Oct 11 They may not have the cute nicknames or feature the creative sack dances of their beefy brethren up front. They may not receive as much face time as them, either (although that's a good thing, because that means they aren't getting toasted by the opposition). But peering deeper into the Giants' 4-0 start brings a revelation about the secondary: Deemed by some as the team's shakiest area in the preseason, the defensive backfield is playing extremely well and is instrumental in the Giants being third in the NFL in total defense, yielding 236 yards per game.
Corey Webster heads into Monday night's game in Cleveland arguably playing as well as any cornerback in the NFL. "He's always had the skills," said defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo. "The difference is he's playing right now with great confidence." Webster defended seven passes and was in on 14 tackles, including a sack, in the first four games. He and fellow corner Aaron Ross, augmented at times by nickel back Kevin Dockery, have provided excellent coverage as the Giants' secondary continues to come together as a group.

Antonio Pierce's status has been in doubt since Wednesday, when he was unable to practice due to his quad injury, which he suffered while running during the Giants' 44-6 win over Seattle last Sunday. Pierce was replaced by Blackburn in the fourth quarter, although few noticed because Tom Coughlin pulled a few starters with the Giants up big at the time.
As the middle linebacker, he's the quarterback of the defense: He directs the 10 other defenders on the field and makes sure everyone is in the right position. Without him on the practice field, backup Chase Blackburn has filled in at middle linebacker and the safeties have also helped keep the defense in order. But Pierce has tried to be involved as much as possible by watching intently from the sideline with defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo and taking part in the team's walk-throughs.

Antonio Pierce is bound and determined to play, and is convinced there won't be any problem finishing the game. It's unclear how the injury occurred. "A lot of times what hurts you is running," he said. "We play a game where you've got to run a lot, so I got nicked up. It's football. If I didn't get nicked up ya'll would probably question what was I doing out there for 60 minutes? Things happen." Tackle Kareem McKenzie (concussion) returned to practice on a limited basis and is expected to play against the Browns unless there's a setback.
Figure Pierce and McKenzie will start, but if one or both can't finish, a national television audience will get to see Kevin Boothe at right tackle or Chase Blackburn at middle linebacker. The Giants have shown themselves to be incredibly deep at several positions but linebacker and offensive tackle aren't thought to be two of them. Boothe is an anomaly in that he's the only current NFL player from Cornell. He survived one year in Oakland, starting 14 games as a rookie at right guard before the Raiders let him go. He spent last season on the Giants' bench.
Kevin Boothe said he "had some moments" in his first career regular-season action at tackle last Sunday against the Seahawks. Some "moments?" Does he mean his 10-yard holding penalty and his sack allowed, which also resulted in a forced fumble he recovered to somewhat redeem himself? "Some interesting moments," Boothe said with a laugh. Okay, so the converted guard's first game wasn't perfect. But it wasn't a terrible performance in relief of Kareem McKenzie, who had left the game with a concussion in the second quarter.

Oct 10 A few Cleveland Browns decided to share their personal scouting report on Brandon Jacobs this week. And the less-than-flattering analysis is one the Giants and Jacobs will be reciting all the way up to their Monday night game in Cleveland. Defensive end Corey Williams said he plans to take Jacobs' "head off" and that if a defense hits Jacobs hard enough, the 6-4, 264-pound back becomes a big "tip-toeing" softie who isn't even the one Giant running back defenses need to worry about.
"We'll see," Jacobs responded. "No question I have been hit in the mouth and I've never just stopped. But that's his plan and that's what they're going to do. Hey, we have our plan and we're going to do what we do." If anything, the bulletin board material provided by Williams and several other Browns drew nothing more than smiles from the Giants on Thursday. Imagine someone calling a team that leads the NFL in rushing at 181.3 yards per game a finesse bunch?
Even if Jacobs' blood is boiling over Williams' comments, he's keeping it under the surface. A boisterous personality in the locker room his first two seasons in the league, Jacobs has learned to tone down the trash talk recently -- though he laid the sarcasm on thick yesterday.

Rich Seubert walked to his locker yesterday, and before he could be asked a question, he turned to the group of reporters following him. "I don't care what he said," the Giants guard said. He may not care, but he and the rest of the Giants certainly were aware of the comments that have been flowing out of Cleveland in recent days. Regardless of whether they are pinned to an actual bulletin board, e-mailed between the players or projected on the big screen at the front of team and position meetings (as one Giant admitted such comments sometimes are), those words get around. So when the Giants met with the media yesterday after practice, they already were well versed in the statements.
Jacobs' offensive line made sure the fourth-year running back knew about the comments yesterday and after initially saying he didn't pay much attention to the words, he admitted he liked hearing them. "I really enjoy that, more than anything," Jacobs said. "Because that let's me know that they are thinking and some of them are shaking. It gives me a little joy."
Cleveland happens to be ranked 22nd in the league against the run. That's actually quite an improvement over the previous three seasons. Williams and Shaun Rogers came in and have plugged some of the holes up front. Jacobs seems to come up in every discussion about the Giants, who are off to a 4-0 start.

While the Giants pass rush has undoubtedly been the backbone of the defense for many years one facet of the defense that always seemed to be riddled with questions was the secondary. That doesn't appear to be the case any longer. It's hard to envision that a secondary which ranks second against the pass can fly under the radar. The defense backfield has only allowed 154 yards per game through the air which is the NFL's second best total; trailing only the Ravens total of 128.5 yards.

Lawrence Tynes and John Carney both remain on the roster, and Tom Coughlin said this week will be similar to last week as he waits until game day to decide who will be activated Monday night. Carney, a 44-year-old replacement, has converted all 12 of his field-goal attempts and all of his PATs. But his kickoffs have been short, with only three of the nine reaching the 10-yard line against Seattle, which Coughlin said is a concern.

Replacing Plaxico Burress in the Giants lineup this past weekend looked rather easy for Domenik Hixon. Getting to that point was just a matter of hard work and getting inspiration from former Buffalo Bill Kevin Everett. The lives of Hixon and Everett came together about 13 months ago when Everett made a special teams tackle on Hixon in a game between the Bills and Hixon's Denver Broncos. It was one of the hardest hits Hixon ever took, but it also left Everett partially paralyzed from the neck down with a life-threatening spinal cord injury.

Oct 9 The Browns, who have an upcoming Monday night game against the unbeaten Giants (4-0), are in a New York state of mind this week. They see the defending Super Bowl champions as role models. The Browns (1-3) believe they can rebound from a disastrous start, renew confidence in their shaken quarterback, take the heat off their embattled coach, turn their season around with a long winning streak and hoist the Vince Lombardi Trophy. Why not? The Giants did it. "It inspires the entire league," Browns linebacker D'Qwell Jackson said. "Everyone talks about it. The way they started and the way they finished gives everybody hope."

By almost any statistical evaluation, the Giants New York Giants rate as the best team in the National Football League. Tucked snugly into their 4-0 record is numerical domination that can't be denied. Coming off a Super Bowl triumph, the Giants are proving that they were neither flukes nor fortunate. Many precincts are reporting in and are heaping praise on the Giants. The other day, former NFL coach Steve Mariucci said the Giants are the elite team in the league. "The Giants are dominating like the New England Patriots did last year," Mariucci said on the NFL Network. Power rankings are cropping up, and the Giants, after a steady rise, top many of the lists.

After Sunday's eye-opening 44-6 win over the Seahawks, folks around the country suddenly had their eyes opened to what the Giants have been doing since, oh, last Dec. 29. They've won eight straight games (including Super Bowl XLII), have turned the ball over twice in that span, and are among the league's top defenses. "We just laugh at it," linebacker Antonio Pierce said of all the power ratings and national media outlets who have placed the Giants atop their lists of 32. In the Giants' locker room, there's a lot to laugh about. The team isn't only 4-0, it's the NFL's most dominant team right now.

As the Giants pass the quarter pole of the season with a 4-0 record -- albeit a perfect mark against two winless teams, a banged-up bunch of Seahawks and a Redskins team in its first game with a new coach -- it's clear they're not playing like content, spoiled champs. They said they wouldn't during the offseason program. They said it again during minicamp. They said it during training camp. Heck, they even said it as they were picking up their rings in Manhattan in late May. That's right: no hangover. And a start that's about as perfect as they could have imagined.

Things are going well for the Giants, so well that the defending Super Bowl champions suddenly find themselves atop the various "power" ratings sprinkled through the media. They are 4-0 and coming off one of their most lopsided wins in recent history. About the only bump along the way has been the Plaxico Burress suspension, something middle linebacker Antonio Pierce says has not and vows will not affect this team.
Plaxico Burress is back and his teammates are happy to have him. And if you think his two-week suspension and unrepentant press conference were a distraction to the Giants' juggernaut ...well, think again. "We have put this behind us," Eli Manning said on a conference call Wednesday afternoon. "We put it behind us last week. We weren't going to make this an issue." Of course, the stories about Burress and his situation probably haven't ended. They only way the Giants can truly put it all behind them is with a win against the Browns on Monday night. A big game by Burress wouldn't hurt either.
Bill Cowher coached Plaxico Burress for five years in Pittsburgh, and he has mostly fond memories of their time together. "Oh yeah, I had a real good relationship with Plax," he said. "He has a way of viewing circumstances at times and certain situations that make you kind of raise your eyebrows. Plax is Plax. But when it comes down to it he's a guy that loves the game and he's a guy that his teammates respected because he's a worker and you know what you're going to get on Sundays - as long as you can form some lines of communication with him before that. There's just some issues you have to kind of work through."

You can be sure heading into Monday night's game in Cleveland that Brandon Jacobs and the Giants offensive line will take notice of comments made by Browns defensive end Corey Williams. Williams said toughness had nothing to do with Jacobs' big-play ability. "It's a zone-blocking scheme that lets him run and pick a hole," he said. "There ain't nothing physical about them." Williams, acquired from the Packers for a second-round draft pick, said Jacobs tired in last year's NFC Championship. "We were hitting [Jacobs], and he was slowing down," Williams said. "He left the game. They let the Bradshaw kid come in. He's really the one who killed us."

Oct 8 The classic Burress screw-up is one of omission, not commission. He gets in trouble for what he doesn't do, who he doesn't call, what taxes he doesn't pay, what car registration he forgets to renew. He is consistently non-confrontational and frequently oblivious to the hubbub he has caused. His hero should be Mad Magazine's Alfred E. Newman because Burress lives by the famous credo: What, Me Worry?
That was one enlightening conference-call performance Monday by Plaxico Burress. The Giants' supremely talented wide receiver clearly has too many personal issues for couch-potato psychoanalysts to address properly in a single newspaper column. We can't resist giving it a shot, though. Burress pinned the blame for his one-game suspension on good parenting.

Tom Coughlin and general manager Jerry Reese's hard-line stance on Burress robbed the Giants of arguably their best player for Sunday's game against Seattle. The other players could've also taken it as an uncomfortable precedent of Giants management reaching after a player's entire game check to make a disciplinary point. And yet, it was still Coughlin whom the players sided with rather than Burress, even if he was one of their Super Bowl heroes.
The Giants shouldn't feel bad. They weren't alone in having a hard time getting in touch with Plaxico Burress. He also has dodged calls from Khoury Alternative Claims Management, a San Antonio-based third-party administrator trying to catch up with the Giants receiver about some damage he did to a rental car. Repeated attempts by Khoury to contact Burress were unsuccessful and representatives from Khoury finally called the Giants, getting hold of Charles Way, the team's director of player development. "He said he'd try his best to speak to Plaxico and get it paid," Harris said. "When we called him back he said, 'Man, I'm trying.' "

This was last Nov. 25, 11 months ago for the Giants and just 14 games. The Giants lost at home to the Vikings, 41-17. Eli Manning threw four interceptions that day and had three of them returned for touchdowns, which wasn't a world's record but seemed that way at the time. And before the week was over you started to hear all over town and all over Jersey that it was official now, that Manning might be a nice enough player in Jacksonville or Atlanta, just anywhere except Giants Stadium. The people who wanted to run him out of here, the way people wanted to run Phil Simms out of here before he won the big game, look as bad as Eli did last November against the Vikings.
The time has come for the Giants to lock up Eli Manning for life. Not like an O.J. Simpson lockup, but one that will assure he will not take a snap for another NFL team before he retires. And if one rumor is true, that may be happening very soon, at least before the end of the season. The rumor is the Giants and Manning's people are working on an extension that would make the quarterback a millionaire more than 100 times over, and basically cover the rest of his football career.

For the third time in his career, QB Eli Manning has gone three straight games without throwing an interception. His streak of pass attempts without being picked off stands at 105 -- 19 short of his career-best 124, which stretched from midway through the opener until the fifth game in 2005. Manning gets most of the credit, but the offensive line and receivers are a big factor as well. Manning was pressured only six times on Sunday while his targets had no trouble getting open.
It's getting so you can't spell "elite" without Eli. The Giants quarterback is finally finding his place among the NFL's top passers, making a strong case for his first Pro Bowl invitation, and, oh, by the way, leading the team to its first 4-0 start in nearly two decades. There are others in the league who have slightly better stats, some who have been better for longer, but a compelling case can be made right now that Manning is the best quarterback in the NFL.
In the battle for supremacy in the First Family of the NFL, young Eli has - at least temporarily - overtaken his older brother as the best Manning in football. Four games into the season, Eli leads Peyton in every significant, quarterback-measuring category. And one quarter of the way through his fifth NFL season, the kid once dubbed Eli the Terrible is suddenly rated the fifth-best quarterback in the league. .

His defeated football team kneeling around him, the head coach stood in the middle of a semicircle of muddied jerseys and grass-stained egos. He pulled off his cap and rubbed his bald head, searching for the right words, a message that would stick better than the missed tackles that had driven him crazy for the past hour. He quickly and sternly silenced a groundswell of grumbling about the officiating, then started his speech."Hey, is anybody listening to me?" Uh, no, actually. Nineteen players were looking in about a dozen directions.

Oct 7 Special Report - It took a while -- by head coach Tom Coughlin's reckoning, about six questions -- but he finally felt he had to mention something during his Monday press conference. "I don't know what you guys are doing and where you are going," he said. "This issue [the Plaxico Burress situation], well, so far there have been five or six questions and they have all been on this. Not one question about yesterday's game. This is an issue we have talked about for two weeks, or [rather] that we haven't talked about for two weeks. He is back. He was told to be back this morning, that he would report for work today. He did. He exercised with his teammates and he ran and he did the things he was supposed to do."

Plaxico Burress maintained he missed the meeting because he "ran into some family issues, as far as taking my son to school and things like that." (His son, Elijah, is 1 year old, so by "school" he likely meant day care.) Burress, who concurred with his agent Drew Rosenhaus' assessment the situation was an "emergency," declined to provide specifics on why things were so urgent that morning and said there's "nothing to tell" about a recent report of two domestic disturbances involving him and his wife."
All Plaxico Burress wanted to do was explain himself, but with every word, every sentence, he clued the outside world into what the Giants have been dealing with the past four years with their responsibility-challenged star receiver. It was vintage Burress during a 17-minute conference call that was equal parts entertaining and bizarre. The day after a Sept. 21 overtime victory over the Bengals, Burress never made it to Giants Stadium and never called in to explain his absence.

Burress said he failed to contact the Giants the day after a 26-23 overtime win over the Bengals because he had an emergency that required him to take his 21-month-year-old son, Elijah, to school. He refused yesterday to shed any light on the nature of that emergency. Nor is there any clearer understanding of what transpired on two occasions when police responded to domestic dispute calls that came from Burress' palatial Totowa abode, according to published reports.
Burress also said that the trip to school was an emergency, as far as he was concerned. He later hinted that there was likely more to his "confusing" story, but said, "My job is not to explain to (the media) what goes on or what happens. "My job is and my responsibility is to take care of my family first," said Burress, 31. "Just like Coach said, I was suspended because I needed to be more responsible. I was being responsible. Just not towards them. I put my child first."

You wanted to hear just a little bit of remorse yesterday from Plaxico Burress when he reported to work. You wanted to hear him say what happened that forced the Giants to suspend him for two weeks and fine him would never happen again. "I didn't lose any sleep over it," Burress said. "Things like that happen." - "I don't have any regrets about the decision I made," Burress said. "I took it with a grain of salt and kept on moving," Burress said. "Football is the best temporary job I'm gonna have in my life. My family's gonna be there forever. I feel I made the right decision," Burress said.
The Giants also have been his enablers. He had three years to go on his contract, and they gave him a new one for five years with $11 million guaranteed this year. Why should he follow the rules? He plays hurt, he plays great. He's not getting arrested and he's not testing positive for drugs. Not a bad investment, right? He's just in his own little Plaxico world on issues like showing up on time and then acting indignant having to explain what he did to get himself suspended.

Plaxico Burress just sent his value plummeting at Wall Street speed, and now the clock officially starts tick, tick, ticking on his Giants career. Only 15 minutes into his five-year contract, Burress spent Monday ensuring he will be traded, his guarantee as rock solid as the Super Bowl prediction he made eight months back. Will he be gone next year? The year after? The year after that? Only this much is certain: Burress will be dealt before he sees the end of that fresh $35 million deal, the proposition a matter of when, not if. What a crying shame, too, as Burress could've cornered a piece of a market once owned by fellow promise keepers Joe Namath and Mark Messier. Fans around here forever lionize the stars brash enough to guarantee big-game victories and bold enough to see them through.
Plaxico Burress said he and Tom Coughlin are "hit-and-miss sometimes" when it comes to being on the same page. The two talked Monday morning, but Burress said Coughlin did most of the talking. He said this latest fine, negotiated down from two game checks to one, is one of many. "I've been fined quite a bit," he admitted. "Some of the demands they ask me to do I just don't meet. Maybe I have a problem with time or something, I don't know. I haven't been able to quite put my finger on it. Does it really bother or affect me? No. When it's times to step on the field and play, that's what I do. I don't do things the right way as far as getting there on time or treatments, so to speak. But I deal with it, get over it and concentrate on my job."

Eli Manning and Kerry Collins forever were linked after April 2004, when the Giants traded for the former, then released the latter. Now look: They are the quarterbacks of the only two undefeated teams in the NFL. The fact that both were and apparently still are capable players made that franchise-altering decision a tricky one at the time. But just how tricky?
The recently released, "Eli Manning, The Making of a Quarterback," by Ralph Vacchiano, reveals that the late co-owner Wellington Mara favored keeping Collins and not making the trade. It is one of several revelations in the book, including that in that '04 draft, the Giants chose Philip Rivers on the Chargers' behalf, which technically is against NFL rules. (Is it too late for the league to make them give Eli back?)"

Impressive? Yes. Perfect? Hardly. That was the take of Tom Coughlin as he reviewed Sunday's 44-6 clobbering of the Seahawks. One area that might need ironing - for the first time this year - is the kicking game. John Carney made good on his three field-goal attempts and is 12-for-12 this season, but his kickoffs routinely came up short and he put one of them out of bounds, setting up a Seattle field goal late in the first half. Carney is playing in place of injured kicker Lawrence Tynes (knee), who has been practicing fully with the team. "It is a concern, there's no doubt," Coughlin said. "The ball out of bounds was not a good sign. We'll just continue to evaluate that on a weekly basis.

Michael Strahan was honest enough to preface his Sunday postgame remarks, saying: "I feel like I don't know what I'm talking about... Every week I'm picking somebody new. Washington was dead in the water. Now they look great," Strahan said. "The Giants are undefeated. The Cowboys lose one game and I'm jumping off their bandwagon. The Eagles look like they are done right now. You just don't know ..."

Oct 6 Giants clobber Seattle 44-6     |    GAME PHOTOS     |      GAME PHOTOS

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On The Game: Game 4 Recap Gamegirl... ".. That was an awesome first half, and you know what? That was an awesome second half too. I don't know where to start. Last year the Giants were exciting to watch on the road, and were not too good at home. This season they seem to be determined to make it up to the paying fans, and they're really delivering....." Mikefan.... "..The Giants have moved the ball well on offense so far this season. They just haven't come away with as many points as you'd like to see for their efforts. The Rams were the exception, and Seattle did well against that team as well. Today the Giants made almost every drive count all the way up to the scoreboard......"

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ESPN - Manning, Jacobs help Giants stay perfect in 2008.
Giants.com - Giants defeat Seahawks, 44-6.
StarLedger - Giants off to 4-0 start.
StarLedger - Burress sits and Giants don't miss him in victory over Seattle.
StarLedger - Eli Manning is at his best at the end of the game.
NYDailyNews - Eli Manning, Giants stay perfect with 44-6 rout over Seahawks.
NYDailyNews - Brandon Jacobos has field day vs. Seahawks.
NYDailyNews - Julius Jones pays for running mouth as Giants roll Seahawks.
Newsday - Eli nearly perfect in Giants 44-6 win.
Newsday - Giants show Plaxico they can dominate without him.
NYPost - Even shorthanded, Champs cruise to 4-0.
NYPost - No Plax lets backups shine.
NYPost - Reason for Giant leap is Eli-Mentary.
NYPost - Hixon, McKenzie hit hard.
TheRecord - Giants offense sends message to Burress: team first.
TheRecord - Giants roll over Seahawks.
SeattlePI.com - Giants' rout of Seahawks began early.

Game 4 Preview - Giants (3-0) vs Seattle (1-2)
Both these teams are coming off bye weeks. In their last games, the Giants kept it exciting, coming up with a 26-23 overtime win against the Cincinnati Bengals at home in Giants Stadium. The Seahawks were also playing at home in a less than thrilling 37-13 victory over a winless St. Louis Rams team. Matt Hasselbeck was without some of his favorite targets on the field, so they became a running team gaining 245 yards on the ground with 3 rushing touchdowns. The Giants are the last undefeated team in the NFC at 3-0 The Bills and Titans are 4-0.
What - Me worry? So the Giants start off at 3-0 this season and have done it without having a Michael Strahan (retired), a Jeremy Shockey (traded), or an Osi Umenyiora (Injured Reserve). And to keep things interesting for you fans they decided to introduce a degree of difficulty. For this game they took Plaxico Burress off the table. Seattle doesn't have to game plan for the Giants best receiver. We guess there's just no sense walking a tightrope when you can really excite the crowd by doing it blindfolded.

Oct 5 Think of two of the most deflating Giants losses this side of Trey Junkin and you'll likely come up with the one at Seattle and ... the other one at Seattle. The last two times the Giants have trekked across the country to face the Seahawks, they've returned miserable on a six-hour flight. In 2005, on their way to an NFC East title, they lost in overtime, 23-20, after Jay Feely missed three field goals and the Giants were hit with 11 false-start penalties. The next year, amid speculation that the Seahawks were pumping in artificial crowd noise, they returned to Seattle and had four first-half turnovers as the Seahawks opened a 42-3 lead in a 42-30 win. That was the game that even mild-mannered Jeremy Shockey couldn't let pass without comment, saying the team was "outplayed and outcoached."
Feely is gone, Shockey is gone, and the Seahawks faithful are thousands of miles away in the Pacific Northwest. "We owe this team," defensive end Justin Tuck said. "Maybe we will show them a little bit about what the Big Apple is about," added linebacker Antonio Pierce, who is hoping for plenty of crowd noise filling the ears of Seahawks quarterback Matt Hasselbeck. "Our fans and our crowd have been good the last two games, hopefully they will remember what happened to us in '05 and '06 with their crowd and make it even worse for them."
"It will be nice to play the Seattle Seahawks at home rather than have to get on a plane and fly forever," said center Shaun O'Hara, who particularly recalls the 11 false starts (four by then left tackle Luke Petitgout) prompted by the noisy crowd in 2005. "Hopefully our fans can return the favor this time." On the flip side, the Seahawks can't be all that happy shifting three time zones to the east. They are just 1-5 in their past six ventures into this zone, including a 34-10 loss in Buffalo on opening day. "You are getting up at a different hour, you are playing the game at a different hour," said Seattle quarterback Matt Hasselbeck. "So yeah, I'm sure there is something to it, but we will try not to worry about that."

There's been kind of a running gag all week in the Giants' locker room: Eli Manning drops back and throws it to whom? The prime suspects are all pleading ignorance. Plaxico Burress is serving a one-game suspension for violating team rules and will not be in uniform today for the Giants, who might be looking in the direction of Amani Toomer, Steve Smith, Dominik Hixon, Sinorice Moss or Mario Manningham. It's up in the air. Kevin Boss could also figure into the equation along with Ahmad Bradshaw and Derrick Ward, so the Seattle Seahawks will have to keep the radar up and running.
No player in Giants history has more receptions, receiving yards, touchdown catches or 100-yard receiving games than Amani Toomer, which probably is the reason he bristles when it's suggested the Giants today are without their No. 1 receiver when they face the Seahawks at Giants Stadium. Plaxico Burress was given a one-game suspension for violating team rules, but Toomer, as he has been for the better part of the past 13 years, will be on the field. "I don't really know about the number system you have," an unsmiling Toomer said. "I kind of think if we're both out there, we're both out there."
The Post's Steve Serby sat down with Giants wide receiver Domenik Hixon, who will start today in place of Plaxico Burress, and asked for his reaction when he found out Plaxico was suspended for today's game. Hixon, "I was just hoping that everything was all right with him. I think people, they forget that outside of football you do have a life, things can happen." Was he excited for this opportunity? "I'm excited for whatever opportunity comes my way - might be one play a game, or 10 a game. I just try to go out and do my best."

Nobody disputes Plaxico Burress' talent but when it comes to team rules, he may be the most undisciplined player on the team, which is why none of his teammates have protested coach Tom Coughlin's suspension of the team's top receiver. The suspension will cost Burress $117,000 in salary. "This wasn't the first time he broke the rules," one of his teammates said this week. "We all knew something had to be done." According to another member of the organization, Burress has been fined for breaking rules "dozens of times" during his three-plus years with the Giants.
Plaxico Burress gives it to the Giants both ways: as a prime-time player on Sundays and a big-time migraine almost every other day of the week. He's a rebel without a cause, someone who hasn't seen a rule he can't break or a coach he can't drive nuts. His teammates like him, mainly because he makes plays and also because he's funny and engaging and not exactly a threat to society. At the same time, they wouldn't trust him to do anything for them except catch a football. As a Giant, in no particular order, he has shown up late, chosen not to attend voluntary spring sessions, griped about his contract, pouted when he didn't get the ball, been accused (rightly) of taking plays off ... and those are just the things we know about.

You don't get to hold the Lombardi Trophy over your head in October, and no one knows that better than the Giants, who weren't the best team in football until January and February, when it counts. And yet, today at home against the Seahawks, they have a chance to continue to walk a walk most experts doubted they could. As the best team in football. The 4-0 Titans are in that conversation for sure, as are the 4-0 Bills, and we will hear from the 3-1 Cowboys again. But there's one thing Justin Tuck likes best about the 3-0 Giants so far. "I like the fact of how mad we were after a win," Tuck said.

NFL Game of the Week: Super Bowl XLII - 18 minute video.
THE PLAY lives on, sprinkling its magic over the weeks and months.

Oct 5 Think of two of the most deflating Giants losses this side of Trey Junkin and you'll likely come up with the one at Seattle and ... the other one at Seattle. The last two times the Giants have trekked across the country to face the Seahawks, they've returned miserable on a six-hour flight. In 2005, on their way to an NFC East title, they lost in overtime, 23-20, after Jay Feely missed three field goals and the Giants were hit with 11 false-start penalties. The next year, amid speculation that the Seahawks were pumping in artificial crowd noise, they returned to Seattle and had four first-half turnovers as the Seahawks opened a 42-3 lead in a 42-30 win. That was the game that even mild-mannered Jeremy Shockey couldn't let pass without comment, saying the team was "outplayed and outcoached."
Feely is gone, Shockey is gone, and the Seahawks faithful are thousands of miles away in the Pacific Northwest. "We owe this team," defensive end Justin Tuck said. "Maybe we will show them a little bit about what the Big Apple is about," added linebacker Antonio Pierce, who is hoping for plenty of crowd noise filling the ears of Seahawks quarterback Matt Hasselbeck. "Our fans and our crowd have been good the last two games, hopefully they will remember what happened to us in '05 and '06 with their crowd and make it even worse for them."
"It will be nice to play the Seattle Seahawks at home rather than have to get on a plane and fly forever," said center Shaun O’Hara, who particularly recalls the 11 false starts (four by then left tackle Luke Petitgout) prompted by the noisy crowd in 2005. "Hopefully our fans can return the favor this time." On the flip side, the Seahawks can’t be all that happy shifting three time zones to the east. They are just 1-5 in their past six ventures into this zone, including a 34-10 loss in Buffalo on opening day. "You are getting up at a different hour, you are playing the game at a different hour," said Seattle quarterback Matt Hasselbeck. "So yeah, I’m sure there is something to it, but we will try not to worry about that."

There's been kind of a running gag all week in the Giants' locker room: Eli Manning drops back and throws it to whom? The prime suspects are all pleading ignorance. Plaxico Burress is serving a one-game suspension for violating team rules and will not be in uniform today for the Giants, who might be looking in the direction of Amani Toomer, Steve Smith, Dominik Hixon, Sinorice Moss or Mario Manningham. It's up in the air. Kevin Boss could also figure into the equation along with Ahmad Bradshaw and Derrick Ward, so the Seattle Seahawks will have to keep the radar up and running.
No player in Giants history has more receptions, receiving yards, touchdown catches or 100-yard receiving games than Amani Toomer, which probably is the reason he bristles when it's suggested the Giants today are without their No. 1 receiver when they face the Seahawks at Giants Stadium. Plaxico Burress was given a one-game suspension for violating team rules, but Toomer, as he has been for the better part of the past 13 years, will be on the field. "I don't really know about the number system you have," an unsmiling Toomer said. "I kind of think if we're both out there, we're both out there."
The Post's Steve Serby sat down with Giants wide receiver Domenik Hixon, who will start today in place of Plaxico Burress, and asked for his reaction when he found out Plaxico was suspended for today's game. Hixon, "I was just hoping that everything was all right with him. I think people, they forget that outside of football you do have a life, things can happen." Was he excited for this opportunity? "I'm excited for whatever opportunity comes my way - might be one play a game, or 10 a game. I just try to go out and do my best."

Nobody disputes Plaxico Burress' talent but when it comes to team rules, he may be the most undisciplined player on the team, which is why none of his teammates have protested coach Tom Coughlin's suspension of the team's top receiver. The suspension will cost Burress $117,000 in salary. "This wasn't the first time he broke the rules," one of his teammates said this week. "We all knew something had to be done." According to another member of the organization, Burress has been fined for breaking rules "dozens of times" during his three-plus years with the Giants.
Plaxico Burress gives it to the Giants both ways: as a prime-time player on Sundays and a big-time migraine almost every other day of the week. He's a rebel without a cause, someone who hasn't seen a rule he can't break or a coach he can't drive nuts. His teammates like him, mainly because he makes plays and also because he's funny and engaging and not exactly a threat to society. At the same time, they wouldn't trust him to do anything for them except catch a football. As a Giant, in no particular order, he has shown up late, chosen not to attend voluntary spring sessions, griped about his contract, pouted when he didn't get the ball, been accused (rightly) of taking plays off ... and those are just the things we know about.

You don't get to hold the Lombardi Trophy over your head in October, and no one knows that better than the Giants, who weren't the best team in football until January and February, when it counts. And yet, today at home against the Seahawks, they have a chance to continue to walk a walk most experts doubted they could. As the best team in football. The 4-0 Titans are in that conversation for sure, as are the 4-0 Bills, and we will hear from the 3-1 Cowboys again. But there's one thing Justin Tuck likes best about the 3-0 Giants so far. "I like the fact of how mad we were after a win," Tuck said.

Oct 4 Since Juliu Jones arrived in Seattle in March -- a free-agent signing to help replace Shaun Alexander -- he has rushed for more yards per game (104) than any running back in the NFL, save Atlanta's Michael Turner (105.5) and Minnesota's Adrian Peterson (105). Jones is averaging a strong 5.1 yards per carry, and his 312 rushing yards over three games are already more than half of the 588 yards he had in 16 games last year with the Cowboys. So while the Giants' defense did glance back at some of his clips from Dallas, it focused mainly on what he has done so far with the Seahawks.

Sunday will mark the first time this season that Hasselbeck will have both of his starting receivers - Bobby Engram and Deion Branch - on the field. The two veterans have not played this season while rehabbing a shoulder and knee injury, respectively. While they watched film from the Seahawks' first three games this season to see some of the offensive formations and routes used, Giants cornerbacks know it will be much different Sunday. Watching guys such as Billy McMullen, Michael Bumpus and Logan Payne run those routes just isn't the same as seeing Engram or Branch execute the same patterns.

This week the Giants have to do something they've done only once since 2004: play a game without Plaxico Burress. Since arriving in 2005 Burress has only missed one game, a November 5th game against the Texans in 2006 when he was plagued by back spasms (a game the Giants won, 14-10). In the 56 Giants regular season and postseason games he has played in, the Giants are 35-21, a .625 winning percentage. Pretty darn good.
The 3-0 Giants will be missing 488 career catches because leading receiver Plaxico Burress is serving a suspension for violating team rules. Seattle, meanwhile, welcomes back 913 receptions with the return of starters Deion Branch and Bobby Engram, who missed the first three games with injuries. The Seahawks won just the last of those games.

That is the elusive goal for Mathias Kiwanuka, who feels he just has been able to do that once in three games this season. Kiwanuka said he liked the way he performed in the opener against the Redskins, but on the very last snap, Washington left tackle Chris Samuels jumped on his left ankle and just like that, no more playing free for Kiwanuka. "I just feel like I'm capable of much more," Kiwanuka said of his past two games. "First of all, if you're a defensive end, you come out of the game without a sack you shouldn't be jumping up and down. As far as making plays, I don't think I made enough."
Mathias Kiwanuka is feeling about as close to 100 percent as he has since the Redskins game, and he's eager for Sunday's tilt with the Seahawks. Kiwanuka didn't do much Week 2 against the Rams, recording zero tackles after making six solo tackles and contributing a sack in the opener. But he came back with two solo tackles and a sack in the Giants' Sept. 21 win over the Bengals, although he wasn't quite back to looking like his normal self. While still feeling the effects, Kiwanuka just wasn't able to turn the corner and get much of a speed rush going. It's one of his best attributes.

Two kickers are ready to go for tomorrow's game against the Seahawks, but coach Tom Coughlin said yesterday he'll dress only one for the game. That means either Lawrence Tynes or John Carney gets the call and the other gets to sit. "We're both ready," Carney said. "We'll see what happens." Tynes, out since training camp with a sprained left knee, has been able to kick all week, but his knee is not fully healed, as he's experienced some swelling after his workouts. "But I didn't have any pain associated with it, so that's good," Tynes said. "I feel like I can play. I feel I can give 100 percent. I don't have any limitations. I'm sick of watching."
Coughlin said he will not dress both kickers and perhaps allow Tynes to kick off and Carney to boot field goals against the Seahawks. However, he can continue to keep both on the roster as long as his team remains healthy. Renting a locker while a team waits for its incumbent kicker to get healthy isn't something new for Carney. He was in the same situation last year when he filled in for the injured Josh Scobee in Jacksonville. He kicked in eight games for the Jaguars before Scobee returned. A week later he was released and signed with Kansas City for the final five games.

Oct 3 Any Giants player studying tape of the Seahawks must dig out clips of last season to truly see what will be out on the field Sunday at Giants Stadium. That feeble-looking Seattle passing attack figures to look a whole lot different with the return of Deion Branch and Bobby Engram, starting receivers who have not played a single down in the first three games and used their bye week to finally get healthy enough to make their debuts against the Giants.

The Giants have perfected the art of multiple attacks on the quarterback, a formula that teams around the league have attempted to imitate since the Giants' pounded New England's Tom Brady into Super Bowl submission. With Seattle coming to town Sunday behind a massive offensive line that is paving the way for a whopping 166.3 rushing yards a game, the Giants' defensive line is on notice.

Coach Tom Coughlin is known for presenting his team with telling statistics, and here's one it has been chewing on this week: Six out of the nine scoring drives the defense has allowed this season, or 66.7 percent, have been helped by penalties called on the Giants. That accounts for 30 of the 43 points the defense has given up.
Barry Cofield said. "We noticed a lot of the scoring drives for opponents have included a penalty on our behalf, so that's something we're going to focus on. And we're going to try to mix up our looks. We don't want guys to get a read on us. We feel like Cincy might have had some sort of a read on us, so that's something we're going to tighten up." Otherwise, the defense has been performing well. The Giants are giving up 14.3 points a game, which ranks second in the league. They have 13 sacks already, despite not having Michael Strahan or Osi Umenyiora up front.

Domenik Hixon was part of the team's Super Bowl run, and is now prepared for his most significant opportunity yet: starting in place of the suspended receiver Plaxico Burress on Sunday against Seattle. Injuries kept Burress inactive for most of training camp, allowing Hixon an opportunity to show his stuff. In an Aug.18 preseason game against Cleveland, he caught four passes for 63 yards and scored two touchdowns. The following week against the Jets, Hixon hauled in three passes for 51 yards. Coughlin and the coaching staff took notice, and felt comfortable asking Hixon to fill in for Burress this week. "We thought Domenik had a very good spring, and he carried it over into the summer," Coughlin said.

They've become somewhat forgotten, receivers who go deep only on the depth chart. Mario Manningham missed almost all of training camp with a quadriceps injury and has not dressed for an NFL game. Sinorice Moss, his future with the franchise in doubt from the moment the Giants drafted Manningham in April, has been in uniform for the first three games of the season. But in the last two, he has not stepped onto the field. Each said that with the suspension of Plaxico Burress for Sunday's game against the Seahawks, his fortune is about to change.
Rookie wide receiver Mario Manningham tried to be considerate Thursday, covering his mouth with his hand and shirt when he talked to teammates. Still, the Giants were not exactly welcoming. "Get away from me - you're contagious," was Manningham's summary of the team's attitude toward him. Manningham, hospitalized Wednesday with flu-like symptoms, was back on the field and practiced fully.

Plaxico Burress will sit out Sunday's game against the Seahawks after failing to show up for work on Sept.22, one day after the overtime victory against the Bengals. He didn't call or respond to the Giants reaching out to him. One television report over the weekend said Burress has been fined 40-50 times since he joined the Giants in 2005 and nobody within the organization has denied it. It's been mostly for being late. Burress' no-show is not part of of an epidemic of irresponsibility within the team. This is all about him.
Having players on board when a key decision is made by a coach and an organization is critical for team harmony. When it comes to the suspension of Plaxico Burress for violating team rules, one of the most forceful voices on the Giants is giving his support. "I can't speak for Plaxico, but as a team it's indicative of our coaches trying to make a statement as far as every guy on this football team is equal and I think [Tom Coughlin] got his point across," defensive end Justin Tuck said. "I hope he got his point across."

Lawrence Tynes participated fully in yesterday's practice, but his return from a lingering knee injury may be slowed by what happens to him after practice. The Giants kicker, sidelined since the middle of August, said the knee still is giving him trouble. "The important thing is for me to be healthy and get back to 100 percent, which I am not at," he said. "I keep thinking I am, but after each workout, I keep having swelling in my knee. I am going to go in and treat it because it is swelling right now. It's just a matter of time before I get it under control."

Justin Tuck and Mathias Kiwanuka, the new starting ends, are getting their share of attention this season. But much of the acclaim for the line's fine play in the Giants' 3-0 start has been directed at the tackles - with good reason. Starters Fred Robbins and Barry Cofield and top reserve Jay Alford have all played extremely well and are big reasons - literally and figuratively - why the Giants are fourth in the NFL in yards allowed (252.3 a game) and tied for second in scoring defense (14.3 points per game).

Bryan Kehl commenting on the bye week. "Despite the bye coming early it did allow us to rest our bodies and most importantly self-scout. What I mean by that is the fact that we had the opportunity to study film on ourselves and see what we were doing wrong and what we could improve on. We haven't even really got into the heart of the season yet so the bye didn't necessarily give us a chance to 'get away' from football. However, as I previously stated it gave us more time to sit and study our own pros and cons. In the end it's about us and not the other team. It's about how we play and if we are on top of our game we feel we can do what makes us so successful."

Oct 2 After three weeks of playing without two of their top receivers and relying on a running game instead of the pass-first offense Mike Holmgren usually uses, the Seahawks who play the Giants Sunday probably won't look like they did at the start of the season. Deion Branch and Bobby Engram are expected to be available, meaning a likely shift back to what people have come to expect from Seattle. For the Giants, that spin in personality could present a problem. They have to go back to last year for video of Branch and Engram running routes. Usually when preparing for an opponent there are reels of tape to go over from the past few games. This time, the Giants have to dip into the archives.
Now Holmgren can get back to more of the precise, short-passing game he prefers instead of relying upon Julius Jones, who has responded with his first back-to-back 100-yard rushing games since October 2006 when he was with Dallas. And with Engram, Hasselbeck again has his security blanket on third downs. He knows when the Giants bring their blitzes, the slot receiver he implicitly trusts will be where he needs to be. Hasselbeck is so close to Engram, the two coordinated their families' summer vacations so they could throw to each other at a resort area in Central Washington. "Bobby just brings an experience and a calmness to our offense," Hasselbeck said.

Seattle has done well against the run this season, allowing just 88 rushing yards per game -- ninth-best in the league -- while facing Buffalo's Marshawn Lynch, San Francisco's Frank Gore and St. Louis' Steven Jackson. But Jacobs can be intimidating to a team that hasn't had to deal with his 6-4, 264-pound frame before. "It is a challenge for our (defense)," Seattle coach Mike Holmgren said. "There are not many backs his size that can do what he does." Plus, on top of his size, the Seahawks defense is also wary of the juking ability Jacobs has started to display this season, LB Lofa Tatupu said in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer this week.
Seattle's run defense is top 10 in the NFL, because they play a host of eight-man fronts, but their pass defense is 25th, and the Giants receivers are confident that even without Burress they can take advantage of the Seahawks' blitzes. "They stack the line, force people to pass. That should give us an opportunity to go out and throw some passes and make some big plays," said Moss, who had one catch in the opener and hasn't played since. "They have some great ends and linebackers. They're a great defensive squad. (But) they blitz a lot and they'll give us an opportunity on the outside, some one-on-one coverages."

Antonio Pierce said Plaxico Burress has taken the suspension hard. "What's most disappointing to him is not being able to play in the game and not be around the guys," Pierce said. "This is what he lives for. He wants to play football. It's not like we play 162 games. He's frustrated, and it's a frustrating time for all of us." Pierce recalled the only other time Burress was disciplined by having playing time reduced. It was Burress' third game with the Giants in 2005, and Tom Coughlin benched him for the first quarter against the Chargers because of a series of late arrivals to team meetings. "Coach suspended him for the first quarter, and he made all those catches," said Pierce, referring to Burress' five-reception, 52-yard, one-TD effort.

For all but one game since 2005, Eli Manning has had a talented, 6-foot-5 crutch to lean on in crucial situations. This Sunday against the Seattle Seahawks, he's going to have to lean on somebody else. But Manning isn't worried about running the Giants' offense without Plaxico Burress, while his No. 1 receiver serves his one-game suspension. He said he's "got great faith" in Amani Toomer, Steve Smith and Burress' replacement, Domenik Hixon. And he's confident they'll be able to do the job. "That is our strong point this season," Manning said. "We have a lot of different weapons at the receiver position. Obviously we don't have Plaxico out there and he is a tremendous threat. But our other guys have been making plays all year and will step up and make some plays this week."
The Giants intend to prove this week that their strength at wide receiver is indeed in the numbers. No, not the number of catches, yards or touchdowns they compile. The Giants are looking to the many quality players they can put on the field at that position at any time. That will be particularly significant on Sunday, when they 3-0 Giants will host the 1-2 Seattle Seahawks. The Giants will play without their leading receiver, Plaxico Burress, who will miss the game while serving a suspension for violating team rules.

Danny Ware apologized Wednesday for the "bad press" the Giants got from his arrest early Sunday morning. But he wasn't ready to admit that he had done anything wrong. In fact, Ware, the Giants' fifth running back, pointed to some vastly differing accounts of his arrest for "pedestrian under the influence" and "pedestrian in the roadway" in Athens, Ga. According to a report in the Athens Banner-Herald, he was found standing with a woman in the middle of the street while traffic swerved around him.

Oct 1 Were the Giants tipping their pitches against the Bengals? Some players think there might have been a few inadvertent tells that Carson Palmer and Co. were able to pick up on as the game progressed Sept. 21, a possible reason for the Giants posting six sacks in the first three quarters and none in the fourth quarter or overtime. Even if the Bengals didn't catch those subtle clues, however, the Giants did. As part of their self-evaluation during the bye week, defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo pointed out several plays where a player gave away his intention based on a stance or a position.

The entire season flashed before Mathias Kiwanuka's eyes when Redskins left tackle Chris Samuels rolled onto his left ankle on the final play of the season opener. And when Kiwanuka was a non-factor one week later in St. Louis, it looked like the injury would nag him all season long. But while the rest of the Giants lamented an early bye week that potentially robbed them of momentum, the 25-year-old Kiwanuka relished the time off. "Having the bye week, where it is isn't the most beneficial thing for the team in general," he said. "But for me it couldn't have come at a better time."

Some current Giants hadn't even started grade school when the NFL first inserted bye weeks into its schedule in 1990. So they really can't be blamed for the 4-15 record their team has posted in games after the bye week. However, that overall record includes a 1-3 mark the past four seasons under Tom Coughlin. Most of the current Giants have been involved in some if not all of those defeats. Yet there are a lot of shrugs when they are asked why this team has had such a tough time after its week off.

Teams need so many disparate individuals in order to achieve great success, and Sam Madison, in an understated way, is a hugely valuable presence. At 34 years old, Madison is ancient by cornerback standards, can't run like he used to and, for the first time since his 1997 rookie year with the Dolphins, is not a starting cornerback. No player gives more of himself to his teammates than Madison, a Pied Piper defensive back who has a handful of followers. Madison shepherds his flock in the secondary, making sure youngsters Corey Webster, Aaron Ross, Kevin Dockery and rookie Terrell Thomas realize he's been there, done that, and is willing to impart all that knowledge without hesitation.

Like the Energizer Bunny, Jeff Feagles keeps going and going and going. The most prolific punter in NFL history is in his 21st professional season. He has 323 consecutive regular season games, 1,596 punts, 66,254 yards and, after a two-decade wait, one Super Bowl ring to his credit. But for Jeff and his wife Michelle, the greatest joys from punting are yet to come. Not because Feagles, 42, plans to play until he's eligible for Social Security. Their oldest son, C.J., is an outstanding senior punter at Ridgewood (N.J.) High School who has received a full scholarship to the University of North Carolina.

Sept 30 As the Giants (3-0) were relaxing on their bye weekend, the Cowboys (3-1) were getting upset by the Redskins (3-1) and the Eagles (2-2) were losing to the Bears in Chicago. It's too early to begin taking stock of the division, but it figures to be a tight and combative race and any advantage gained at any time is worth noting. "Trust me, this division will probably change leads three or four times, like it does every year," Antonio Pierce Antonio Pierce said.
Next week, the Redskins and the Eagles play each other and sitting atop the NFC East, which has proved to be the best division in the league so far this season, is no small feat. The four teams have combined for an 11-4 record -- more wins than any other division, with three of the losses coming against each other. And they all rank among the top 10 teams in the league offensively, and among the top 14 teams in the league on defense. Of course, this is only Week 5, too early to make conclusions.
The Giants do not resume their NFC East schedule until Nov. 2, when they play host to Dallas. Five of their final nine games are against divisional foes, and three of those will be on the road. So any cushion they can build in their non-division games will be important down the stretch. The Seahawks represent the third of six consecutive non-NFC East opponents on the schedule, and provide a chance for the Giants to improve on their horrid 4-15 post-bye record (1-3 under Tom Coughlin).

Many of the Giants players and coaches spent their day off watching football. Coach Tom Coughlin said he saw most of Washington's 26-24 victory over Dallas. Eli Manning was surfing from one game to another on the NFL Sunday Ticket. What stood out to them is how formidable so many teams are now or can potentially become. The weekend game watching confirmed for the Giants what they already strongly believed - the NFC East is the NFL's strongest division.

More than Michael Strahan or Osi Umenyiora, there's been a glaring absence when it comes to the Giants' defense this season: turnovers. The Giants may be 3-0, but they have only one takeaway in those three games. The Lions are the only other team with one, and they are 0-3. When they returned to practice yesterday, what was the first drill the defense performed? One in which the second player in on a tackle attacks the ball and not the ballcarrier. "We have practiced some form of taking the ball away every day," Tom Coughlin said. "And I really do believe that if we can get started in that vein, I think it will be more of a factor for us."

Plaxico Burress apparently has settled his dispute with the Giants, but he still could be facing punishment from the NFL. Burress, who is currently serving a two-week team suspension for not showing up for work on Sept.22 and not returning the Giants' calls, may have violated the NFL's Personal Conduct Policy when he was involved in two domestic disputes that involved the police this summer. He also may have violated the policy by not reporting either incident to the league.
But, Richard Berthelstein, the interim executive director of the NFLPA, said he did not think Burress will face any additional penalties. "There's no basis for that, that I'm aware of," said Berthelstein, who was at Giants Stadium to conduct union business and the election of a new player representative.

NFL News
Bruce Springsteen to play Super Bowl halftime. Another Super Bowl, another rock 'n' roll superstar at halftime. Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band will perform at this year's Super Bowl halftime show in Tampa, Fla., the NFL and NBC announced Sunday night. More Bruce Springsteen.

Former Giants
The crowd outside at 50th St. and Fifth Ave. was certainly fitting Monday afternoon. For inside, in a packed St. Patrick's Cathedral, a final farewell Mass to Dick Lynch, the broadcaster and famous former New York Giant, was being said.

Sept 29 As much as the Giants would have preferred a later bye week to get some rest before the stretch run, this weekend's break was well-timed at least for the defense. When the Bengals picked up several blitzes late in the Giants' overtime victory a week ago yesterday, the defense looked ordinary -- and exploitable -- for the first time in a long while. So last week provided time for coordinator Steve Spagnuolo and the players to do some self-scouting in the hope of remaining one of the most harassing defenses in the league, starting next weekend against the Seahawks.

NFC East News
The Philadelphia Eagles stumbled, bumbled and fumbled around Soldier Field Sunday night, and eventually ran into a wall-like Chicago Bears defense inches from what would have been a go-ahead touchdown. Chicago defensive end Alex Brown stopped Correll Buckhalter on fourth-and-goal from inside the 1 with 3:40 remaining, enabling the Bears to hang on for a 24-20 victory.
The Eagles (2-2) fell to last in the NFC East. They also became the first division team to lose a non-division game. This loss won't soon be forgotten as the Birds next entertain the Washington Redskins (3-1), who beat the Dallas Cowboys Sunday.
The Washington Redskins stunned the Dallas Cowboys, 26-24, in a clash between NFC East rivals. "It's no secret, when I get the ball (the offense starts to move)," Terrell Owens said. "If not you see a stagnate in the offense."
Tony Romo stood on the sideline with his arms folded and a disgusted look on his face. Terrell Owens knelt on one knee, his eyes shooting skyward with a hopeless expression. The Cowboys suddenly, despite all their Super Bowl expectations, aren't even the top team in the NFC East. And the Redskins with rookie head coach Jim Zorn seem determined to make it a four-team division race.

Former Giants
Matt Bryant wiped the tears flowing from his eyes and flicked them upward, signaling toward heaven. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers kicker had just nailed the decisive field goal as his team went on to defeat the Green Bay Packers 30-21 this afternoon, just four days following the death of his infant son Tryson and one day after his funeral in Bridge City, Texas.
Going into the game, Bryant was one of the game's most accurate kickers. He'd not missed a field or or PAT in five and eight tries, respectively. He remained perfect Sunday, hitting three PATs and field goals of 23, 36 and the game-winner from 24 yards during a 31-20 victory.

Sept 28 Tom Coughlin, who never supplies the enemy with bulletin board material, took a well-deserved shot at Cowboys owner Jerry Jones right after the Giants shocked Dallas in the playoffs on Jan. 13 at Texas Stadium. The only thing that would have made it better was if Jones was in the Giants locker room to hear it. It will only add to what is developing as one of the most anticipated regular-season games in the long Giants-Cowboys feud when they meet at Giants Stadium on Nov. 2.

Justin Tuck is an optimist. He thinks distractions such as the Plaxico Burress suspension can be good for a team. He even thinks having the bye week so early in the season can be a real positive for the Giants. "A lot of people are wondering what happened to the Giants' defense after last week," said the defensive end. "So that's why this bye comes at a good time." What happened to the defense was a yield of 347 net yards to the Cincinnati Bengals in the 26-23 Giants' overtime win.
The Bengals seemed to do a pretty good job of picking up the Giants blitzes, is that a real concern for Steve Spagnuolo? "It was during the game. I tell you what; I thought Carson Palmer did a great job. He really orchestrated that game pretty well. He was in the hard count, trying to get our guys to jump off sides a little bit, he checked things at the line, he saw certain looks, and I have to give him a tremendous amount of credit for what he did. Having said that I do think there were a couple of mistakes we made, myself and players included, that I think would have made the game a little bit different. I give a lot of credit to Cincinnati, their coaches and their quarterback especially."

After making the difficult decision to suspend Plaxico Burress for two weeks and one game for violating team rules, there was no way the Giants were going to cave in and allow Burress to suit up for their Oct. 5 game against the Seahawks. Burress will sit, but he likely will recoup some of the money the Giants wanted to dock from his paycheck.

Maybe you've heard the NFC East is pretty good. It's the only division with two undefeated teams. It's the only division where every team has a winning record. Through three weeks, the combined record of the Cowboys, New York Giants, Philadelphia and Washington is 10-2. Which division is second best? The NFC South and AFC East have combined 7-5 records.

Sept 27 Suspended Giants receiver Plaxico Burress reportedly will lose only one week's salary, not two. Burress, suspended one game and fined two weeks pay by the Giants on Wednesday for violating team rules, was close to a deal last night that would cut his fine by half, according to ESPN.com. Burress was set to lose $235,294, but now that figure should be $117,647 instead. Burress, the report says, will accept the one-game suspension. He'll miss the Giants-Seahawks game at the Meadowlands next Sunday. The team has a bye this week.

Antonio Pierce on the Plaxico Burress situation. - Do you think it was a fair or excessive decision?
" I don't make that call. I make some good money, but I don't make that kind of money. That is the General Manager and Head Coach's job. Those guys combined have a lot more money and power to say things and do things than I do.
- But you are a leader in this locker room?
" I am, but when it goes upstairs... they kicked me out three years ago when my recruiting process didn't go as well as it did the first year. I don't really go upstairs any more. I stay down here in the dungeon."
- The leadership council didn't have any input in this; don't they usually have some give and take?
" No. I don't even know if that has ever been defined of what the leadership council is. It is just a group of guys that meet. It is kind of like that secret society group."
- Could this rally the team and turn a negative into a positive?
" Like I said, the only negative is we are just missing one of our star players. What is going to happen with him and the front office and what is happening is between those two. Like I told the guys in our locker room, it is not our business to speak on that topic at all. Honestly, we weren't involved in the decision, we weren't involved in what was going on, we were told what happened just like everybody else was told, and we move forward. That is all we can do. Do we wish that the guy was here? Hell yeah, without a doubt, but he is not, so you have to go on. Steve Smith, (Domenik) Hixon, let's go."

Kevin Gilbride on the Plaxico Burress situation - There have been a few distractions with the Shockey situation and now this. For you it is just like another day in the office.
"I don't know how to respond to that one. But it is like anything that can happen during the season. Whether it is an injury, disruptions of any sort, you just have to be able to move ahead and stay focused on the theme - the upcoming opponent and the guys that are going to have a chance to play, some of whom you haven't had to maybe utilize quite as extensively. We are going to have to utilize them now."

Sept 26 The Giants have begun to cope with the Plaxico Burress suspension -- each in his own way. Tom Coughlin is done talking about it. "I have no comments on that at all," the coach said Thursday. "I said all I was going to say about it (on Wednesday), thank you very much." Justin Tuck is either in denial or he's a visionary. "You know what? Sometimes distractions are a good thing," the defensive end said. "In this situation, we're just going to rally behind it and play football."
But defensive end Justin Tuck Justin Tuck admitted the seriousness of the situation. "Obviously, with Plaxico being down this week, I guarantee you Seattle just took a sigh of relief," Tuck said of Burress' punishment for violating team rules that was levied on Wednesday. "Because they don't have to face him." Nevertheless, Tuck isn't panicking. "We've got a lot of weapons on offense," he said.

Domenik Hixon is likely to step into the starting lineup against the Seattle Seahawks, who pay an Oct. 5 visit. Steve Smith and Sinorice Moss could also see more chances. Mario Manningham is just hoping to suit up and run a couple of routes to show teammates and coaches what he's learned in practice. Manningham was sidetracked by a nagging leg injury early in training camp and has been looking to catch a break ever since.
Other than the season opener against the Redskins, receiver Sinorice Moss' time on the field this year has been limited to pregame warm-ups. And rookie receiver Mario Manningham has yet to be included on the active roster for a regular-season game. But with Plaxico Burress' suspension keeping him out of next week's game against the Seahawks, the two speedy receivers are suddenly on the offense's radar.

The Giants are preparing to play without Plaxico Burress next Sunday against the Seahawks, but there is a chance the wide receiver might be back on the field by then, because the NFL Players Association still has not decided what it is going to do, according to a spokesman. Linebacker Antonio Pierce seemed to believe that Burress was holding out hope that he would return in time to face Seattle. "He is excited to get back, ready to get back, and hopefully he will be back sooner than later," Pierce said.
Burress' agent, Drew Rosenhaus, said on Wednesday that he planned to file a non-injury grievance with the NFL Players Association, and appeal the decision to an arbitrator. According to an NFLPA spokesman, the union was "in discussions with the Management Council regarding the (Burress) issue." Those talks are expected to conclude today, and there's a possibility the two sides could reach a settlement of some kind. If the talks aren't productive, or if Burress and Rosenhaus insist on trying to get the suspension overturned, an arbitration hearing could be scheduled for early next week. Rosenhaus explained on Wednesday that Burress felt "it was an emergency" as to why he was out of touch.

In last week's 26-23 overtime victory over Cincinnati, John Carney converted both PATs and all four field-goal attempts, including the game-winning 22-yarder in the extra session. The overtime winner marked the 15th game-winning field goal of Carney's career, his third in overtime. Carney connected on field goals of 24, 46, 26 and 22 yards as he helped the Giants get to 3-0 on the season and earned recognition as the NFC Special Teams Player of the Week. The award was the 13th -- yes, 13th - in his remarkable 21-year career. He is tied for fourth all-time in total Player of the Week Awards with Pro Football Hall of Fame quarterback Joe Montana and wide receiver Jerry Rice.

Dick Lynch 1936-2008 - By Dave Klein.
It was in July of 1961, and I remember a Brenda Lee song playing on the radio of my 1959 Plymouth Fury. I was a kid from Newark and I had never been to Connecticut before, yet there I was, motoring up the Merritt Parkway to Fairfield, where I was going to make my first appearance at a Giants' summer training camp site, as the new beat writer for that now-troubled newspaper..
It was on the campus of Fairfield University and, frankly, I was nervous. No, make that VERY nervous. I had played a little football in college, I knew about most of the players, I knew they had a new head coach and I knew they were favored to win something in that 1961 season.
Well, I finally found the campus, once I passed Black Horse Turnpike, and I found the building that was serving as the team's dorm, cafeteria and media work room. It was mid-afternoon and there weren't many people around, so as I wandered through the building I came across a man wearing Bermuda shorts, a T-shirt and flip-flops. "Hi," I said, "I'm Dave Klein. From the Star-Ledger." He stared at me, holding an envelope. "Hey, you got a stamp?" he asked. That was my introduction to Dick Lynch.

Lynch helped put it in perspective - By Phil Mushnick
Dick Lynch, who died Wednesday, made for one of the most unforgettable moments in my newspaper career, which next month turns 35. It's a bit of a long story, so please, if you can, indulge this....

Sept 25 At the end of the day, the Giants New York Giants suspended star receiver Plaxico Burress Plaxico Burress for a simple reason: "We try to do this the right way," coach Tom Coughlin said yesterday. Burress will lose two weeks' worth of pay off his $2 million salary, which comes out to $235,294.
This is about accountability, which Burress apparently feels he is above. It's about responsibility to the team, even if the Giants only had team meetings and lifted weights on Monday. Really, it's just about picking up the phone and calling the boss to say you can't make it.
Coughlin has been criticized - often unfairly - for an unyielding approach to team rules, but he had no choice but to come down hard on Burress after he ignored the most basic rule of all: showing up for work. Don't think that this is an isolated incident for Burress, because he's been in hot water for violating the rules in the past.
The question now is, "Does the punishment fit the crime?" Plaxico Burress should be disciplined, concedes his agent, Drew Rosenhaus. But the penalty, Rosenhaus insists, should not be the two-week suspension the Giants slapped on their star receiver Wednesday morning, a suspension that will keep him out of the Oct. 5 game against Seattle.

Plaxico Burress, who has run afoul of team rules several times, was summoned to meet with Coughlin and GM Jerry Reese Wednesday morning, when he was told he was going to be banned from team activities until Oct. 6 - one day after the Giants' next game against the Seattle Seahawks. "I think he was very surprised and very, very disappointed," Rosenhaus said. "He certainly did not anticipate that his conduct would lead to him being suspended."
Plaxico Burress has his new contract, because he earned it, toughing it out on one leg the way he did a year ago and catching the winning touchdown pass in the Super Bowl. He has the franchise quarterback he never had in Pittsburgh. He is Eli Manning's Terrell Owens. He is one of the five key players - Manning, Justin Tuck, Antonio Pierce and David Diehl are the others - on a team intent on defending its Super Bowl championship. And he pulls this? Now?

By the time Giants quarterback Eli Manning spoke to reporters after Wednesday's late-morning practice, the team had already begun making adjustments to replace leading receiver Plaxico Burress, who was suspended for two weeks by the Giants.
Receivers coach Mike Sullivan yesterday described Domenik Hixon as "a coach's dream." It won't be a dream, but a reality when Hixon gets his first career start Oct. 5 against the Seahawks. Hixon, who is in his third NFL season, will replace the suspended Plaxico Burress Plaxico Burress . Steve Smith Steve Smith is technically the Giants No. 3 receiver but he lines up mostly in the slot, while Hixon is taller, plays the "X' spot that Burress occupies and runs more of the routes that Burress does .

Totowa police responded to two domestic disturbance calls at Giants receiver Plaxico Burress's home the past few months, borough police Chief Robert Coyle confirmed. In both instances, Burress's wife, Tiffany, had phoned the police, reports show. Temporary restraining orders were obtained in each but were later dismissed in state court. It could not be determined whether the incidents had anything to do with Burress's suspension by the Giants for the team's Oct. 5 game against the Seattle Seahawks.

Dick Lynch, broadcaster and former football Giant great, answered God's calling and went through heaven's gate at 1 a.m. Wednesday after a long battle with cancer. Lynch, 72, went peacefully in his bed at his Douglaston, N.Y., home with his entire family at his side, his son John said. Kneeling in prayer at his bedside were his wife, Roz, his four daughters - Nancy, Jennifer, Rosalie and Cynthia - and John. "An hour before he was sitting up talking to all of us," said John. "He was telling us how very tired he was as he went to his bed.
The thing about Dick Lynch, the old Giants defensive back and radio voice who died Wednesday at age 72, was that he never wanted to be anyone else. He was old school the way it ought to be. He knew who he was and what he was, and it was exactly who and what he wanted to be.
The essence of Dick Lynch, his former radio partner said Wednesday, was his ability to "bring Giants fans into the booth and into his family, and to make Giants fans feel like family." That homey charm endeared him not only to Bob Papa, who went from a young listener to a partner and friend, but also to countless others who watched him play and heard him talk.
Tom Coughlin was still in high school the first time he met "old No. 22" at a banquet in Seneca Falls, N.Y. It was a meeting he called "truly a highlight for me." So it affected Coughlin deeply, just like it did many members of the Giants organization, when the news broke that Dick Lynch, the former Giants defensive back and longtime broadcaster, was dead at 72 after a long illness.
After starring for the Giants during the glory days of the franchise, the former cornerback moved up to the radio booth where he filled the airwaves with local charm. Lynch was never able to disguise his emotions during a broadcast. Lynch had not called a game since the Super Bowl XLII victory. "We just found out about it," Shaun O'Hara said. "And certainly, he bled Giants blue. He's always been a fixture here on Sundays. It's certainly a sad day for Giants fans, but also for the organization. Our hearts go out to his family for their loss." Funeral services will be Monday at St. Patrick's Cathedral.

Sept 24 UPDATE: Plaxico Burress was suspended two weeks for insubordination and will miss the Oct. 5 game against the Seahawks. Burress failed to show up for work on Monday and did not respond to several phone calls by the Giants to explain his unexcused absence both Monday and Tuesday, FOXSports.com has learned. Burress' agent, Drew Rosenhaus, claimed the nine-year veteran did not attend Monday's workout because of a family emergency that has now been resolved. The suspension took effect immediately, meaning Burress - who will appeal the ban to the NFL Players' Association - will not be allowed to return to team activities until the day after the Seahawks game. He will miss two paychecks, totaling $235,294.12 of his $2 million annual base salary.
Rosenhaus said that Burress spoke with Giants special assistant Charles Way on Monday evening, but he added there was "miscommunication" between the player and the team. Giants coach Tom Coughlin said the Super Bowl champions were making a loud and clear statement about being responsible. "We have had success here because of the team concept," Coughlin said after practice Wednesday. "And the team concept means basically that everyone is accountable and responsible and that we don't let the other guys down. And that is what we are trying to do." Coughlin insisted that the suspension will not be a distraction.

Sept 24 The Giants used the no-huddle offense to take the lead late in the fourth quarter. When the Bengals tied the game to send it to overtime, the Giants could have gone back to varying formations and personnel to confuse Cincinnati's defense. Instead, they stuck with the shotgun formation and either three or four receivers for 10 of their 12 offensive snaps in overtime. It was a wise decision because, if they had gone back to switching personnel from play to play, perhaps the sluggish offense they displayed for three quarters would have returned.

Replacing Michael Strahan and Osi Umenyiora wasn't supposed to look this easy. Despite losing 183 career sacks - and a combined 22 from last season - the Giants haven't missed a beat. In fact, based on the numbers from the first three games, the pass rush might even be better.One year ago, with Strahan and Umenyiora, the Giants had four sacks through their first three games. This year, they've totaled 13.

The defending Super Bowl champions are undefeated, on a roll and possibly the third-best team in their own division. So it goes in the NFC East, the gritty neighborhood the Giants reside, home of the unquestioned best division in the NFL and it's not even close. Their 3-0 record looks wonderful, but it might be essential, as opposed to advisable, to be no worse than 6-1 before a Nov. 2 clash with the Cowboys, a game that starts the engine for what should be a thrill ride to the finish.
The Giants are 3-0, but they are tied with Dallas atop the division. Washington and Philadelphia are just one game behind. The combined record of the four teams is 10-2, and the defeats have come within the division: the Giants over the Redskins, the Cowboys over the Eagles. It is the only one of the eight divisions with all four teams better than .500, and one of three that does not house a winless team. The division’s combined score in the eight wins over non-division foes is 228-112.

The Giants have done such a good job taking care of the ball they have not coughed it up in back-to-back games for the first time in almost six years (they went three consecutive games without a turnover from Dec. 1-15, 2002). But one ingredient that Coughlin considers important and discusses constantly is missing - takeaways. The Giants have just one, Justin Tuck's interception of a Marc Bulger pass and 41-yard return for a touchdown last week in St. Louis. Takeaways, turnovers and the net differential they produce have always been Coughlin obsessions. But his teams haven't produced in that area as they once did.

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