RED JERSEYS DON'T HELP IN THE RED ZONE

OK, lets start with the jerseys. I HATE those red jerseys the Giants wore on Sunday. The Giants have worn blue during their entire existence, take off the red. I realize that Thanksgiving weekend is the official kick-off to the holiday shopping season, but the New York Giants are NOT the Atlanta Falcons or the Baltimore Ravens or the Carolina Panthers or the Jacksonville Jaguars whose lack of tradition permits weekly experiments with their uniform. No kid is going to ask Santa for a RED Eli Manning jersey. The Giants are an 80-year-old franchise (the commemorative patch is on their uniform this season) and are steeped in tradition. They are Big Blue. They play in a “blue state”. Loose the red jerseys now! You’re a professional football team, not a vehicle to move dead stock for Modell’s. Save that gimmicky crap for those flavor of the month teams in the AFC South.

OK, so the spell of Eli Manning wasn’t quite there Sunday as it was last week against Atlanta. It wasn’t a stellar performance, perhaps it was worse, but I’m still going easy on the kid. He made some mistakes, but that’s all part of the indoctrination period for a rookie quarterback. Frankly, I’m glad to see him take his hard knocks against a team like Philadelphia than, say, San Francisco. If you want him to learn how to swim fast, well, throw him into the turbulent waters of the Eagles and Falcons. I won’t belabor the obvious about his interceptions. Bad decisions they were, particularly that long ball off the back of his foot in the third quarter. Let the Post and the Daily Snooze peal that onion away. What I did like is the Giants have brought back a deep threat with their number three receiver, Jamaar Taylor. Two big plays. I don’t think the Giants have done that since their early-season road victory in Green Bay. This dink and dunk stuff that Warner was throwing wasn’t moving the chains and defenses quickly learned to shut that game plan down.

Still though, there’s continued concern about the Giants red zone production. I think it goes back to the Giants weakness in the offensive line. I defended these guys last week against Atlanta and still do this week. But in the red zone, they aren’t punching holes when the gaps are tight on running plays and the extra help to stem the pass rush in the backfield is making it too easy to cover receivers. The screen option is lost with Tiki Barber matched up against a defensive end; as is the delay hook with Shockey or Marcellus Rivers stuck in blocking formations. Granted, Shockey is getting opportunities in the end zone, but defenses have since caught on in the short field. Where are Ike Hilliard and Amani Toomer? Same with Jim Finn. He was more noticeable in the sideline melee after Jeremiah Trotter’s cheap shot on Manning than on the field. He made some plays last week against Atlanta, so I’m not sure why he wasn’t a bigger factor against the Eagles.

Speaking of Tiki in the backfield. I saw at least three plays where he made some outstanding blocks when fending off the blitz happy Eagles; and I’m talking about some serious mismatches. That won’t do much to pad his stats, but it goes a long way with demonstrating what a complete player he is. Same to Marcellus Rivers, who for a second week, stepped up his game in the unglamorous role as the designated tight-end blocker.

Defensively, the 27-6 score was misleading. They kept the Giants in the game for three quarters. For much of the game the Giants were only down by a touchdown. Yes, I know football is a FOUR quarter game, but that’s what happens when the lack of offensive firepower keeps the Giants D on the field for too long. The Eagles did play with a tattered line; particularly with the injury to Jermaine Mayberry, but the loss of Michael Strahan and Keith Washington was further softened by the play of Lance Legree and Osi Umenyiora. Good interior line play as well until Norman Hand hurt his leg. For the most part, the pursuit of McNabb was pretty good, and for two consecutive weeks the Giants second string defensive line has made life difficult for the league’s most elusive quarterbacks. Can’t say the same about stopping the run. This is a problem, and this is where a big playmaker in the linebacking unit is sorely missed. Too may three-yard runs turning into seven-yard runs or more. I’m not sold on Cris Collinsworth’s assessment on the improved play of Carlos Emmons. Despite his being exonerated for that abysmal personal foul call last week, I haven’t seen a heck of a lot from him. He was essentially a free agent swap for Dhani Jones. Perhaps Emmons’ being injured last year was a more affordable solution to an overpriced resigning of Dhani Jones, but it reminds me of that mindless trade of Dan Pastorini for Ken Stabler. I also disagree with Cris Collinsworth’s “not having a problem” with Barrett Green getting ejected after making a retaliatory strike to Jeremiah Trotter after his cheap shot on Manning. That was an easy fifteen-yard gift negated by his lack of mental discipline. For the past month, Green has been in Tom Coughlin’s dog house for exactly those reasons. Until then, the Giants curbed their season-long propensity for stupid penalties during the game. Yeah, yeah…it’s an emotional game against a hated division rival making a flagrant attempt to rough up their (presumed) wunderkid. But it’s still stupid and uncalled for.

Partial praise goes to the secondary for keeping Terrell Owens quiet for the first half and much of the third quarter. However, we instead saw Todd Pinkston mug the highlight reel in the first half. Will Allen and Will Peterson are simply not getting it done on man coverage. Again, I think this goes to the lack of playmaking ability in the Giants linebackers; thus forcing the safeties to contain the run rather than go to zone coverage. Having said that, Curtis Deloatch helped keep T.O. frustrated. I’m at least not worried about him in the game. He’s a safer alternative to Frank Walker’s aggressive, though very undisciplined style of play. As for Gibril Wilson…get well soon…OK?

There’s a lot to say about this game. What we know is that the Giants are committed to the future. Eli Manning is the quarterback, Tiki isn’t fumbling, Shockey is being freed up to make plays, the offensive line is playing at an acceptable level, there were fewer penalties, the decimated D-line has stepped up and they’ve rediscovered some semblance of a deep threat. But they can’t score points, there’s a huge hole in the linebacking unit and Amani Toomer and Ike Hilliard are non-factors. With five weeks remaining in the regular season, you hate to already start thinking about next year, but the rest of the season is looking like a dress rehearsal for next year.

This wasn’t a terrible loss. Philadelphia is a better team, but the Giants had ample opportunity to seize this game. It wasn’t necessarily a game they should have won, but it was most definitely a game they could have won. Better days lie ahead, not behind, but the playoff berth we smelled around Halloween probably won’t be wrapped under the tree by Christmas. Or for that matter, now.

Oh, and one last thing…. Since Washington prefers to wear white at home, take your goddamn blue jerseys to FedEx field next week.