I hate the Dallas Cowboys.Nothing would thrill me more than to see the G-men knock off the fancy-shmancy 'Boys and their obnoxious fans.
You know which fans I'm talking about—the ones who live in different cities throughout the country, the ones who still wear Troy Aikman's jersey.
They were obnoxious in the 1970s, and even worse in the 1990s.
However, being a realist, I know my Giants won't finish off Dallas.
I call it like I see it: The Cowboys are the class of the NFC.
My New York Giants are a good football team. They played a highly competitive game against New England, and played well enough to finish off the Bucs last Sunday.
But New York will have to play another grade "A" game to beat Dallas. Here are some of the reasons they won't do it...
The New York secondary is weak.
True, they played well against Tampa, but Jeff Garcia and his receivers were still rusty from a long layoff due to injuries.
I like Aaron Ross' talent, but Webster, Madison, and Dockery just don't cut it.
I'm still not convinced Eli Manning is a top-notch QB.
Manning has clearly made strides, but he still makes dumb plays—like that idiotic fumble against New England, which helped kill the Giants' momentum, and those poor throws he made against Tampa, like the screen he attempted to make to Ahmad Bradshaw, which landed at the running back's feet.
Nice pass, Eli.
The Giants can't consistently play at a high level.
You get the feeling that even when the Giants win, they're unable to take their game up a notch—the exception being the New England game, of course.
Even with all these issues, though, the Giants may indeed have a chance.
The secondary could step it up, and the Giants line might not only pressure Tony Romo—they may be able to sack the young QB four or five times (though given Dallas's great offensive line, this will be unlikely).
Another way the Giants might be able to pull of an upset is, of course, by creating turnovers. If the Giants win the takeaway battle by a large margin, New York could emerge victorious.
Also, Manning will have to play better than he did against the Patriots and Tampa Bay. That means the Giants offensive line must give him time and space to throw. And, that means that Eli must play like an elite quarterback.
He threw the ball with authority against the Patriots. Against Dallas, he has to execute throughout the game and not have any lapses.
Thus, while the Cowboys clearly have the edge in talent, the Giants may have a chance to pull out a win.
Unfortunately, I don't think any of these possibilities will end up in the Giants favor.
While I'm aware that Terrell Owens isn't 100 percent, and that Romo's focus might be elsewhere as he hangs with hottie Jessica Simpson, I still expect Dallas to roll.
The reality is that the Giants just don't have the talent to stay with Cowboys.
Prediction: Dallas 41, Giants 24
Andrew Schiff is the author of a forthcoming book on a seminal figure in 19th Century baseball: Henry Chadwick
Comments (15) Add a comment »
from 4 months ago
If Owens is truly still hurt and cannot play 100% that will be a huge difference in this game.
It took the Giants 4 games, but they are finally realizing they need to keep their hands up on the D line.. Romo is a sidearmer and that will force him to bring his arm higher when throwing a pass, which could lead to inaccuracy.
I think this will be a close game. Remember, its hard to beat a team 3 times in the same season.
The Giants have transformed a bit since they last played Dallas. Corey Webster may finally be getting it; They also realized that Gerris Wilkerson, a LB, can play nickel. Amani Toomer is catching the ball again and 3 rookies are emerging as offensive weapons: Ahmad Bradshaw, Kevin Boss and Steve Smith.
If anyone beats the Giants in Dallas this week it will be either themselves or the officials.
from 4 months ago
I hope you're right
from 4 months ago
I actually like the Giants in this one. T.O. is hobbled with that ankle injury, and Romo isn't exactly 100%. I also like Brandon Jacobs, dude has been a beast the last few weeks. But, Plaxico has to bring his A game if they plan on winning. And finally, I liked what Eli has done the last two weeks. He played well against New England, and didn't throw a single interception last week against Tampa Bay.
from 4 months ago
I have to agree with Michael here, though I see why you're skeptical Andrew. Seems to me though that this Giants team just has Dallas' number—and being red hot like they are now should send them over the edge.
I'm also not convinced that Eli is a top-notch QB; with his average statistics and failure to emerge as a true field general over the past four seasons, it would be hard to argue that he is. What has yet to proven however is whether or not he's a gamer...the jury is still out on that one, IMO at least.
Eli showed signs of brilliance for the majority of the New England game, then choked under the pressure at the end. Kind of reminds me of his brother in that regard—perhaps, like Peyton, he'll learn how to stay calm in the big situations with time.
from 4 months ago
Perhaps. Not a big Eli fan. They should look to draft a QB in the offseason.
from 4 months ago
I think the Giants are playing like they believe in themselves, Eli has always had the ability to play QB in this league and I believe he's maturing each week. I like Romo, but he hasn't played like he did earlier for several weeks. I have noticed he's at his best when he 'slings' the ball as he throws, like he decides early where to throw. He's playing like he's thinking too long. I will not be surprised to see the Giants win. I don't believe TO is anywhere near 100%, regardless of what the media has reported today.
from 4 months ago
Well, it turns out you were 110% right. And I'm glad you were. Whether the Giants can beat the Pack next week is the big question.
from 4 months ago
Im not saying im jumping on a band-wagon here, but after these performances, i think it would be pretty dumb for the giants to waste a pick on a QB. Regardless of what you think about Eli, look around the league. It is a league filled with mediocre QB's and Eli is easily in the top 10 even before the playoffs started. They need to strengthen there secondary, sure up there defense, and they will be a very tough competitve team for the next 5 or 6 years, barring injury of course.
from 4 months ago
Its an interesting comment.
I think the Giants should draft a QB because what would happen if he gets hurt. Remember, when Joe Montana, who many consider the greatest QB of all time, had STeve Young. Phil Simms had Jeff Hostetler. Simms got injured in 1990 and Hostetler helped them win in 1990 (in fact it may have been Hostetler's mobility and athleticism that helped the Giants upset Buffalo). Not every great QB has a good backup, but none of the Giant backups are anywhere near as good as Eli. The Patriots did not technically need to replace Drew Bledsoe, but drafted Brady. Brady wound up being much better, although they probably got a little lucky there. You get my point. The Giants should insure themselves better, even if Eli was the best QB of all time. You can never have enough depth.
from 4 months ago
You honestly thought the Giants would be blown out that badly after how poorly the Cowboys had played in December? I figured the game would at least be close and that the Giants had a legitimate shot at winning the game. Tony Homo choked bad. He can take all the vacations he wants now, because there is no more football for him this year. I hope he's happy.
from 4 months ago
I honestly did because I really did not think that the Cowboys would shoot themselves in the foot as many times as they did. Romo didn't really choke. There were a lot of dropped passes, the center had problems snapping and the Giants shut down DAllas's running game in the second half; got pressure on Romo (as opposed to when they were getting blown of the line in Dallas's two scoring drives in the first half); and outplayed the 'boys on special teams. I think the Giants wanted this game more, too; They made some excellent half-time adjustments. Also, some luck was involved, but that's true in any upset.
Actually, when Dallas score their first touchdown, I thought it was going to end up like the Packer game. I saw the way Dallas was dominating, how the 0-line dominated the Giants front. It was confirmed again when they went up 14-7. But the Cowboys, i think thought they had the game won. The Giants drove down and tied the game. After that, the game changed for some reason. You are correct, I guess I didn't really pay as much attention as I should have to the Cowboys poor December. But they Cowboys only had one loss. So did Green Bay. But Green Bay's overally play was better, wasn't it?
from 4 months ago
Tony Romo screwed up a late 4th quarter drive that can be directly attributed to him. The Cowboys were blessed with good field position and Romo committed a bone-head 10 yard penalty and was sacked for 14 yards on a play in which he had a clear shot of throwing it away. That to me is choking. He had a very good opportunity to put the Cowboys up by 3 or at least reduce the Giants lead to 1. If he hadn't choked on that drive, the Cowboys could have won by a FG on the last drive in which Romo threw an interception with 9 seconds left. They were obviously within field goal range but now needed 4 points to win. Every drive counts.
How the Cowboys played against the Packers doesn't even merit thought. The Packers were out 2 key defensive players from the start and Favre went out in the 2nd quarter. Nearly any team could have beaten the Packers that day. The fact that they blew their lead and were only ahead by 3 at one point was an early warning sign that the Cowboys were slipping. They played poorly in every game after that. That game in itself was pretty ugly. It wasn't a convincing win against a team missing key defensive personnel and their starting QB.
Actually to be completely accurate the Cowboys lost 2 times in December. These losses were ugly. In both of the losses the Cowboys failed to score a touchdown. So in short of their last 4 games, they lost and 2 and played poorly in 2 of the games they won against non-playoff teams. They lost their focus towards the end of the season and started the playoffs without any momentum. It was a critical error of Wade Phillips to assume that the final games are meaningless if the playoff picture is locked. The Packers overall play wasn't really much better, they just played smarter. I don't know how 2 fumbles in the first 20 seconds of the game that both led to touchdowns for the other team can be considered good play.
The thing is they stuck together and recovered from it by playing tough, smart football for the rest of the game. Favre kept his head up and led his team to victory, when I'm sure Romo would have been flustered and finger-pointing. That is why I don't buy the dropped passes excuse for Tony Romo. Ryan Grant's 2 turnovers were very costly yet the team came together to win. Mainly because Favre is a good leader and motivator. Romo could be seen pointing his finger at his receivers after dropping the ball. Favre didn't get mad at Grant but just tried to motivate him to make it up. He responded by running for 201 yds and 3 TD. Favre is a different kind of guy. Receivers are going to drop passes from time to time.
from 4 months ago
I wasn't referring to the Cowboys-Packer game. I was referring to the Seattle-Packers game in which SEattle had an early lead and then the Packers dominated the rest of the game.
I also should remind you that the Giants lost to Minnesota and Washington in December.
Romo is not a finger pointer. He wasn't blaming anyone for his team's loss. You know, he's only been starting for a year and a half. You're too hard on him. Favre has been playing for fifteen years. Look how long it took Peyton to win a playoff game. Its taken Eli four years to get to this level.
I hope I'm wrong, but I don't really expect the Giant to beat Green Bay.
from 4 months ago
If everyone keeps saying the Giants won't do it, they will indeed do it.
Up until now, you've all given the G-Men good luck.
from 3 months ago
You were right on with this prediction....idiot.
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