“I love this team,” Umenyiora said after the Giants (8-7) practiced on Wednesday for their season finale in Minnesota against the Vikings (11-4). “I have spent the last seven years of my life here. I have a bunch of great friends here, but this situation cannot continue the way it is. There are definitely some things that are going to be changed.
“I love this place and this organization, the front office, the coaches, I am all in,” Umenyiora added. “But I think I am too good of a player for this kind of situation.”
Yes, Umenyoira missed all of last season with a knee injury. Yes, he leads the team with seven sacks. Yes, he’s been a Pro Bowl player. But the reality at the moment is that Umenyoira can’t be counted on to seal his edge on running downs, which is why he was relegated primarily to passing downs. And his pass rush hasn’t been that overwhelming this year, either, seven sacks notwithstanding.
It often takes a more than a year to recover fully from a knee injury. Let’s hope Osi can return to Pro Bowl-level form. (Connecticut Post)
Former Pro Bowler/Super Bowl winning QB Trent Dilfer thinks Brad Childress should give Brett Favre the keys to the car. Trent Dilfer went to a Pro Bowl? (St. Paul Pioneer Press)
The day after that hideous 41-9 thrashing at the hands of the Carolina Panthers, Coach Tom Coughlin and Eli Manning manned up and attempted to apologize for the team’s putrid performance.
“To a man, we would like to apologize,” Coughlin said. “For whatever reason, a team that had an awful lot to play for, that had opportunities there, that was playing in Giants Stadium for the last regular-season game of the Giants, didn’t play up to our capabilities.”
“I apologize. I’m sorry. I wish I had an answer,” echoed quarterback Eli Manning. “I wish we could have come out and played better football. I don’t have an answer as to why it happened or why it has happened throughout the season, where we have been up and down in our play.”
This is all well and good, as the cliche goes, but all is not well and this is not good enough. It would have been better if Coughlin and Manning had been joined by someone from the defense stepping up and accepting responsibility for their performance Sunday and for the entire season. Given that everybody associated with that historic, epically bad unit is walking on exceedingly thin ice, that is probably too much to ask.
It would be better if, instead of apologies, on Sunday the Giants pop out of their coffin during the upcoming Week 17 wake in the Metrodome and offer a performance they can be proud of, even if it is a “meaningless game.” They’ve done it before.
For now, the Giants deserve all the criticism and scorn heaped upon them by great Giants like Harry Carson and Carl Banks, and even that from lesser lights like Mike Francesa and Troy Aikman. The loss to the Panthers was a disgusting way to close a stadium that has seen as much passion and pride as any in the NFL during the past 34 years. It’s up to these Giants to make amends. They can start Sunday.
The 2009 New York Giants season died Sunday night at FedEx Field, home of the Washington Redskins. The cause of death, pending a final autopsy, was a lack of victories resulting from a chronic shortage of defensive intensity. The season was 8-7, expiring before it could finish its final game of the year.
The 2009 season was a direct descendant of the Giants 2007 Super Bowl champion team and the 2008 NFC East champion. However, there had been questions about the season since an incident in 2008 involving wide receiver Plaxico Burress caused the death of the 2008 season.
Despite the uncertainty and youth at a number of key positions, the 2009 season began in grand fashion at 5-0, although many of those wins came against lower-level competition.
After that start, the health of the season began to deteriorate as the lack of defense began to choke off the number of victories. The season had been on life support since a 45-38 loss to the Philadelphia Eagles two weeks ago. It was given last rites after a 41-9 loss to the Carolina Panthers on Sunday.
The season is survived by General Manager Jerry Reese, Head Coach Tom Coughlin, Quarterback Eli Manning, and an as-yet unknown number of offensive and defensive starters.
Funeral arrangements have not been finalized. There will be public viewing hours beginning at 12 pm CST Sunday January 3 at the Metrodome in Minneapolis, MN.
At the end of what has been a streaky, weirdly-paced season for the Giants comes perhaps the strangest bit of timing yet.
Today’s game against the Panthers will most likely be the last one for the Giants in the original Giants Stadium, the greatest football stadium in the world.
A Welcome Sight
Coming as it does, in the middle of the holidays, and not as it should, in the final week of the season, or as it would be scripted in a feel-good movie, with a victory in an NFC Championship game, this sendoff will be less than ideal.
But Giants Stadium deserves to be remembered fondly. It was the scene of a lot of football history during its 34 years. Instead of playing tenant in the Polo Grounds and Yankee Stadium, the Giants had their own house, a house that gave them one hell of a home-field advantage.
Your Giants Talk blogger’s history at Giants Stadium is relatively brief. It began on a beautiful September summer day in 1992. Rolled into the parking lot, took in some top-notch tailgate action, rolled into some fine lower-bowl end zone seats, and watched in stunned disbelief as the hated Cowboys rolled to a 34-0 lead. Phil Simms, ever the field general, rallied the Giants with four straight TDs to bring the Giants to within a TD at 34-28, and bringing the volume level to something bordering on unbelievable. The Giants came up short, but the crowd that day remains the loudest I’ve ever heard.
Since then, I’ve seen some big regular-season wins while at Giants Stadium. I’d like to see one more while watching at home today. Tell ‘em, Bruce.
Giants allegedly sign TE Scott Chandler from the hated Cowboys practice squad. That would be five TEs now roaming the practice facility, for those of you keeping count. (Newark Star-Ledger)
Week 15 is a bit late in the season for the first game for your Giants Talk blogger not at the game, at home, or at someone else’s home. So it was that we found ourselves at the very cozy Stella Blues in New Haven, where the first set by Kung-Fu coincided very nicely with the second half of the Giants 45-12 pounding of the Redskins. A small sample below
Listening to music while watching a game is highly underrated.
Some other notes:
1. The Redskins seemed to be honoring the mutual nonaggression pact with the Giants that has stood since the Cold War. What’s up with deferring on the opening coin toss? And that horrible fake field goal to end the first half?
2. Jim Zorn had the proverbial deer-in-the-headlights look from the get-go. Perhaps Zorn saw ESPN analyst Jon Gruden leaving new Redskins GM Bruce Allen’s office, as they discussed getting the band back together. Zorn should probably spend the remainder of the season figuring out how to ladder the remainder of his contract in tax-free municipal bonds, because there is little chance he will be on the sidelines next year.
3. Eli Manning was as locked in as he’s ever been. The numbers (19-26, 268, 3 TDs, 144.4 rating) were impressive. But Eli’s body language on the sideline was as confident as we’ve ever seen. He looked like he wanted a piece of his older brother last night, and was genuinely annoyed when he was lifted in the fourth quarter (or as your Giants Talk blogger’s Facebook status indicated, “Eli is all like…” as in “Eli is all like, ‘C’mon, bring it on.’”) This edition of the Giants is going to ride an offensive wave until it peters out. Let’s hope it reaches the shore of the playoffs.
It was about time, but about time may have been too late. The New York Giants, backs to the wall after sitting through wins by the hated Cowboys and dirty Eagles during the previous 48 hours, responded with their most complete effort of the season in throttling the Washington Redskins 45-12.
Just roll that score around in your mouth for a few moments. 45-12. That’s the number of a high school-level beatdown, the 12-spot indicating the loser was incapable of doing something so basic as kicking an extra point or scoring a touchdown. The Redskins did score two TDs, but failed on both conversions, and added to that the most ludicrous fake field goal attempt of this season, which resulted in no points.
The Giants, meanwhile, were firing on all cylinders – three TD passes from Eli Manning, 100 yards on the ground overall, two TDs from Ahmad Bradshaw, Terrell Thomas returning an INT for another score.
There’s a good chance the Redskins may have been in disarray after the front-office shakeup late last week. Still, the Giants did what they needed to do, but their best efforts may have started showing up a few weeks too late.
