I agree. There aren't many victories more impressive than the Giants over the SB in 2007. I'd put it up there with Pats over Rams in 2001 and Giants over Bills in 1990.
Giants-Patriots: We're on to New York.
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Mike ReissVerified account@MikeReiss 1h1 hour ago
OTs Sebastian Vollmer (concussion) & Marcus Cannon (toe); G Tre' Jackson (left knee) & LB Jamie Collins (illness) expected to be ruled out.
ProFootballTalk @ProFootballTalk 18m18 minutes ago
Prince Amukamara will miss fifth straight game http://bit.ly/1HNFvu2
Prince Amukamara will miss fifth straight game http://bit.ly/1HNFvu2
Convincing in terms of Rex kicked the ass of some of Belichicks teams, compared to the Giants needing last minute, highly unlikely touchdown drives to beat the Pats the last 3 times they've played.
Whatever, we could do this all day. I don't put much, if any, stock in the notion that Coughlin "has Belichick's number", just like I don't think Bill has any other coaches "number". He's just better than most of them. Coughlin's better than a lot of them, and had his team in position to win a couple games against the Patriots. None of this matters on Sunday, except to people who create narratives based off of things that happened half a decade ago.
Am I an asshole for thinking the Patriots should just start Garoppalo, sit every single player sporting bandaids, and just treat this game as a bye-week?
I agree with you about history not mattering, but I think you're exaggerating Ryan's early successes and not considering the quality of the teams he beat. He beat the crappy 2009 team once by 7. He beat the young and defenseless 2010 team by 14 (pre Moss trade) and 7, but with a 45-7 ass beating in the middle. The 1st 2010 game was about as close as he's ever come to an ass kicking, and that was a young team that hadn't yet found its identity (and the 2TE offense).
Coughlin beat an all time great 2007 team, and a very good 2011 team that beat the Jets twice by a combined total of 30 points. Much more impressive.
I disagree with that characterization of the 2010 team. They went on the road and smacked around the soon to be AFC champs. They destroyed the AFC runner-ups, as you said. Beat the Colts, annihilated the Bears (in the snow, so discount it if you want but this team hosted the NFC title game). That team kicked ass for the second half of the regular season and were the prohibitive favorites to represent the AFC in the Super Bowl. More complete, and better, Pats team than the 2011 squad that continually blew 4th quarter leads (or at least tried to). That Divisional win by Ryan stands as the best win of his career, and one of the best coaching jobs any one has ever put together against Belichick since he started here. You can discount the other wins, but he still also got the Pats a couple other times.
And now look at him. Same coaching style now, none of the results. Same thing with Coughlin. Sloppy, high variance teams, but the variance has gone against him a bit in recent years (and to be fair, some pretty terrible injury luck that last 2+ seasons). We agree that none of it really matters now. Coughlin's wins get more play because they happened in the Super Bowl, but it's not like everyone's just trying harder in the Super Bowl than in other playoff games. Ryan has been just as impressive against the Pats as Coughlin has at times. And neither of them have any secret to beating the Pats, because nobody has any secret to beating anyone.
Every analysis I've seen of the Giants defense is a different description of how bad they are. Almost any other teams I'd be a little concerned about the o-line but the Giants (and the Washington team) have a horrible pass rush. And they have horrible safeties. How do they stop the Pats? Pats are probably scoring high 30's to 40+.
Defensively they might miss Collins a bit but it's not likely the Giants are going to score 30. It's a fool who predicts 10-20 point wins for NFL road teams but it's safe to say I don't buy into any of the Coughlin/Giants mystique that has some of you anxious. Pats are winning this one.
Defensively they might miss Collins a bit but it's not likely the Giants are going to score 30. It's a fool who predicts 10-20 point wins for NFL road teams but it's safe to say I don't buy into any of the Coughlin/Giants mystique that has some of you anxious. Pats are winning this one.
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Yeah. Next week I'll be more concerned. At this point what reason do we have to believe that Cannon is coming back soon? He hasn't practiced since the injury and while we heard it's minor the pats are Fort Knox on this stuff. I'm not a Dr. but what kind of toe injury that isn't a broken bone keeps a guy out for this long? I'm not aware of any though I'm sure some exist...and they could just be playing it safe because of the "vacation"... But at this point I'm guessing the 8-10 week timeframe that's typical of a broken bone healing process s in play.
As for Vollmer, who knows. He could be out a while. Here's hoping Stork and Flemming can hold up against the Bills and maybe Broncos.
Curran, Howe, and others have reported seeing Cannon walking around the facility and in the locker room since last week. Normally that means he's close to being back because he's getting treatment and doing some sort of working out.
When the injury is more serious and long term, the media never sees the player.
Very happy with the one-point win, because I figured this would be a very tough game. The obvious major downer was losing Edelman. It would be a huge blow, obviously, if he is done for the year. But I think the Pats can survive the loss of #11 for the last 7 games, as they should win the vast majority of them and still get at least the #2 seed. Frankly, I still expect them to get the #1 seed, though Cincy could prove to be a major obstacle to that.
But for the playoffs, yeah, gotta have Edelman back.
But for the playoffs, yeah, gotta have Edelman back.
