The Bragging Rights for New York

First off I would like to extend my thanks to the NY J-E-T-S for being such a wonderful/respectful tenant. Most landlords have trouble with their tenants and eventually have to evict them. The J-E-T-S are model tenants who are well behaved and go quietly into the night.

Now that we've dispensed with the "niceties" it's time to asses the game. I can not remember ever attending a football game (not in Florida) where the mercury was above 80. Section 311, as you all know, is on the sunny side of the field. While this is a fantastic thing in December it is not so fantastic when global warming hits early October.

The Giants started off slow in this one, which has become their trademark in 2007. With about 15% of the crowd being Jet fans you could hear lots of cheering when Brandon Jacobs put the ball on the turf and Kerry Rhodes posted the afternoon's first score on a fumble return TD. Turnovers coupled with poor play will ensure that you lose to good teams. Thankfully, for the Giants sake, the NY Jets are not a good team.

Eli Manning turned in a pitiful performance in this half. His passing numbers looked more like Charlie Connerly's from the early 1950's and not a modern day QB. At times he looked lost and bewildered. Other times he looked worse. The play calling at the end of the half was equally pathetic. Who in their right mind would call a pass play over the middle with 30 seconds and 80 yards left to go ??? Whatever happened to, "take a knee and come out for the second half". While I won't compare Manning's INT to the Pisarcik play, it was flat out stupid. As a result the Giants handed the Jets 3 cheap points and even more momentum.

Whatever Big Blue discussed in the locker room at the half worked like a charm. Some genius decided that they might want to run the ball down the throat of their opponent, who possesses one of the worst run D's in the league. They also decided it might be smart to let rookie Aaron Ross play a bit, since he actually has more foot speed than R.J. McQuarters or Sam Madison may have had in their prime.

As a result the Giants were able to get the big back Brandon Jacobs on track. He was unstoppable averaging 5 yards a carry. He lost 19 yards late in the game, when the refs felt sorry for the Jets and called back his TD run on a phantom holding call.

The lone dark spot in the second half was the kick coverage. Let's give the Jets their due. Their kick return squad is pretty good, because Leon Washington picked right up where Justin Miller left off. The Giants made it easy for them. Lawrence Tynes consistently kicks the ball short and low. Granted the coverage team isn't spectacular, but Tynes doesn't give them a chance. Kicking is a major area of concern for this team and before it's all said and done I believe Tynes will have cost the Giants 2 or 3 games (if he's still here).

Ah, the second half...or as I call it, the reason to leave the swamps of Jersey with a smile on my face. The defense did not allow the Jets to score an offensive TD in the second half. While we didn't see 12 sacks, like last week, we saw a sustained pass rush and great run stopping ability. Oh, and there is this Ross kid. Aaron Ross (#1 draft pick) wasn't even on the field for the first half. Seems he was being punished for violating an "undisclosed" team rule. His first half rest might have sharpened him for his second half performance. Changing the defensive strategy to no blitz / press coverage might have helped as well. You see this Pennington guy, who plays for the green team is rumored to not be able to throw hard. Pressing his receivers might force him into throwing the ball into tight coverage and ensuing mistakes might occur. Well they certainly did. Ross had two key picks, including timely pick 6 to salt away the game. Here's hoping we start seeing more of him and less of McQuarters.

Play of the game offense: Has to be Plaxico Burress' 53 yard TD run. Man if this guy could put it all together like this on every play he'd be the most unstoppable WR in the league. At 6'6" and real good speed this guy is the ultimate playmaker. His stiff arm of the diminutive Jet CB (Andre Dyson) was classic throwback football. As he higstepped his way into the endzone Plax capped off a 98 yard drive that put the Giants on top for the first time all day and effectively ended the Jets 2007 campaign.

Defensive play of the game: Pick either of Ross' INT's. While the pick six put the game away, the first INT stopped a good Jet drive cold and gave life to the Giants who scored on the ensuing drive.

What I don't know: I don't know if my heart can take anymore of these comeback games. The Giants are anything but boring, but can they expect to make the post season flying by the seat of their pants.

What I do know: The Giants show highlights of the top 5 days in their history on the jumbotron during commercial breaks. When they showed Tiki Barber's 200+ yard day vs KC last year where he carried the team on his back to the post season a big chunk of the crowd began to boo. I for one did not. I will never choose to boo Tiki as long as I attend Giant games. We have to realize that for the decade he wore blue he gave us his heart and soul and carried our team to the post season, while he was the focal point of our offense. Yes, he's a media hog (I cleaned that up) and sure he's had some negative words for the team since he left, but he performed at a high level while he played here. Applaud the fact that he was the greatest RB in the history of this 82 year old franchise, mute him with your remote when he shows up on NBC as a talking head.

Speaking of the stadium...When will the upper deck actually win a giveaway. Week in and week out all the prime giveaways go to the lower deck and the middle deck. Section 110 wins the $1,500 watch every week, while section 330 wins Heinz ketchup. There are just as many seats in the 300 section as the 100 section yet the rewards are disproportionate. It's plain sad when the 200 sections wins more than we do and maybe 15% of the seats are there. I smell a conspiracy.

While I'm complaining about the stadium I might as well complain about the parking nazi's. If the airlines checked my ID to get on a plane as much as the parking people in the Meadowlands check your parking pass, we'd never see another hi-jacking occur again. No fewer than 15 times did they force us to stop and show them our parking pass. It got to the point where it took us 20 minutes to move 1/8 of a mile. Then they force you into the lot of their choice and not the lot you want to park in. I tried to explain to one guy that we park in this one lot every week. He didn't want to hear it. He starts yelling at me to "Save your story...I don't want to hear it". I was tempted to take the softball bat out of my trunk at that point !

OK, I'm on a roll. I'm now going to complain about the national anthem. I love this country and I feel the anthem should be traditional, respectful and not last 10 minutes. The Giants decided to trot out some world renowned "recording star" who nobody knew. Instead of singing the anthem the way it was meant to be sung she has to "style". it's one thing to indulge someone famous like Whitney Houston, but a mere nobody ? Hey Giants management, when you take 2 seconds away from your time looking for a decent place kicker find us someone who can sing the anthem. In fact look no further than your own Kate Mara who attends every game anyway. Kate has everything you'd want in an anthem singer: good voice, works cheap (her father owns the team), looks like a knockout and sings in 3 minutes. Let's start a write in campaign to: bring back Kate every week.

Next up we have the Falcons in Atlanta on a Monday night. Dare we say 4-2 ? This is the classic let down game. After 3 straight wins the Giants need to take the Falcons seriously and play hard. Unfortunately our history against them is terrible unless one Michael Vick is playing. We've been beaten by everyone of their backups starting with our ex-backup Danny Kannel. Time to step up and beat the Falcons !