was around the ball on practically every snap that he played. If he continues to play that well, the Giants’ linebacking situation becomes very sturdy.

Domenik Hixon: One of the biggest questions coming into this year was how the Giants were going to replace Mario Manningham, who left as a free agent to sign with San Francisco. Judging by last night, we may not miss him much. Coming off a second torn ACL in 15 months, Hixon had 3 catches for 55 yards, including a tremendous 39-yard grab to set up the Giants’ first touchdown. He had the second most receiving yards on the team, behind Victor Cruz’s 58, and was one of the few bright spots on an offense that struggled for most of the night.

Steve Weatherford: The punting game is never sexy, but last year’s transition from Matt Dodge to Steve Weatherford may have been the single biggest positional upgrade the Giants made from the year before. Last night, Weatherford was excellent as usual, punting four times for an average of 50.3 yards, including one punt that was downed inside the 20 yard line and another that should have been, but the coverage team couldn’t keep the ball from rolling into the end zone after it bounced perfectly at the one yard line.

The biggest silver linings are that this was only one game in a long season, and that the Giants easily could have won with a few breaks on key plays. The areas that failed the Giants were the same ones we figured would be issues coming into the season – the running game and the secondary. A lucky win would have glossed over those problems and created the illusion that nothing was wrong, but a loss to a division rival on a national stage ensures that no one will be overconfident heading into next week. Hopefully, the results will be better.

I’m going to talk to the parties involved. As I understand it, there were some parts that were inappropriate, and anything that occurs within this family or within our group should not be a part of any social media aspect. I’m going to address that strongly, and I’ve spent a little time on that this preseason, but I’ll look into it further.

The video was originally posted by punter Steve Weatherford, who has since issued an apology via twitter. As for the video itself, it’s hard to tell whether the two players had an actual issue with one another, or whether it was just an innocent example of a couple young players horsing around. Pierre-Paul seems pretty pleased with himself at the end, smiling and high-fiving teammates while Amukamara appears much less enthused.

Overall, this seems to be a lot of smoke without much fire. Even if JPP and Prince do have a problem, nobody ever said that everyone on the team has to like one another for them to be successful. The most significant thing about the video is that it’s pretty funny, so I encourage you to take a look (warning: graphic language).

Overall, this performance was pretty typical of the Giants in recent years. A game in the second half of the season, one that could have playoff implications, against the Eagles generally means the Giants will make no effort to win. They play with no sense of urgency. In fact, they seem to give the impression that they don’t even want to play. The only difference here is this is not week 16, where the Giants are out of chances to turn things around after two consecutive losses. There is still time to save the season and hold onto playoff hopes. See that? I found a pro already. Now let’s break this one down.

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We have landed at the halfway point of the 2011 season. Every team in the NFL have played out their first 8 games. Only two teams have played into the second half of a 16 game schedule, the New Orleans Saints and the Indianapolis Colts. The second half is upon us and the playoff brackets are beginning to take shape.

The NFC East has always been a competitive division, in and of itself and outside of the conference/division. The first impressions that many had of the NFC East have been blown out of the water. Regardless of record, any team in this conference is capable, at any time, of making the opposition sorry for mistaking a losing record for terminal weakness. We’ve got the grades and projections for the remainder of the season right here. Welcome to the NFC EAST Midseason Report Card! Check it out!
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They were without their leading receiver. Their starting running back, full back and center all missed the game due to injury. Their 1st pick overall in the 2011 NFL Draft made the trip, but did not play.

Of the six categories (ten positions within each slot), not one…NOT ONE single member of the New York Giants earned themselves a slot in the NFL Weekly leader board. They were shutdown for the entire first half. Just how did Big Blue pull off their biggest upset of the season? We’ve got answers. Join me on this incredibly inspiring fact finding recap.
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BMarshall19 Brandon Marshall

To: Media When we win Sunday please don’t say the Giants didn’t take us serious.

In his postgame interview, New York Giants’ LT David Diehl said,

“It’s a determination. We knew in order to win this football game, you can’t settle for field goals down there. So, we had that determination – “Hey we get it down there, we’re putting touchdowns up” and that was the case today. It was an awesome win.”

There is bittersweet irony in that statement. The obvious, the Giants were forced into kicking 3 FGs yesterday against a solid Buffalo Bills defense, one of which was blocked from 50 yards out. The not so obvious, the Gmen are dead LAST in the FG department throughout the league. That might sound jarring, if it were any other category. But our Boys In Blue have been very successful down in the red zone thus far in the season and have been registering more touchdowns this year than those, quite often, disappointing 3 pointers. Is this the secret to their overwhelming, under the radar success? Read on my friends.
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