Justin Tuck: Giants Will Not Sink in Second Half of Season

By Tony Mangia

It was all in the cards for a Giants last week.  The team was being called the best in the NFL, they were two touchdown favorites over a reeling Dallas Cowboys squad and it was the first game of the second half of the season.  It was the perfect storm for a let-down and the Giants didn't disappoint.  In what has become an annual occurrence under the realm of Tom Coughlin, the Giants began their end-of-season meltdown.

Quick what's 16-31 and blue all over.  If you said the Giants second half record since 2004 you win a prize.  With the exception of 2005, the finish the season with a .500 or worse--usually worse. This year will be different, the players say.

It's too easy to use last Sunday's blackout in the New Meadowlands Stadium on as a game summary.  Sure, the offense had a power failure...the Cowboys played lights out...but I think the fans, themselves, felt like passengers on that cruise ship drifting off the coast of Mexico--plied with leftover liquor for a wonderful while, then getting fed Spam.

Justin Tuck is all too aware of the team's second-half failures.  Except for the Super Bowl championship season in 2007, the Giants (6-3) have either not made the playoffs or lost in the first round since Coughlin became head coach.  He is adamant it will not happen this year.

Tuck said, " This team is different.  I think we learned our lesson.  Guys understand how it felt last year to have the debacle that we had."  Funny, I think he said that last year too.  "I think we're poised to make sure that doesn't happen again.  I think as a whole , we were completely sick to our stomach by how we finished the season last year."  The fans know that feeling too.

Then he used that old standard excuse that is supposed to knock a team out of their complacency.  Here it comes, "I'm kinda glad that the things happened to us [Sunday] night, because it puts us back on alert, it puts us back to thinking," the defensive end said.  I hope that Eagles quarterback, Michael Vick gets the message.

Vick, who is having his game jersey sent to Canton for his rampage over the Redskins Monday night, will be waiting for Tuck's defense this Sunday. Jon Kitna (?), who lit up the Giants last Sunday, is one thing, but Vick is a totally different animal.  I won't use the phrase "pit bull" like Vick's teammate, DeSean Jackson,  used last week to describe his team's demeanor, but he has a dog-like tenacity.

Quick, what has wings, is red hot and is green all over.  Sounds like a nacho plate but no it is Vick.  The Eagles QB, who is less than two years away from 3-squares-and-a-bed, is on his way to an MVP caliber season.  He has yet thrown an interception this year and was the first player in NFL history to throw for 300 yards, run for 50 yards and score two TDs on the ground and throw for four more in NFL history.  All this after coming off a cracked sternum--one of the most painful injuries-- after getting sandwiched between two 300 pound men just a few weeks ago.

With Vick calling the signals, the Eagles (6-3) look invincible.  Their total devastation of Washington on Monday night should leave Giant fans feeling more seasick than the passengers on that stranded ship.  Even Donovan McNabb's new $78 million contract couldn't rally the Redskins.

Now Big Blue will be traveling into hostile Philly, with their rowdy fans, for the biggest game of the season and first place in the NFC East up for grabs. The Eagles soar in with momentum and a hot signal caller.  The Giants limp in with a depleted receiving corps and a busted up offensive line.  A consecutive division loss could be the beginning of another second-half swoon.

Are the Giant players cognizant of the collapses?  "It's a new season, " said Eli Manning, "Play this year.  Why don't we talk about '07 then?" None of the veteran players really want to talk about the past--and it is the past--but it has been the team's history. 

The Giants hope to return to being the team that plowed over Seattle, 41-7,  two weeks ago and made the Texans wish they were the Oilers again. There have been flashes of brilliance by Eli and Company in their victories, but penalties and stupid turnovers have cost them games and deservedly so. 

The Giants hope they shake off the ugly defeat to Dallas.  "You prepare.  You play Philly," said Manning, "You prepare for your next game. It's all you can do.  It's all you think about."

The G-Men were flying high at 6-2 until that loss to the rudderless Cowboys.  Will their second half history repeat itself?  The past is hard to ignore and so will be Michael Vick.

Shanahan Creates New Position: The Relief QB

By Tony Mangia


There have been plenty of head scratching moves by by NFL head coaches this season, but none of them are as nonsensical as the Redskins Mike Shanahan pulling his starting QB, Donovan McNabb, on Detroit's Ford Field Sunday with 1:50 remaining in the game.  Shanahan, acting like some baseball manager in the ninth, went to his bullpen (hog pit?)  and handed the ball to a pair of fresher legs and a livelier arm--and it backfired.


This could start a new trend in the sport.  Older baseball fans might remember a time when starters actually went nine full innings.  The relief pitcher was an anomaly--only used when a pitcher got hurt or his arm hung like a wet rope in the sixteenth or so inning. Alright, that was before Hoyt Wilhelm, but is it possible for football to start a QB for three quarters, use a middle man in the fourth and bring in a closer for the final two minute drive?  Shanahan might think so.

While Shanahan defended his imitation of Joe Girardi tapping his shoulder for Mariano Rivera by claiming McNabb wasn't in shape for the final two minutes, he also created a gully as wide as the Potomac between the head coach and his big off-season acquisition.  Don't even mention the gap its opened between him and Redskin faithful.

The Detroit Lions led the game 31-25, but the game was still winnable for the Skins.  Shanahan yanks McNabb for the backup, an unprepared and totally unsuspecting Rex Grossman, who promptly fumbles on his first play.  Is this the NFL's first blown save?

I like Shanahan's innovation and say we should take it further.  Tarvaris Jackson can come in and relieve Brett Favre...oh wait that happened last week. Or maybe football will follow baseball's lead and we'll start seeing sideline coaches in team uniforms. If the sight of Bill Parcells in a sweatsuit was funny enough imagine Charlie Weis imitating a giant tomato clad in Chief's red.

Grossman, who hadn't taken one snap this season, was inserted for the 6-time pro-bowler because Shanahan believed McNabb didn't have the "cardiovascular endurance" to finish the game. Grossman's jaw hit his clipboard and he looked as surprised as McNabb when the call came.

Shanahan defended his move by saying the game speeds up in the final two minutes and McNabb would be unable to keep up.  According to Elias Sports, McNabb has 24 come-from-behind winning drives in the final minutes under his belt.  Tom Brady has the same amount during that same time span.  Looks like dis-jointed thinking by the Redskins' chief.


While Shanahan starts the NFL's version of a bullpen (pig pen?) and tries making a point by benching McNabb and making bizarre excuses, he loses games and respect.  The team is 4-4 and falling behind the New York Giants and Philadelphia Eagles in the NFC East.

One can only wonder what Shanahan's rationale was for publicly calling out McNabb during a crucial point of the game. Was it punitive or a show of power.  Shanahan should have admitted he was wrong and honestly give an answer for messing with McNabb's head.


Shanahan was lucky in Denver.  He had total control, Terrell Davis, John Elway and an owner as a best friend.  He laid down his laws, nobody questioned him and the Broncos had a good run. Now he just looks foolish and weak flip-flopping on excuses for the bone-headed move.

In his first season in Washington, Shanny has now alienated his two best players.  Albert Haynesworth felt his crazy eye gaze over the summer and now it seems doubtful McNabb will play out the season with any regard for the head coach who bought him over from Philly.
 
 Whether or not McNabb had a "sore hamstring" or is just out of shape remains to be seen.  The quarterback's reputation for bad practice habits goes back to his Eagle days.  Tim Hasselback--a teammate of McNabb's in Philly--said, "One of the things that drove them crazy in Philadelphia was the lack of tempo at which he practiced...Nearly every single day."

One can only wonder the rationale for Shanahan's public emasculation of McNabb.  Maybe the head coach has had enough of his aging starter's tempo, but you can bet McNabb's stay in D.C. will be 'tempo'rary.