Weeks 6 and 7: Giant Steps

I haven't posted much lately, but I haven't really had a reason to do so. The G-men have been taking care of business en-route to a 5 game winning streak to be the hottest team in the NFL south of Foxboro.

Sure there are some things that need improvement. We all know that Eli needs to work on those 2 minute drill turnovers and the secondary does have some holes, but we have to remember that this is the salary cap era and every team has deficiencies.

The pass rush has been nothing short of phenomenal. When a guy like Justin Tuck sits on the bench and only comes in on obvious pass rushing downs, you know your DL is strong.

A quick comment on the Atlanta game: The G-men went down south and basically just blew out the hapless Falcons. Strangely the home team seems to always lose in this matchup and that Monday night game wasn't any different.

Last week the 49ers traveled 3,000 miles to NJ to play Big Blue. The game started slowly, but Big Blue turned on the defensive pressure and eventually blew out San Fran. We all know the key play of the game was Osi's sack, strip, fumble recovery, TD run play. If that didn't cement him as the defensive player of the week I don't know what would. #72 is incredible. You can't double team him every play, because #92 will wreak havoc. I can definitely see the bookends both going All-Pro again like they did 2 years ago when healthy.

My comments on Mr. Pierce. Our aggressive MLB, one Mr. Aaron Pierce got called for two 15 yard personal fouls. The first call was pretty much blatant. I can't argue it. The second call seemed to be on reputation and very borderline. The Giants in the past have been victimized by QB's who break away from a sack and then run for a 1st down. SF QB Trent Dilfer was fighting to break away when Pierce layed the hammer to him. I think this league needs to either go back to the dreaded "in the grasp whistle" or just let these guys play. If Dilfer broke away we'd be sitting here bashing Pierce, like we did for Kiwanuka vs Vince Young last year.

On a side note, later in the game Pierce intercepted Dilfer and headed for the end zone along the sideline only to get brought down by Dilfer himself. My question is, why was Dilfer allowed to get away with slamming Pierce to the ground and taking the tackle out of bounds ? If Pierce made the same tackle on him would a yellow hankie have hit the ground ???

At the end of the game 49er coach Mike Nolan was calling bogus time outs just to pad his score and make the results look more respectible. Possibly he was trying to piss off the Giants for crushing his team. I just don't know the reason. Whatever the reason, I personally think it was stupid. I don't think its a sportsmanship issue as much as it's a common sense issues. By extending the game 3 or 4 plays just to get his team to double digits he risked injury to both team's players for some meaningless plays to be run. What if his stud RB, Frank Gore, blew out a knee or got knocked out for 2 or 3 weeks because of it ? Was it worth scoring 6 points and padding Gore's stats vs a Prevent defense defending a 27 point lead ??? Whatever happened to common sense ?

Coming Up: The big trip across the pond to London to play the Dolphins. They call these "trap" games. Miami is already playing out the string and New York is looking foward to their crash course against the Cowboys in 3 weeks. I think Coach Coughlin is going to have his team ready for this one and not take it for granted. I see a sense of pride in this squad that I haven't seen in a long time. In the past the G-men would read their press clippings and this game would be a fiasco. The locker room dynamic has changed and new leaders have begun to step up. No knock on Tiki, who I love, but when he and Strahan were ruling this locker room those things happened.

Special Notes: Congratulations to Amani Toomer for officially becoming the GOAT. No he didn't blow the game for us ! GOAT=Greatest of All Time ! Statistically he is now the top recieve in Giants history as he surpassed Tiki for # of grabs. He already owns the career TD reception mark. I remember back in the mid 90's when he joined the G-men out of Michigan and hardly saw the light of day. In fact he was a punt returner until he got injured and we all worried that we had another overrated guy from Michgan (remember Ty Wheatley ?). Instead over the course of the next decade he has evolved into a consistant target for numerous QB's and has become Eli's go to safety valve when Plax isn't open. Congrats Amani !

That's all I've got !