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Special Report

Sent: 01-09-12

E-GIANTS
Dave Klein was the Giants' beat writer
for The Star-Ledger from 1961 to 1995.
He is the author of 26 books and he is one of
only four sportswriters to have covered all the Super Bowls.
Dave has allowed TEAM GIANTS to reprint some of his articles.


RAPID REFLECTIONS ON THE VICTORY - OFFICIALS WERE LOUSY, GIANTS GREAT

By Dave Klein
Can we talk for a minute about the officiating crew on the field Sunday when the Giants squashed the Atlanta Falcons?

LOUSY.

The referee, otherwise known as the lead zebra of the crew, was Carl Cheffers.

LOUSY.

Perhaps the classic example of LOUSY occurred in the second quarter with less than two minutes to play. Eli Manning threw a pass to wide receiver Hakeem Nicks and the completion was awarded nine yards. But it was such a LOUSY spot that somebody should have protested. It couldn't have been head coach Tom Coughlin because there was less than two minutes left in the half.

The replay booth? Didn't happen. A measurement on the field? You know, just for the hell of it, fellas, just to be sure? Didn't happen.

So the Giants went into a no-huddle, shotgun formation and Manning rifled a long and deep pass down the left sideline to Nicks but it fell incomplete. No harm, no foul, you say? Nonsense. First of all, the play - each play - should be called properly. Secondly, if the ball was properly placed on the field, (and it looked for all the world like a first down if properly situated) the Giants would have had a first down and with 1:23 to play at the Giants' 47 another score might have materialized.

There were various holding calls on the Giants' offensive line, some of which (Pro Bowl guard Chris Snee drew two of them, both more imagined than real) were absolutely ridiculous. A player once told me, decades ago, that if the officials wanted to call holding they could do so on every play - "except that would make the games six hours long and people would bitch."

It is also nice to know that the television announcers - Joe Buck and Troy Aikman - never wavered in their coverage of the Giants. Neither of them seems to like the Giants, and you might suggest that Buck doesn't know as much football as he does baseball. But Aikman was a quarterback and should know a lot more. Troy, are you letting your dislike of the Giants cloud your view?

So now it's on to Green Bay (next Sunday, 4 p.m.) in the second round of the playoffs, and please wipe all that nostalgia from your brain. This isn't Jan. 20, 2008, and the Giants aren't playing the Packers for the NFC Championship and the flight to Super Bowl 42. This will be Jan. 15, 2012, and the Packers have the better team.

Really, Dave? Well, maybe. Remember the game they played in MetLife Stadium Dec. 4, when the Packers were still undefeated? It was a wonderful exercise in total frustration, and the Packers were pushed beyond their limit before finally winning, 38-35.

"That's as good a team as we have played all season," Aaron Rodgers, the Packers' All-World quarterback, said afterwards. "I'm not really sure we should have won."

But for one field goal with no time remaining, that game would have gone into overtime - just as the one in 2008 did. And you might remember the Giants' final game of that regular season, against the undefeated New England Patriots. Yeah, the Giants lost, 38-35, and then beat New England in the Super Bowl.

Well, they can't play the Packers in the Super Bowl this year but they could prevent them from repeating as Super Bowl champions. And don't you think the NBC Network is doing back-flips and hand-stands? The four teams still standing in the NFC Playoffs represent three of the last Super Bowl champions - the Giants, Packers and New Orleans Saints - while the fourth, the San Francisco 49ers, have won five (one less than Pittsburgh and Dallas) but never lost one (the Steelers are 6-2, the Cowboys 5-3).

Some of the Giants, especially those who haven't yet experienced this particular brand of manic lunacy before, are getting cocky. Take defensive end Jason Pierre-Paul, for instance, whose season has been so spectacular that if he announced he was going to win the next Presidential election would you argue with him? He said after the victory over Atlanta (and the Falcons weren't exactly lousy, the Giants were that good) that he was "100 percent sure" that the Packers will fall next.

When asked about that, Manning adopted a no-nothing attitude. "I didn't hear him say that," he smiled. "But we all kind of feel that we are going to win each game we play. I think you have to feel like that."

Manning had another of those somewhere-over-the-rainbow games against the Falcons and proved that there are some offenses that challenge defenses to stop them. Atlanta's choice was to double-team wide receiver Victor Cruz, for after all he has burned most of the league this season. But that meant not being able to double-up on Nicks, so he caught six passes for 115 yards including a 72-yard touchdown that was a direct result of the Falcons' defensive choices.

The Giants were in a third-and-three situation on their own 28 (of course) and they had been running well. In fact, they were running the ball better than they had all season. So with seven men in the box, Eli showed them a play-action fake and every one of them swarmed. He stood up and tossed maybe a five-yarder to Nicks over the middle.

It really was no contest. He juked linebacker Sean Weatherspoon and it turned into a foot race that nobody else could win except Nicks.

The NFL keeps another statistic these days - how many times a receiver has been targeted as well as how many passes he has actually caught. Eli completed 23 of 32 passes, hitting all but nine of his targets - and two passes, both to Cruz, were dropped.

By comparison, Atlanta's Matt Ryan completed 24 passes, out of 39 targets.

How about a few compliments for the defense, which overall was fantastic? Middle linebacker Chase Blackburn, who had been released prior to the start of the season and then re-signed four weeks ago, shared team tackling honors with safety Antrel Rolle with nine each. JPP had another one of those games, piling up eight tackles and two tackles for losses. The Falcons were limited to 247 total yards, converting only four of 14 third down opportunities and striking out twice on fourth-and-one situations.

"I thought coach [Perry] Fewell [the defensive coordinator] called a great game," said defensive end Justin Tuck. "He just goes about his business and I don't think he really cares what other people [including the media] say about him."

Cornerback Aaron Ross and running back D.J. Ware were examined for concussions and when they were injured Sunday neither returned to the game. ... Green Bay has been installed a 9-point favorite. ... Hey, they were 15-1 this season, you know?

Check out Dave's website at E-GIANTS where you can subscribe to his newsletters which run much more frequently than what is available here.
- Team Giants

NEW - Send a request to davesklein@aol.com for a free week's worth of news!

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