Week 3 vs WAS: Notes - 2nd Half

Third Quarter:

• Burress makes his first catch of the day after several drops.
• Eli looks like he's getting rattled, but then hits Burress with a nice strike, catching London Fletcher napping.
• Plax: 8 balls thrown to him, 2 caught.
• Nice 21 yard catch by Shockey. He holds up the ball like a kid on Christmas. "See? I caught it!" At least there was no spike - he put it gently on the ground, showing us what a good guy he is. He's a good player, but I think he needs a good therapist.
  
  
  
  
• Oh *there's* Droughns - punching in a 1 yard TD.
• NYG marches down the field, three 3rd down conversions, couple of long tosses by Eli, quick 7 points. Good work.
• Aside: hey cameraman. If you're going to do a close up of a cheerleader, don't do it when you're plastering ads all over the screen.
• Kiwanuka can play. Tuck is good. Strahan - eh. Who knows what would've happened if he would've shown up for camp. Even if its just that the Redskins aren't all that good and the Giants are finally playing a team they can beat (not that they are at this point in the game), so far there's a little bit of hope here in the second half.
• Hey look! One of Spag's blitzes worked.
• OK, so Shockey's having a good game - 3 for 57, and more catches than any Giants' tight end ever (isn't it annoying how everything is celebrated now?). But I'd swear that he falls down once he gets the ball.
  
• Going good here, definitely playing with more energy - and a false start penalty! On Coughlin's son-in-law Chris Snee. That's gotta be awkward.
• And.... INTERCEPTION. Great throw, but to the wrong guy. Dammit. Who was Eli throwing to?
• Do those dumb penalties get in the player's heads?
• Its like Dr. Plaxico and Mr. Burress - just made a truly great catch. 1st half, all drops, 2nd half, all good.
• And Shockey again! I'm going to start talking smack about him every week, it seems to help. Uh-oh, he's hurt. Again.
• If nothing else, at least this is a good game. Giants seem to be paying more attention this week.

Fourth Quarter:

• Giants moving down the field, but having trouble once they get close to end zone. Aikman joins Buck in the Let's Make Obvious Statements contest - "The New York Giants have had a difficult time in the red zone."
• Eli is doing some of his brother's schtick - the arm flapping after a crappy pass, for example.
  
• Something else that seems to happen a lot with this team under Coughlin: timeouts called because the team can't seem to get it together on offense. Yes, the crowd is loud (90,000 crazed 'Skins fans), and its a tense game. But it just looks like that sort of thing happens more often than it should.
• NICE RUN BY WARD! 1ST DOWN! BUT THE BALL COMES OUT! FUCK! WHAT IS IT?
• ...
• Three words guaranteed to deflate a drive: "Redskins have it." But Coughlin challenges it.
• What would be fun is to have a mic on people during a challenge. The coach, the ref, maybe a really drunk fan.
• So his knee was down, and the ball came out after that. After three turnovers, we'll take it.
• Another false start! It's not a new thought, but Coughlin's "discipline" never seems to translate into disciplined play.
• Good flip to Toomer, putting the team 5 for 5 on third down (thank you, Joe Buck). Washington has 9 yards this half so far. Ouch.
• Droughns with another one! Something else I'm going to have to do next week - wonder where Droughns is.
• This is one of the many reason this team is frustrating. It's like Burress with the first half drops and the second half tough catches. One minute they look like the crappiest team in the league, the next they score 14 unanswered points and look great.
• Hard to tell from the couch, but Tynes appears to be pretty good about trying to make tackles after he boots the ball.
• Portis pulls a Burress and drops an easy pass. Three and out for the Giants' Defense? Maybe we need to make fun of Spagnola next week, too.
• When a unit turns around like this, you have to wonder if its just that they're playing a team that isn't as good.
• Running game: Ward is over 4 yards per carry, and Droughns is working as the short yardage guy in this game with a third and short conversion and a pair of short yardage TD runs.
• And... Shockey drops the ball! Tripping on his own feet! Slips off his fingers! Oy. Once his NFL career is over, Shockey has a nice career ahead of him as a cartoon character.
  
• Is Aikman right about Eli having a lot of balls batted down at the line? It does seem like it happens a lot.
• Aside: I have a hard time liking Joe Buck. He just bothers me. Aikman is pretty good, though.
• Strahan makes a tackle and acts like he just scored the winning TD in the Superbowl.
• Redskins fumble! Giants recover! My man Portis couldn't hang on to a hand off for the first Washington turnover of the game (the Giants have three).
  
• Finally a penalty against the Redskins. I'm not good about calling pass interference penalties, but I've seen a couple of plays today that looked like they could've drawn a yellow flag.
• Ward gets planted in the ground by the Redskins H.B. Blades (good name).
• Eli is definitely trying to Peyton-ize his game at the line of scrimmage. I wonder if big bro coaches him on that sort of thing.
  
• GREAT play by Burress. Wow. When he's good, he's really good. Pokes his hands in front of a Washington defender, dodges a tackle, and runs it all the way into the end zone. Wow. That's got to feel good when you make a play like that. It really is like he's two different players - the first half he was horrible, the second half he's been amazing.
• I'm not clear on why Antwan Randle El doesn't get any love from fantasy football guys. I know he's not an elite receiver, but he's better than most. Having a good year this year.
  
• Campbell throws a pass to Randle El but is looking the other way. I know that's not terribly unusual (misdirection, whatever) but I think Campbell does it better than a lot of quarterbacks.
• The Giants REALLY have to keep Burress and Shockey healthy... unless Anthony Mix is another Derrick Ward.
• Campbell's starting to feel some pressure. Imagine if they'd been able to do this to Favre last week.
• The Giants are acting like they're just running out the clock, but it's a little too soon for that. The Redskins aren't world-beaters but they have weapons on offense, you don't want to play games with them. But the defense is playing well, so maybe ask them to make a stop, which they've been doing all day.
• Weird play choice - pass, and a short one. Aikman and Buck think it's a good move since they gain 8 yards for the punt, but I think I would've rather seen a run play and Washington burn their final time out.
  
• The cameraman likes that blonde cheerleader. "Hey baby, how *you* doin'? Yeah, that was me, putting you on camera. Drinks? After the game? Sure..."
• Can the Giants hold the lead?
• Campbell starts looking like a rookie QB.
• See, Washington calls a time out with a little less than 2 minutes to play, and they wouldn't have had that if the Giants had run the ball earlier. Next play, first down on a long pass to Santana Moss.
  
• 1:07, 2nd and 13, Campbell drops back and... Randle El! At the 2! This time Campbell spikes the ball and stops the clock with under a minute to play. Good game.
• Coughlin looks silly calling a time out, but at least he got it in.
• Note to self: do NOT say that Randle El is a good player when the Giants play the Redskins. He doesn't have huge numbers today but he's had some key plays.
• A throw to the fullback? Huh? I always wonder why plays like that get called in these situations. I'm glad they did it (although from a fantasy perspective I would've preferred a Portis TD run) but it just feels like a wasted play.
• And Portis... doesn't make it in! 20 seconds left! GIANTS WIN!