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1/29/01
Email Bill
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Well, I'm back to referring to my beloved Giants as "They Suck."
After stinking up Tampa Bay in Superbowl XXXV, the coaches head
back to the drawing board to ponder what went wrong, while the multimillionaire
players head home to vacation, relax and get in trouble with the
law.
Since the off-season is so short, I thought I'd help the Giants
coaching staff review the game and identify mistakes and missed
opportunities. Hey, as a loyal fan it's the least I could do. I
broke the game down into two halves (that would be the first and
second for all the geniuses out there).
First Half
First, they went into the game without Bill Parcells as the head
coach. Now this couldn't really be helped, but it had to be mentioned
since I haven't liked Jim Fassel since he was announced as the head
coach a few years back. Anyway… my "coaching" beef
here is taking the ball to start the game. Why would you want to
get the Ravens defense more pumped by forcing a three and out to
start a game? This was clearly going to be a defensive game, so
why not make the statement to start the game, rather than allow
the statement to be made?
The next item is Kerry Collins - he sucked. Did someone spike his
Gatorade? He looked more like Trent Dilfer than Trent Dilfer did!
Collins was overthrowing receivers, throwing behind receivers, and
got his balls smacked around more than a stud in a kinky porno video.
He had 2 INTs in the first half, one at the goal line on a last
minute drive that could have gotten them right back into the game.
He stood in the pocket too long and forgot how to throw the ball
away. Oh yeah, and when you scramble Kerry, try to get the first
down once in awhile - I mean you're 6'5 245 for Christ's sake -
use it! I wish the alien that abducted his body in the NFC championship
game had stayed around 2 more weeks.
For some reason Tiki Barber decided to impersonate Ron Dayne and
be completely ineffective. However, I blame that on the play calling.
You can't run on the Ravens period, much less run up the middle!
What was Sean Payton thinking? Didn't he watch the Raiders try in
vain to force the run? Tiki needed to be used on screens and dumps,
not on runs or line of scrimmage tosses. Oh wait, they tricked everybody
and ran Joe Montgomery on one play - for 0 yards. At least I didn't
have to live with the now patented Ron Dayne "Run, Slip, and
Fall" - it's not as glamorous as "The Icky Shuffle",
but it's accurate.
The dreaded Giants defense played sloppy and halfhearted at times.
They started off painfully slow, not getting to Dilfer until late
in the half and getting busted on a penalty that negated the Jesse
Armstead INT return for a TD that would have tied the game. All
year I have been complaining about Jason Sehorn's play. He used
to be a stud, but now he's average, with moments of greatness. Well,
the Ravens agreed with my assessment and picked on him all half.
He got burnt for a long TD and almost got burnt on another one when
he slipped and fell down - I hope he didn't get a boo-boo on his
"wittle knee" on that play.
Sure it appeared that Shaun Williams blew the safety coverage on
the TD, but for crying out loud Jason - tackle the damn guy and
prevent the TD! Keith Hamilton was called for holding on the INT
return for a TD, yet nobody kicked his ass in the huddle. If it
were the Ravens, Ray Lewis would've killed the guy - but pleaded
innocent and beat the charges. Finally, the Giants punting was atrocious
at the beginning. The Ravens had field position all half on the
Giants until very late in the second quarter. The defense was able
to hold them most of the time, but should've done even better -
I mean, it's only the Ravens, and Trent Dilfer is their QB - how
is he hooking up on a 38-yard score, but Collins gets 4 passes tipped
and 2 INTs?
Well, the first half ended 10-0, no big deal to most teams, but
the Ravens are 10-0 this year when scoring 10 points, and they only
gave up an average of 11 points per game. In order for the Giants
to come back and win this game, two things have to happen. One,
Ray Lewis needs to break his leg - nothing career-ending, just game
ending. And two, the Giants must score points, and it looks like
the defense has the best chance to do that so they need to revise
their game plan and play more coverage instead of pressure. That's
it for the first half, but in the words of Arnold, "I'll be
back".
Second Half
Well, it started just as the first half ended for the Giants - with
a Kerry Collins INT by Kim Herring as the Giants were moving the
ball. But it only got worse from there. Another Collins INT went
for a TD by Duane Starks (and a 17-0 Ravens lead) and I predicted
a 34-0 victory for the Ravens. The Giants offense was more embarrassing
than the Jesse Jackson lovechild was or all the Bill Clinton pardons.
Kerry - by the way, that's a girl's name (can you tell I'm pissed)
finished with 4 INTs, tying a Superbowl record - what a way to end
his storied comeback season.
A great kickoff return for a TD by rookie Ron Dixon gave the Giants
life and hope (and surprised the hell out of me). That was quickly
erased seconds later by Jermaine Lewis' kickoff return for a TD.
Lewis is a great kick returner, but if Brad Daluiso could get the
ball at least inside the friggin' 10-yard line, maybe that doesn't
happen and the Giants season isn't over. I'd rather have Al Del
Greco kicking for them next year. This whole sequence of events
between these two great defensive teams led to 3 TDs in 36 seconds
- that's gotta be a Superbowl record.
The Giants defense continued to be manhandled, mostly by the pass,
but also by the run - rookie Jamal Lewis went over 100 yards - only
the second RB to do that against the Giants this year. Ben Coates
had his best game of the year for crying out loud! I was concerned
about the Giants suck-ass secondary when they played the Vikings
but I never imagined the Ravens would run up-and-down on them all
day long. I mean, Brandon Stokely? Ben Coates? Who are these guys?
And why were they whipping my teams ass?
They say football is a game of matchups, but that's bull, cause
the Giants matched up very well against the Ravens - better than
they did against the Vikings, but the Ravens had more heart and
more desire. I don't know what bothers me more - that Shannon Sharpe,
the most obnoxious player in the NFL, won his third Superbowl; that
a team with a stupid "B" on their helmets won; or that
Brian Billick, the most obnoxious coach in the NFL, is successful.
Regardless, the best team won.
I've never seen a defense like this Ravens team, and in response
to Mike Ditka's comment during the pre-game show that the 1985 (and
1986 Superbowl champion) Bears were better - you're a moron Ditka.
And you're comment after the game that this defense could play with
anybody, which contradicted your pre-game statement, just proves
my point. My only consolation with regard to how miserable I feel
is that instead of the Cleveland folks celebrating a Superbowl victory,
they are cheering for their 3-13 team and probably cursing Modell
even more now than when he left them a few years ago.
Now Marvin Lewis will be a head coach and between he and Herman
Edwards, we can stop hearing all the whining about there not being
enough black head coaches in the NFL for a year or two. Oh, two
more things that pissed me off - Ray Lewis was named the MVP and
Trent Dilfer was crying again. Is Dilfer related to Dick Vermeil?
Enough already Trent, you played football, you didn't just cure
Cancer and save millions of lives. And I'm just guessing here folks,
but I think Ray Lewis had a better time at the Superbowl this year
than he did last year. Of course, he hasn't attended any post-game
parties yet, so that may change.
The Giants finished 14-5 and the Ravens finished 15-5, becoming
the third wildcard team to win the Superbowl (after the 1980 Oakland
Raiders and the 1997 Denver Broncos). The Giants are now 2-1 in
the big game and the Ravens are 1-0. The New York market is now
3-1 in Superbowls, and the Baltimore market is now 1-1 in Superbowls,
and 1-1 against New York teams.
I'm off to cry and kick my dog now; I'll talk to you all later.
:: comments to bill
aquaviva
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