Gamegirl, will Coach Fassel start Kerry Collins at QB next week?
"He should, even if he has to have Kent Graham fake a concussion. Collins deserves to start a full game at this point. The Giants were just terrible today on both sides of the ball, and it was all very disappointing to watch.
I mean you could see that the players were trying to do their best, and they never gave up, but the Redskins had more talent on offense.
That Redskin RB Stephen Davis was phenomenal running the ball, and we have no one like that. We try to do it all with tricks and mirrors.
The Giants can't go head to head on offense with any other team, using either the pass or the run, and say try to stop us if you can, and make them alter their gameplan.
The running game will be what it is for the rest of the year, and we can only hope to alter the passing game by putting in Kerry Collins. He looked much better playing today than when he got his first start last time against Arizona."

What did you think about that call on Sean Bennett in the end zone?
"He had it for the TD, and once again in the 'Only in a Giants game category', they had an instant replay that was reversed on itself.
The officials reviewed the play, and then realized that they can't review a play on possession of a TD and gave the Giants the timeout back."

Now Washington is 6-4, and the Giants are 5-5, tied with Dallas.
"Yes, the Giants are a mediocre team in a mediocre division, and yet somehow 5-5 is so very close to first place. I guess if you think about the whole thing, only Washington seems tough to crack this year and with all the mistakes they make playing, who knows which team will be in first place by the end of the season? Wouldn't it be wild if it's the Cards lead by Dave Brown?"

Mikefan, will Coach Fassel start Kerry Collins at QB next week?
"Collins deserves a shot at this point. Everything Kent Graham's detractors say about him seemed magnified in this particular game. Namely, he held onto the ball way too long, and his passes were very sloppy.
I think the Giants need a change. I think the fans and the rest of the offense deserves it. I'm tired of seeing them playing scared, going 3 and out while Kent Graham scrambles and gets sacked.
The Redskins beat the Giants 50-21 the first time, and did it with half as many points this time around."

So Collins will be the answer for next week's game?
"Not exactly. It won't be that easy. As you saw from today's game where he fumbled the ball twice and threw an interception, he's not 100 percent ready.
Kerry is still sort of in spring training mode and he will make some mistakes until he gets more playing time with the first string.
I do think it's important to let him sharpen up against the Cards next week in a game he can win while being a little sloppy, before going up against the Jets and then Buffalo."

You think the Giants can go on and win a bunch more games?
"Look, if you put your Giants fan cap away for a moment, and scrutinize the NFC East, where would you rank the teams in order of talent and execution?
The Redskins beat the Giants despite making many mistakes, and you can see they are clearly better on offense. So, you'd probably put the Redskins first, Giants second, injury ridden Cowboys third, then come the Cards and Eagles, which is just about where they really sit in the standings.
As Gamegirl said, if you could spice up the passing game for the Giants with Kerry Collins, it would take the pressure off the weak running game, and the Giants could stay neck and neck with the Redskins for the rest of the year.
By the way, now the Giants, Redskins and Cowboys all have 3-3 division records in the NFC East."

Anything else?
"Yes, some major disappointments.
On Offense, I'll pick the two opening drives that set the tone for the game. They included a false start penalty and 2 sacks and were both 3 and out. Of course, why should I be so choosy? The next 2 series ended up with Redskins INTs. All in all, there were 5 turnovers by the offense.
Also, Joe Jurevicius who either drops balls or has them bouncing off him in too many games now for it to be a fluke. In this game he dropped three balls, one of them for an INT.
Also, Kerry Collins who is so eager to play that he can't control his gameplay and misses snaps.

On Defense, the whole lot of them for not coming up with even one sack.
Also, Percy Ellsworth who made some good plays early on including an interception, but then blew it bigtime in the fourth quarter.
After the Giants stopped Redskins on 3rd down, Ellsworth was hit with a foolish personal foul that continued the Redskins drive at a time when the Giants desperately needed the ball back.
It would have been Giants ball with about 3 minutes left trailing by 7 points.
And last but not least, Jim Fassel for turning this Giants team with talented young players into a .500 team in an extremely weak division.
One credit also has to go back to the defense, because if you take away the turnovers and mistakes made by the offense, they allowed only 16 points."

Notes

Passing
Giants -
Kerry Collins 13-21 for 221 yards, 1 INT, 0 TD
Kent Graham 3-10 for 36 yards, 2 INT, 0 TD.
Redskins - Brad Johnson 17-29 for 158 yards, 1 INT, 0 TD.

Rushing
Giants - Tiki Barber 10-44, Charles Way 8-26, Leshon Johnson 2-5, Kerry Collins 4-minus 3.
Redskins - Stephen Davis 33-183, Skip Hicks 5-14, Brad Johnson 3-8.

Receiving
Giants - Ike Hilliard 4-101, Tiki Barber 4-46, David Patten 3-51, Pete Mitchell 3-30, Amani Toomer 1-18, Joe Jurevicius 1-11.
Redskins - Larry Centers 6-69, Irving Fryar 3-10, Stephen Davis 3-5, James Jenkins 1-30, James Thrash 1-25, Albert Connell 1-16, Brian Mitchell 1-2, Michael Westbrook 1-1.

Fumbles lost
Giants - Kerry Collins 2.
Redskins - Brad Johnson 1.

Missed field goals
Redskins - Brett Conway 38, 50.

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