Unpredictable Giants epitomise 2010 season
With five weeks of the regular season remaining, the 2010 NFL campaign remains about as wide open as I can ever remember.
And that seems to be something I have written quite a lot in recent years. That is one of the beautiful things about the NFL - you always get a pretty crowded and hotly contested race to the Super Bowl.
It is amazing that with just over a month to go in a 32-team league, there are 18 clubs who are either leading their division or are within one game of being in first place. There is no clear favourite to play in the title showdown in and even fancied teams can get knocked off every now and then.
If one team encapsulates the unpredictable nature of the 2010 season, it is the New York Giants.
Both Manning and Jacobs have struggled to find consistently good form this season. Photo: AP
One week they're awful, the next they look like Super Bowl champions-elect, and then they slide back into mediocrity and threaten to fall out of the playoff race all together.
As they stand right now, the Giants are in pretty good shape with a record of seven wins and four losses. That is good enough for a share of first place in the NFC East Division but it has been far from smooth sailing for coach Tom Coughlin's men.
The Giants suffered a sloppy and mistake-filled end to 2009, losing eight of their last 11 games after opening the year with five straight victories.
Discipline problems looked set to rear their ugly head again early this season as the Giants struggled to a penalty-filled week one victory over the Carolina Panthers before hitting the self-destruct button during a week two thrashing at the hands of the Indianapolis Colts.
That was followed by a disappointing week-three loss to the Tennessee Titans and it appeared as if the Big Blue were going to suffer another frustrating year.
But Coughlin is one of the better coaches in the NFL and he got his players straightened out. The Giants went on a five-game winning run and were proclaimed as Super Bowl favourites in November.
Of course, that put the mockers on New York and they suffered back-to-back defeats at the hands of the Dallas Cowboys and Philadelphia Eagles. But for a late comeback against the Jacksonville Jaguars last weekend, the Giants would have dropped three straight.
So you can see why this is a tough team to work out as the playoffs draw ever nearer.
Quarterback Eli Manning perfectly demonstrates the Jekyll-and-Hyde nature of the Giants. He is a tough, strong-armed and gutsy player who can give them a lot of highs. He has thrown for more than 20 touchdowns in each of his six seasons in the NFL and that is no mean feat.
But with Manning there are lows to go alongside the highs. He has thrown 16 interceptions this season and needs to take better care of the ball. There were encouraging signs for the Giants last weekend as he did not toss an interception against the Jags.
But he needs to produce more games like that and must not make the kind of mental errors that have dogged his career with some regularity. In 2007, Manning threw 20 interceptions in the regular season but was virtually perfect in the playoffs, leading in the Super Bowl.
Interestingly, the Giants have asked Manning to go back and study film from that Super Bowl run in order to eliminate some mistakes from his game. We will see if that makes a difference in the coming weeks but I will need to see it to believe it. Manning definitely has the talent - he just needs to be more consistent.
There are also pluses and minuses at the running back position. Ahmad Bradshaw is young, exciting and has the pace and power to take every ball to the endzone. But he is fumble-prone and lost his starting job last week because he couldn't be trusted to hang on to the ball in crucial situations.
Bradshaw may be approaching the key milestone of 1,000 rushing yards for the season but until he can figure out his fumble problems, he will make Giants fans nervous, particularly with the balls now being a little slicker and harder to handle in the cold weather. And, of course, every defender in the league knows he is capable of putting the ball on the ground when under pressure.
The Giants will still use Bradshaw and former starter Brandon Jacobs in equal measure because they provide a useful one-two punch. Bradshaw has younger legs and speed, while Jacobs is big, powerful and tough to bring down.
The problem with Jacobs is that he is prone to sulking, sideline outbursts and finding trouble.
When he was demoted in favour of Bradshaw at the start of the season it would be fair to say he didn't take the news too well. Against the Colts, he has a hissy fit, into the crowd, was benched by Coughlin for the remainder of that game and fined $10,000 by the NFL.
Against Philadelphia two weeks ago, J to the Eagles fans ahead of the game and was involved in arguments with the opposing supporters. That cost him another $20,000 in fines from the NFL.
If he can get his head on straight, Jacobs can be a force of nature in the backfield. But all too often he has been banged up and slowed by injuries. That's why Bradshaw - fumbles and all - will remain a focal point of the ground attack.
Injuries have hit the Giants along the offensive line and they are also going to be without wide receivers Hakeem Nicks and Steve Smith for another couple of weeks. But when those guys are healthy again and ready to line up alongside Mario Manningham and tight end Kevin Boss, Manning has plenty of targets and can spread the ball around as the Giants make a playoff run.
Defensively, new coordinator Perry Fewell has lit a fire under a unit that performed poorly in 2009. The Giants are deep along the defensive line and the likes of Justin Tuck and London-born Osi Umenyiora can really make life hell for opposing quarterbacks. They bring a great deal of speed and athletic ability to their defensive end positions.
While Manning and the offence get a lot of attention, it could be this defensive unit that powers a run to the post-season.
The Giants are far from perfect. They blow hot and cold and they struggle to find true consistency. But even with his interception problems, they have a playmaking quarterback in Manning, offensive weapons around him, dominant performers on defense and they are well-coached.
In today's NFL, that might just be enough to be considered a serious contender.
Week 13 on 91Èȱ¬ Radio 5 live sports extra
It's an early start on 91Èȱ¬ Radio 5 Live Sports Extra this Sunday as we're on air from 1800 GMT, due to the Ashes Test starting later that evening. And we will catch up with two teams very much in the thick of the NFC playoff race as the San Francisco 49ers visit the Green Bay Packers.
Despite only having four wins to their name this season, the 49ers are just one game out of first place in the miserable NFC West. They will lean heavily on veteran running back Brian Westbrook this weekend as Frank Gore is gone for the year with a hip injury.
The Packers have seven wins this term and are one game behind the Chicago Bears in the NFC North. They are clearly the more talented of these two teams and I think Aaron Rodgers at quarterback gives them an edge most weekends.
I see the Packers taking this game to keep their division title hopes alive, consigning San Francisco to the also-rans department in the process.
Hello, I'm Neil Reynolds. I commentate and write about the NFL. I've followed the NFL since 1983 and covered the league as a journalist and broadcaster since 1991. I also played for 10 years in the British American Football League.
Comment number 1.
At 2nd Dec 2010, onchocinco wrote:Are you kidding? Just about everything in the article is bunk. Jacobs vies with Caddy for one of the lowest yards per carry for a starting RB in the league. Tom Coughlin is an over-rated coach a la Roy Hodgson. Eli Manning is good, but clearly a step down from the elite group of Rodgers, Brady, Peyton Manning and Rivers. And shockingly not 1 mention about the contribution of Hakeem Nicks & Steve Smith, or the fact that both and the #3 and #4 WRs are all out injured. That my friend pretty much explains the win/loss record of the giants considering that they are a pass-first team this year.
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Comment number 2.
At 2nd Dec 2010, dave wrote:Patriots, Steelers, Jaguars and Chiefs to host games in the AFC with Jets and Ravens making the wildcard - really only the teams sharing the lead in the North and East in the running for the wildcard, Colts and Chargers will need to win divisions to make the playoffs and a bit difficult to see them doing that.
Falcons, Eagles, Bears and Rams/Seahawks (impossible to call the winner of the NFC) to host games in the NFC with Saints and Packers making the wildcard - wildcard race still wide open in the NFC with Giants and Bucs still in the running.
Can I say that amidst the excitement in the other divisions, it's a bit of a travesty that a team from the NFC West will host a game when in all likelihood they might finish up with a losing record especially when you consider that there will be teams with winning records who won't even make the playoffs!!
anyway Patriots v Falcons in Dallas next year!
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Comment number 3.
At 3rd Dec 2010, GJ010 wrote:Nothing else to add on to the first comment. He's got it spot on - give him the blog.
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Comment number 4.
At 3rd Dec 2010, hackerjack wrote:And that seems to be something I have written quite a lot in recent years. That is one of the beautiful things about the NFL - you always get a pretty crowded and hotly contested race to the Super Bowl.
It is amazing that with just over a month to go in a 32-team league, there are 18 clubs who are either leading their division or are within one game of being in first place.
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And that in a nutshell is everything that is wrong with US sports. It's just a bunch of random results thrown together thanks to the forced hegemony of talent thrown at the most useless teams every season to artificially prop them up next time around.
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Comment number 5.
At 3rd Dec 2010, eddie-george wrote:For the record, this week I agree with Neil and don't much rate Mr Onchocinco's trash-talk.
The G-Men started awfully for 3 games, played great the next 5, then struggled the last three - the WR injury situation a big piece of the reason. Neil covered all this, I don't see how any of that is at all controversial.
Whatever the G-Men might want to be, the stats are pretty conclusive - by today's NFL standards, they rely plenty on rushing. Over 30 rushes per game (6th in the league) whilst they rank 17th on passing attempts per game. They do try to keep the offense balanced, but that does not make then pass-first.
Their defense - 2nd ranked, so I assume we can agree it is a very good one - carries this team. Without them, the offensive turn-overs would be killing their chances.
Eli isn't Peyton, but he isn't a Derek Anderson. And Coughlin isn't Belichick, but he isn't a Brad Childress. And the Giants are play-off contenders again this year, so these two guys are doing something right, even if few people, and not Neil from the evidence of this post, would rate them as the best in the business.
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Comment number 6.
At 3rd Dec 2010, LouSmorals wrote:"And that in a nutshell is everything that is wrong with US sports. It's just a bunch of random results thrown together thanks to the forced hegemony of talent thrown at the most useless teams every season to artificially prop them up next time around."
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Yeah, Heaven forbid sports should be a level playing field (no pun intended). What an idiotic, pig-ignorant comment. The boring Premier League is an example of everything sport shouldn't be: Domination year in, year out by a small group of big-spending teams at one end, and a life-or-death struggle at the other by teams who can never hope to see that kind of money, let alone spend it, and will never win a league title. I know which I'd rather watch.
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Comment number 7.
At 3rd Dec 2010, Neil Reynolds wrote:Onchocinco... I thought I highlighted that there were problems with all the players you mentioned. I was not trying to paint Eli Manning as the second coming of Joe Montana.
I stated exactly what he is... a pretty good quarterback who can make good plays but also makes the occasional bone-headed one that holds him back from being in the elite group in the NFL.
And I said that Jacobs could be productive at times but is inconsistent. And if you read all the way through the blog, you will see that I do mention the injuries suffered by Steve Smith and Hakeem Nicks. And I mentioned that their return would give Eli Manning plenty of targets.
So I think I have covered off a lot of the things you claim I haven't.
As for the wide open nature of the NFL... I agree that is not for everyone but I personally love it. And if I were a fan of Aston Villa or some mid-table Premiership team, I would love the NFL model as well.
Let's face it... Villa are unlikely to go down and they are not going to win the Premiership. So what are their fans paying out for each week? At least a team that finishes mid table in the NFL one year can re-tool and win it all soon after.
Any Given Sunday and all that epitomises the NFL and I love that!
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Comment number 8.
At 3rd Dec 2010, eddie-george wrote:"And that in a nutshell is everything that is wrong with US sports."
Which sports? You do know that Baseball and Gridiron Football, both so-called US sports, are poles apart on the spread of talent.
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Comment number 9.
At 3rd Dec 2010, Ravens_Defense_DOW_SAVE_606 wrote:Onchocinho, the only thing bunk on this page is your assessment of the blog.
Manning isnt in that group but reading Neil's blog he never suggested he was. Neil's assessment is perfect of Manning, for every high there is an equal low point. Brilliant one week awful the next.
Jacobs yards per carry is usually quite low because as Neil says injuries have slowed this guy down and his attitude is awful. But this season his yards per carry is up at 5.2ypc. Thats better than nearly all the top backs in the NFL.
Manningham is the 3rd WR receiver and isnt injured and has only missed 2 games all year. He just has the tendancy to disappear in games. Manning and the Giants need this guy to step-up if they want to go to the play-offs.
Neil, whats your prediction of the 2 big games this weekend?
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Comment number 10.
At 3rd Dec 2010, superbaby88 wrote:It seems that some of the people have their mind made up on these articles before they read properly. Te first post is argumentative for argumentative sake, but he is called ochocinco (kinda explains it). Giants defence is legit, they will continue to dampen powerful offences, see Vick last week threw his first interception and had a couple of fumble against the giants after a career game the week before against the Skins. When Nicks comes back, their offence will thrive again but they will not win the superbowl and that is due to the fact of Mr Turnover himself, Eli Manning, which will prove the Giants downfall in the play-offs.
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Comment number 11.
At 4th Dec 2010, Gmen wrote:Easier to criticize a blog than to write one. The article is spot on but being a Giant fan as my screen name gives away, I can tell you that one key thing to mention is that the running game has suffered mainly to Diehl and O'Hara being out injured. The Giants are playing with a patchwork offensvie line with injury-ridden Andrews (who is a nice pick up when healhty) and unproven Beatty.
Let me tell you something, the Giants are going to have their offensive line and receiving corps at full strength for the last 3 weeks of the season to make a run at the playoffs, and make a run IN the playoffs should they qualify in this topsy turvy conference.
With a stacked unit of defensive lineman that are rotated throughout the game to keep the players fresh and provide a continuous stream of pressure on the opposing QB, an aggressive secondary, a healthy receiving corps that contain two of top receivers in the game with Nicks and Smith, and a healthy cohesive unit O-line to pave the way for Jacobs and Bradshaw, the Giants will be a force to reckon with in December....and hopefully January.
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Comment number 12.
At 6th Dec 2010, RedWhiteandermblue wrote:I'm a Yank who dislikes all US sports except gridiron (agree with everyone else that "football" is confusing and undescriptive). Competitive balance (revenue sharing plus losers get first picks in college drafts) is better than anywhere else, and ensures two things. 1. Every franchise will be good in the not-so-distant future, chances are, which means all fans have something to look forward to. 2. But the winners year after year are the good organizations. The Steelers are a good example. They may have the best owner, who picks the best general manager, coaches and scouts, who do the best job of selecting, training and coaching. Even so, they've had a couple of losing seasons in the last 15, but are mostly near the top despite having the handicap of low draft choices almost every year. Close races with the best organizations doing the best in the long run is the best outcome, for me.
My only problem with the system is that it's likely not to last. If players can "win" a strike, the NFL will go down the road of almost every other league, from baseball to the Prem: the richer teams buy the trophies.
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