Gamegirl, you have to like winning one against the Cowboys.
"You bet, and this was the first time the Giants ever beat the Cowboys on Monday Night Football! My Giants really needed this win, and of course they did it in a way that you would never expect.
Not only is Tiki Barber the game hero for the runback, but he did it in all areas of the game. He kept coming back at Dallas. He ran the ball a lot, and had a number of catches.
It's going to be hard to forget this game and 'Primetime Tiki'.
That was really some showing on his part."

Primetime Tiki. It has a nice ring to it.
"Now all we need is some 'Primetime Kent Graham, Primetime Gary Brown, and Primetime Offensive Line!' I don't want to be too critical on a win, but once again there was the usual dose of "Primetime Defense" in that game that kept Dallas down to a reachable 10 points.
Once again, the offense didn't score a touchdown.
The best thing they had going for them was that one big drive in the second quarter where they used the no-huddle offense. That was pretty exciting, and at least they got a field goal off of that."

LT was presented with his Pro Football Hall of Fame ring.
"Yes, that was a nice halftime ceremony. It's always great to see Lawrence Taylor. He thanked the Giants organization and all the great players he played with and the fans. LT brings back a lot of good memories. Let's hope the Giants can create some more good ones for us from here on out."

Well Mikefan, how about that Tiki?
Yes, as Gamegirl said, he had a great game. His numbers were 10 carries for 35 yards, and 5 catches for 73 yards. That gave him 108 of the Giants 228 yards, and he had 5 punt returns for 123 yards. That's a total of 233 all-purpose yards.
You have to think back to the game last year when Barber dropped a number of passes.
He worked really hard in the offseason and training camp, and that's some of the things that Jim Fassel takes note of.
Aside from Fassel deciding to feature Tiki, he also has to get credit for calling that timeout with 4 seconds left in the third quarter to make sure that Cunningham would have to kick into a stiff wind.
It was a 41 yard attempt that bounced off the right crossbar."

Do we sense a Fassel soapbox coming up?
"Yes, I'm still critical about some things like the play calling, but there has been a lot of Fassel bashing that goes way past that.
This head coach believes in certain players. He has his favorites based on how hard they work, how much they care and how much raw talent they have.
He's stated that it takes time to develop some players, and the fans and media are all too unwilling for him to take that time. This is a tough town to lose games in. You can see that just from the raking Bill Parcells got the other day from one bad play call. The headline was, Tuna a Genius? That's Rich!"

We know what's coming up next here from you.
"OK, and here it goes. Like Fassel, I believe in Kent Graham.
He has more quarterback smarts than many of the starting quarterbacks out there. I'll make a comparison here to Phil Simms that will draw me some heat, but I don't care. Phil was not the most talented QB at the time that he played, but he was one of the smartest and that's what makes it work.
Tell me what good it is to have a slight edge on talent, if you don't know how to use it? You want to know how smart Phil Simms is? He likes Kent Graham too."

How about no offense and no TDs from Kent Graham?
"Last night Kent was done in by the usual stuff. Penalties that killed drives, even that one by Gary Brown when he went in motion left and started across the line of scrimmage before the snap. What was that all about?
Kent took sacks and a lot of criticism from the announcers for holding the ball too long while he scanned the field waiting for something to develop. Kent is not afraid to throw the ball. He's proved that over and over, and if there was something there, Kent would have found it.
I'll ask you guys to think back a little. How many times do you remember Phil Simms hitting the carpet as the pocket crumbled around him while he waited for something to happen.
A quarterback can do only so much. Kent ran that 17 play 80 yard drive that Gamegirl was talking about in the 2nd Quarter. It ran the Cowboy defense ragged for 9:47, and ended in a field goal to tie the game at 3-3. Settling for a field goal is sure to be a topic this week but coaches always like to get those first points on the board, especially if they tie it up in a low scoring game.
Kent's numbers were 15-21 for 183 yards, 0 INT, 0 TD, and he pulled the Cowboys defense offsides a number of times with his hard play count.
Troy Aikman was 20-33 for 266 yards, 1 INT, 0 TD. You could say that both the defenses played great last night, and Graham outplayed Aikman."

Last thoughts?
"The defense was just great. They held Emmitt Smith to just 26 yards rushing, and they pressured Troy Aikman all night coming away with 3 sacks and lots of hurries.
It was the first time the Giants had a punt return for a TD since Toomer took one back 53 yards against the Lions 2 years ago.
One other thing. How come when the Giants are in control of the clock, they can't take it down to 2 seconds, kick, win and run off the field in wild jubilation?
How come for the Giants, it has to be that Dallas gets one last shot.
Of course in that last little extravaganza, the Giants have to end up with an injury to Brad Daluiso which will probably take him out for most of the season.
Once before, I made the offer to manage the clocks for the Giant's for a meager sum. If I could save one Kicker, or eliminate a few last minute field goal attempts by opponents it would be worth it. They should take me up on it!"

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