GIANTS AVOID CARR WRECK

For those of you who’ve missed those “old Giants”, you know, the one’s that somehow beat the other team but never covered the point spread, don’t complain. You’re order against the Houston Texans has been processed. Thank you for your patronage, come see us again next Sunday. For the last two weeks, those old Giants have been back. Just winning games in unceremonious fashion where by Tuesday it’s forgotten how they did it. Regardless of who’s coaching Big Blue, the Giants have always played the good teams much better than the bad. So is beating the woebegone Houston Texans by a paltry score of 14-10 really a surprise?

All week long this game has been of high importance and high alert. The alarm sounding of a “trap game” went off when Tampa Bay exited Giants Stadium the week before. So many times the Giants have stooped down to inferior competition to keep their batteries fresh against the presumably tougher match-up a week later. Would this happen again against the Texans? For a while it looked that way.

First of all, despite the Houston Texans dreadful 2-6 record, it looks like things can only get better for this team. After all, they’ve prevented the Giants from doing something they’ve had carte blanche access to for a month; and that’s getting to the quarterback. David Carr (21/30 0 TD, 0 INT), who’s spent more time on his butt than any other quarterback over the past five years, was often poised and in position to make plays. He even scored a touchdown, though that drive was sustained thanks to the bonehead penalty by dimeback, James Butler. For the Giants, the game plan was simple: get to David Carr quickly and shut down the quietest top receiver in the league, Andre Johnson (9-83). It wasn’t that simple, as Carr relied on his patented quick release and hit Andre Johnson in the flat to move the chains along. For the most part Houston moved the ball pretty well, but failed to score on most occasions. From the beginning of the game, Houston had a chance to establish themselves on the opening drive, and took advantage of several Giant defenders (Osi Umenyiora, Sam Madison, Brandon Short, and later, Michael Strahan) being out. The problem is that teams who’ve only won two games all season find ways to stay that way. While getting into scoring position on their opening drive, Carr on a 3rd and 6 play, threw the ball to a wide open Walter Lundy (3 rec/16 yards, 20 rush/43 yards) in the flat. With nary a blue jersey in sight, Lundy let the ball squirt right through his hands. End of drive. Fourth down…field goal missed. The Texans are the opposite of the 90/10 rule. Ninety percent of their losses come from screw-ups only ten percent of the time; at least it was that way against the Giants. For the most part, Houston hung tough, only to make mistakes at the most inopportune times.

What the Giants did do well, and have needed to do for many weeks now, was get Jeremy Shockey (8/66, 1 TD) involved early in the game. It’s no secret that Shockey has a way of getting the rest of the team ramped up to play, but he’s got to get going early. With Plaxico Burress having his quarterly back spasms, Shockey pulled the mother load. Clearly Plax was missed by Giants quarterback, Eli Manning (17/28, 1 TD, 1 INT). Just like Dan Quayle is no John F. Kennedy, Michael Jennings (2/21) and Tim Carter (1/15) are no Plaxico Burress. Jennings, in his first NFL start showed some hustle and gumption, but still isn’t on the same page as Manning. Tim Carter, who knows? The guy is just so inconsistent. This week’s issue wasn’t dropped passes or stupid penalties, but rather never having enough room on the field to make a play. Seemed that every time the ball came his way, one foot was already out of bounds. That’s just careless. At least he’s healthy, generally he’s only good until Halloween.

Of course Tiki did his thing (17-115), but what was really impressive was the offensive line discipline in this game. Guards Dave Diehl and Chris Snee were very crisp when pulling across en route to create downfield blocking lanes, while Luke Petitgout kept Mario Williams relatively quiet for most of the game. And boy have the penalties come way down, in fact, the only line penalties that I can recall came from Rich Seubert and Bob Whitfield; neither of whom are regular starters.

What is a concern now that the season enters it’s latter half is injuries. Michael Strahan will be out at least 2-4 weeks with an ankle sprain while Osi Umenyiora still nurses his banged up hip. Clearly Chicago will look to exploit this weakness since David Carr came out of Sunday’s game relatively unscathed. Be careful for what you wished for, those old boring Giants just might hang around for a few more weeks…whoever’s healthy enough to go.


FIVE OTHER THOUGHTS

1) For a Giant secondary that can’t really cover, Gibril Wilson really stuck close in man-to-man coverage when Houston was deep in the red zone. Still would like to see him in more blitzes; which might be the case with the Giants defensive line being so banged up. I like Gibril Wilson a lot.

2) Other scribes have mentioned this as well, but I share their thoughts. As impressive as David Carr played against the Giants, act like a professional. Couldn’t tell if his reaction after a two-yard touchdown scamper was from his fraternity days or he was auditioning for The Price is Right. Either way it was extremely sophomoric and unprofessional. Grow up kid, you’re on a 2-6 team.

3) Saw all of the Giants-Texans game, most of the Indy-New England game (dozed off for a few minutes) and caught portions of Pittsburgh-Denver and Minnesota-San Francisco while at the gym. Added up, I equate this to about 2.672 football games watched by me yesterday. Nevertheless, I don’t think I’m exaggerating if I guessed that the Chevrolet commercial with John Mellencamp must have aired about 67 times yesterday. Message to ad agency buying airtime for General Motors: I live in Brooklyn, I ain’t buying a pick-up truck to haul calzones. Why the hell is this ad being aired in as if I’m living in Amarillo? Mellencamp fans forget about an upcoming tour, he ought to have enough royalty checks to cover him for the next ten years.

4) Not sure how long Rich Gannon has been an announcer. He’s an analyst for CBS and tends to do lower priority/small market games. In other words, we don’t get him calling too many games in New York unless the Giants or Jets are playing a team like the Texans; and so yesterday was my first experience with him calling a game. He stinks.

5) Besides Tiki Barber, Jeff Feagles will likely retire after this season as well. You don’t appreciate a good punter until he’s gone. Don’t laugh when I say that his impact will also be sorely missed. You heard it here first.