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What Happened to the (NY) Giants?
The Wall Street Journal ^ | December 24, 2012 | David Roth

Posted on 12/24/2012 3:25:47 PM PST by MinorityRepublican

Giants quarterback Eli Manning has had plenty of reasons to perfect his pout in the last few weeks.

It’s not exactly a rivalry, the thing that exists between the New York Jets and New York Giants. Neither team plays in New York, nor against each other all that often. The fan bases don’t overlap, but don’t exactly clash, either. So all year, Giants fans have been able to stand alongside other neutral NFL observers marveling at the buff, surly telenovela that is the Jets. The Jets, for their part, were at it again on Sunday, with third-stringer-turned-starter Greg McElroy taking 11 sacks in a stultifying loss to the Chargers and World’s Best Known Gadget Player Tim Tebow reportedly refusing to play in the wildcat packages ostensibly designed for him. All very Jets, and so all more or less a weary bummer.

But on a day that saw several teams punch their playoff tickets—the Seahawks did so by dominating the 49ers, the upstart Colts by ungracefully rope-a-doping the flubby Chiefs, the Bengals by knocking out the Steelers and claiming some long-awaited legitimacy—the defending Super Bowl champs couldn’t sit back and chuckle at the Jets with the rest of the NFL’s alpha class. The Giants were blown out by the (previously) struggling Ravens in Baltimore, losing their division lead and suddenly finding themselves in serious danger of falling out of the playoffs altogether.

The Giants, who were once 6-2, are in the middle of an unsightly swoon that even they don’t quite seem to understand. “Sometimes good teams stop winning,” Yahoo’s Les Carpenter writes. “There’s no great explanation other than everything stops working at once. The Giants didn’t appear quite right this fall, even when they were 6-2 and the rest of the NFC East was in disarray.

(Excerpt) Read more at blogs.wsj.com ...


TOPICS: Sports
KEYWORDS: nfl

1 posted on 12/24/2012 3:25:51 PM PST by MinorityRepublican
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To: MinorityRepublican

The Giants have been an up and down team. They were a very mercurial team that barely made the playoffs last year. They got hot in the playoffs and won. This year, same thing. They are more inconsistent, and they aren’t getting the breaks.


2 posted on 12/24/2012 3:32:02 PM PST by nickcarraway
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To: MinorityRepublican

Based on yesterdays game. The receivers were wearing Teflon gloves.


3 posted on 12/24/2012 3:34:58 PM PST by Fzob (In matters of style, swim with the current; in matters of principle, stand like a rock. Jefferson)
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To: MinorityRepublican

Same thing that happened last year, only the other direction. Last year they started bad, came on strong in the end, squeaked into the playoffs at 9-7 and won em all. This year they started strong, struggled in the end, and that’s that.

It’s been a funny year. All the teams have laid a couple of serious eggs. It’s an anybody’s guess playoffs.


4 posted on 12/24/2012 3:35:46 PM PST by discostu (Not a part of anyone's well oiled machine.)
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To: MinorityRepublican

As Denny Green would say “ they are who we thought they are”

i.e... lucky at times, and this year not so


5 posted on 12/24/2012 3:35:54 PM PST by patriotspride
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To: MinorityRepublican

This is not the first season the NY Giants folded at the end. They seem to either start shaky and finish strong or vise versa. Eli needs to take lessons from big bro Peyton who plays a lot more consistent and doesn’t go into bad funks as often as Eli does. Giants should have beaten the Eagles and Steelers and would at least be at 10 wins by now.


6 posted on 12/24/2012 3:36:02 PM PST by tflabo (Truth or Tyranny)
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To: MinorityRepublican

It’s just a stupid game. The fans of 31 teams will, ultimately, be disappointed...while paying gazillions for that privilege. Go Pack!


7 posted on 12/24/2012 3:36:02 PM PST by gorush (History repeats itself because human nature is static)
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To: MinorityRepublican

LOL! Who cares?


8 posted on 12/24/2012 3:37:23 PM PST by rabidralph
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To: MinorityRepublican

I quit keeping up with the NFL when the Cowboys unceremoniously fired the war hero, former NFL great and stoic coach, Tom Landry.


9 posted on 12/24/2012 3:57:25 PM PST by vetvetdoug
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To: MinorityRepublican
“Sometimes good teams stop winning,”

Sometimes teams aren't as good as they are made out to be by the New York media.

10 posted on 12/24/2012 4:06:04 PM PST by Alaska Wolf (Carry a Gun, It's a Lighter Burden Than Regret)
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To: MinorityRepublican

They got fat, dumb, and lazy. JPP can’t get out of his own way, he’s got to be 40 lbs over his weight from last year, he’s actually getting a gut....there is no pass rush.


11 posted on 12/24/2012 4:09:28 PM PST by Doogle (USAF.68-73..8th TFW Ubon Thailand..never store a threat you should have eliminated))
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To: MinorityRepublican

The Giants need to become more diverse.......the better teams in the NFL are more diverse....see Packers, Patriots, Broncos and Texans....LOL


12 posted on 12/24/2012 4:26:54 PM PST by levon
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To: tflabo

You do know that Eli has more SuperBowl rings than his brother.....right?


13 posted on 12/24/2012 4:27:06 PM PST by levon
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To: MinorityRepublican

They woke up one day and discovered they were cardinals. Sort of like Kafka.


14 posted on 12/24/2012 4:35:23 PM PST by Cyber Liberty (Obama considers the Third World morally superior to the United States.)
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To: nickcarraway

The Giants are also a poorly-run and poorly-coached organization. Before their remarkable Super Bowl run last year, it was obvious that Tom Coughlin had lost the players and was on the verge of getting fired. This year, the Giants reverted to form, and its very clear that a lot of the players are simply phoning it in, with no accountability.

Making matters worse, Coughlin retains marginally-competent assistants like Kevin Gilbride, who is one of the least creative offensive coordinators in the NFL. Except for a couple of Super Bowls (won by teams that got hot at the right time), Gilbride should have been canned years ago.

As for talent, the Giants have never made a push for signing quality, established players through free agency. Martellus Bennett, the TE acquired from the Cowboys, is probably their best free agent acquisition. The rest of their recent signees (David Baas, Antrelle Rolle) are mediocre at best and did nothing to upgrade the talent level at their positions.

Meanwhile, the Giants spend most of their time trying to find gems like Victor Cruz through free agency out of college, or through late round draft picks, figuring they can pay them the NFL minimum before having to fork over the big bucks, or letting them sign with another team.

As for the early round draft choices—the young players who are supposed to have an immediate impact—most simply haven’t lived up to expectations. That “shut down” corner who was the #1 pick a couple of years ago has spent more time on IR than on the field. Hakeen Nicks, the big WR who was supposed to replace Plaxico Burress, has also been hurt more than he’s healthy. Many of the other draft picks either haven’t panned out, and they’re on the bench, or no longer playing in the NFL.

Meanwhile, the OL is aging rapidly; the DL has become inconsistent, and the Giants have one of thw worst linebacking groups in the NFL. Throw in a porous secondary and an inconsistent running game, and you’ve got ingredients of a Super Bowl team that has peaked and is heading downhill rapidly. I hope Eli Manning enjoyed those two Super Bowls, because he won’t be going back anytime soon with the current Giants team and the organization that put it together.

The irony, of course, is that the Giants are one of the richest franchises in pro sports, with plenty of money to spend on a competent GM, a new coach and better players. But the Giants are also notoriously cheap; the Maras and the Tisches don’t want to pay Coughlin’s buy-out, so he’ll get another year, and since GM Gary Reese has found guys like Victor Cruz in the past, he’ll get a chance to find the next future superstar who is ignored by the NFL draft.

As a life-long Giants fan, it pains me to say this, but we’re looking at a rough patch in the years ahead. Washington has found a QB to go with a proven coach and a group of exciting young players; the only thing holding the Cowboys back is Jerry Jones and the Eagles have enough talent to turn things around after they fire Andy Reid and resolve their QB issue.

Without major changes (on the field and in the front office), I can’t see the Giants finishing better than third in the NFC East next year.


15 posted on 12/24/2012 5:40:44 PM PST by ExNewsExSpook
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To: ExNewsExSpook

Yeah but New York Giants have Manning. So they’ll always be competitive just like Miami Dolphins remained relevant for two decades just because Dan Marino was their gunslinger.


16 posted on 12/24/2012 9:41:09 PM PST by MinorityRepublican
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To: MinorityRepublican

Yeah but I wonder if Eli wants to spend another 8-10 years playing for sub-par Giants teams. He’s already built his retirement home in Oxford, MS and spends most of the off-season down there. He’s also following his parents’ example of having kids late in his playing career, so he’ll be retired by the time they start school.

If the Giants regression continues, I can easily see Eli retiring at the end of his current contract. He took most of his money up front, and only collected $1.75 million in salary from the Giants this season. He’s financially set for life, so just don’t see him sticking around until his late 30s and taking the pounding that will come playing with bad teams.


17 posted on 12/25/2012 12:04:41 PM PST by ExNewsExSpook
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To: ExNewsExSpook

Eli already won two rings. That puts him in an elite company with Brady, Montana, Elway, Starr, Aikman and Bradshaw all who won multiple Super Bowls.


18 posted on 12/25/2012 12:15:28 PM PST by MinorityRepublican
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To: ExNewsExSpook

Eli already won two rings. That puts him in an elite company with Brady, Montana, Elway, Starr, Aikman and Bradshaw all who won multiple Super Bowls.


19 posted on 12/25/2012 1:00:00 PM PST by MinorityRepublican
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