The difference 2 minutes makes.
Last week it got down to this. The Giants were ahead, and with 2 minutes left, Matt Allen punted the ball to the Rams for no return. The Rams took over at their own 20 yard line. They had been down by 17 points, but kept chipping away, until the lead had slipped down to 5 points, a mere Kurt Warner come from behind TD away.
The Giants had done a good job throughout this game just as they had the one before against San Francisco,up until the last 2 minutes. Now here they were again. One mistake and they lose this game as well and go 0-2. As it turned out, it was Kurt Warner and the Rams making the big mistake, and the Giants won it.

The results.
You couldn't get away from the accolades the Giants got over this next week, and the Rams are has-beens, and doomed to miss the playoffs having started their season off at 0-2. As a bonus, for beating the Rams, the press is giving the Giants automatic wins over the rest of the games up to the bye week, putting them at 5-1.
It was as if the Giants had won an election here instead of a football game. They're suddenly in some kind of football position of power, but guess what? Unlike an election, there is no relaxing knowing that the next 4 years are yours, or for that matter for the Giants, that the next 4 games are yours.

Let's pretend.
Pretend for a moment that it was the Giants making the mistake again instead of Kurt Warner. These aren't things we like to pretend about, but just force yourself. The Giants lose the game, have an 0-2 record,and be the only team in the NFC East not to have won one. Looking not much better than the teams coming up, people would be shrugging their heads, putting the Giants at 2-4 (if they were lucky) at the bye week with a tough Philadelphia team coming up the week after.
What a difference 2 minutes makes in a football game. Well, you can snap your fingers and guess what? You team is the darling of the media right now, and you're not even pretending. Let's hope it lasts for four more games.

Kerry Collins is hot
Kerry Collins was named the NFC Offensive Player of the Week. He leads the NFC with 649 yards passing. Collins has thrown for 10,341 yards with the Giants and needs 99 against Seattle to pass Y.A. Tittle (10,439) for 4th place in club history.
Kerry needs 151 yards to reach 20,000 career passing yards, and if he turns in a 300-yard performance against the Seahawks, he would join Steve Young and Kurt Warner as the only players in NFL history with 6 consecutive 300-yard games.
Despite all this good news about Kerry Collins, the Giants have been in the red zone 7 times and come away with only 25 points. That was on 6 field goals and 1 touchdown. The red zone, where the Giants' 14.3 percent touchdown rate ranks 31st in the NFL, is the big problem. One contributing factor is the short-yardage running attack, and that brings us to Ron Dayne.

Ron Dayne is not.
People are saying that if Ron Dayne just stood at the line of scrimmage and fell forward, he would surpass his 1.6 yards per carry that he's averaged this season. Last week Ron picked up only 18 yards on 11 carries. The week before he had 10 yards on 6 carries, for a total of only 28 yards in 17 carries.
The problem? We'll tell you right here. Ron Dayne says, "I've never really been this third-and-one, blow through the pile and get it kind of running back. I never had to do that in college [Wisconsin]. I do use power when I have to, but I'd rather run around you than run over you."

Guess what Ron?
The Giants selected you over Shaun Alexander, because they saw you as a power running back. They felt that Shaun Alexander was too similar in style to Tiki Barber (as if that's a real bad thing). In the pros Dayne, you are too slow to "run around" anyone. Look at some game film. See what the fans are seeing. Talk to the running backs coach (do the Giants really have one?). Talk to a psychiatrist. Whatever, just stop doing all the dancing,
The Giants need a power back, and even if you disagree with them, you don't have the talent to do anything else. They still think you can be the running back they were looking for, but If you keep dancing, you're going to dance yourself out of a job.

In Ron's defense.
The Giants offensive line is still new, and has not been overpowering opponents when Dayne comes in on obvious short down situations. Remember, Dayne averaged 3.6 yards last season with the old group. Dayne is also a team player and is trying. He decided on his own to lose weight after his first year to help improve his game. He has the right attitude.
As far as the Giants are concerned, he's making $528,000 this season and under contract through 2004 ($616,000 and $704,000). Because his salary-cap number hovers around $1.5 million each of those seasons, the Giants don't have the room to cut him this year and it doesn't make sense financially to do it next year either. Aside from that, they really believe in him.
"The worst thing you can do in this business is give up on talent," says Giants GM Ernie Accorsi, "And we're not giving up on him."

In the Seahawks defense.
Sorry, there is no defense against the run. The Seahawks run defense is ranked last in the NFL. They are allowing 235 rushing yards a game. Last year, Tiki Barber had 12 carries for 47 yards, and Ron Dayne had 7 for 42 yards. Fassel likes to talk about Dayne breaking a 31-yarder and he even scored,and that's all well and good, but you do the math. That doesn't say much about his other attempts, now does it?

Last year against Seattle.
Last year's game was a 27-24 come from behind thriller for the Giants.
It was actually only 5 games ago, and was the one where Kerry Collins started on his 5 game 300 yard-a-game streak.

Next Game
Sep 29, Giants at Arizona 4:00 PM.

Last Week's review, game 2 - Giants 26 - Rams 21

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