First games and a look ahead.
Opening season games are usually sprinkled with a combination of mistakes and lack of execution and then promises to do better next time out. This game is played on Thursday night, and win or lose both these teams get a big edge up for game 2 - an extended amount of time to prepare for their next week's opponents. The Giants travel to St Louis (3-13 last year) and the Redskins host a New Orleans team (7-9 last year) complete with newly acquired Jeremy Shockey. The Rams and Saints can take notes on this Giants-Redskins game, but they will be distracted and much more focused on their own opening games on Sunday. The Giants even get an extra bang as couch potatoes, watching the Rams play a division team, the Eagles.

Some Headline News.
It's been an interesting month or so building up to this football season. Thanks to John McCain's recent announcement of his running mate, Sarah Palin, and with the democratic nomination of Barack Obama, either a woman or a black man will be elected to the White House for the first time in history. In recent sports news, we had an exciting Olympics event at the same time that two participating countries were busy at war with each other, and who would have thought that the Yankees would be almost a baseball afterthought by Labor Day?

Mistakes.
"Make mistakes and you lose the game." Football head coaches scream it at the players all the time. But before a single one even sets foot on regular season turf to perhaps make those mistakes, it might be interesting to look over some that may have been made in the offseason by the people who run these teams. For an example of possibly the biggest one - After thinking things over a bit, Brett Favre said "Hey wait", about his retirement and wanted back in. Favre basically got the cold shoulder from management in spades, and it's going to be real interesting to see how their decision works out for both Green Bay and the Jets.

On the home front - Jeremy Shockey.
General Manager Jerry Reese seemed to make all the right calls last year, but was it a mistake to let Jeremy Shockey get loose for a few draft picks? Would this team be better or worse with Shockey on it? That's been the popular offseason argument. Remember, he was the blocking tight end on the team and his career average with the Giants was 11.4 yards a catch. Shockey likes to catch the ball. Would it have been such a bad idea to let him have some more chances at doing that? It's going to hurt watching highlight films of Jeremy Shockey tossing off defenders for big after-the-catch yardage for New Orleans.

On the home front - Contracts.
How about the Giants not coming to terms with some players on contract extensions? Sure, some that want them still have three years left on their old contracts - Antonio Pierce (29-year-old middle linebacker) - Plaxico Burress (31-year-old receiver with ankle problems), but how about Brandon Jacobs who's in the final year of his contract and was looking for an extension. Is the Giants PSL plan a mistake compared to the way the Jets are handling it, or just a total mistake no matter how you look at it? Well, let's not go there right now.

Let's turn to Washington.
Was it a mistake to flip off Jim Fassel at the last minute and go with Jim Zorn instead as the Joe Gibbs replacement? You make that call. The obvious mistake for Dan Snyder was not being able to find some sort of way to make Steve Spagnuolo happy enough to take that head coaching job. What kind of deal closer is Snyder anyway? Spagnuolo knows firsthand everything there is to know about the Eagles and the Giants, and a whole lot about the Cowboys. That's a nice bullet on a resume that could have tilted the scale for Washington in division wins this season. Wasn't that worth something? Before Spagnuolo, the Giants defense finished 25th in the overall rankings, and were 28th vs. the pass. Well good for the Giants that the Washington interview didn't work out.

Let's look elsewhere.
Why is it that nobody in the sports world is picking the Giants to repeat as Super Bowl winners or even looking for them to get back to the Super Bowl game? We'll look at that a bit, but you know, maybe not going with the Giants is the biggest mistake we'll see this football season.

Giants - Why Not.
The first two times they won the Super Bowl, after the 1986 and 1990 seasons, they failed to make the playoffs the following year. Michael Strahan (9 sacks last season) is retired. Safety Gibril Wilson and linebacker Kawika Mitchel and tight end Jeremy Shockey are gone. Osi Umenyiora who had 13 sacks, (ranked fifth in the league) is on the injured-reserve list and David Tryee is on the physically unable to perform (PUP) list, ineligible to play until after the sixth week of the season. The NFC East is tough with the Cowboys, the Eagles and Redskins taking up 6 games, and everyone will be gunning for them. The kicking game is already off to a shaky start with kicker Lawrence Tynes injury having the Giants scrambling for a first game replacement.

Giants - Why So.
Tom Coughlin has team unity going better than ever before. Steve Spagnuolo's effective defensive schemes are easier after playing through them for one season. Injuries last year had many rookies and backups on the field to pick up valuable game playing experience. The returning offensive line is strong and healthy, with only one starter missing a game all last year. After starting off with 2 losses and a defense that gave up 80 points last year they know they can put things right. Eli Manning has put it together. In the playoffs he threw six touchdowns to just one interception. They go into this season with a high confidence level they earned by finishing up with postseason wins over Tampa Bay, Dallas, Green Bay, and of course unbeaten New England.

Washington.
The Redskins always keep it interesting. Former head coaches include Marty Schottenheimer, Steve Spurrier, and last, Joe Gibbs (three Super Bowl titles). Former Giants head Coach Jim Fassel was being considered until it became known that Joe Gibbs might be coaxed back from retirement. Sorry Jim, Joe got the job. Their quarterback last year was the NFL Offensive Player of the Month in December, but he wasn't their starting quarterback. It was backup quarterback Todd Collins, who hadn't started a game in ten years. In that month they beat Chicago, the Giants, Minnesota, and Dallas and went on to play Seattle and lost that opening playoff game. That was it for Gibbs and he retired for a second time. In the offseason they picked up Pro Bowler Jason Taylor (Dancing With The Stars) from Miami. He has made 130 consecutive regular season starts, but he was injured in their third preseason game and had limited practice Tuesday, trying several knee braces.

Jim Zorn.
Zorn, a former quarterback, was the quarterbacks coach for Seattle, and was hired on as offensive coordinator by Dan Snyder with Jim Fassel's approval. You see, with Gibbs retiring, Fassel was back in for the spot and he had some say on things, but before Fassel could show up, Snyder promoted Zorn to head coach and Fassel was out again. Sorry Jim. So Zorn is the new kid on the block for the Redskins and he has some pretty big shoes to fill while bringing in a new West Coast offense to the Redskins. The final two preseason games did not go well (Carolina L 3-47, Jacksonville L 3-24) especially with quarterback Jason Campbell being sacked four times in 14 dropbacks in the Panthers game. It might take a while to work out the new offense. The Redskins defense remains basically the same.

The Big Play.
Eli Manning threw 529 passes in last year's regular season games. Only 13 of them gained more than 30 yards. He threw 119 passes in the postseason. Five of them gained more than 30 yards, On passing plays of 20 yards or more, the Giants ranked 25th in the league with just 36, while the Patriots led the league with 57, and the Cowboys were second with 56. The Giants realize that they need to improve in this area and worked on it in preseason. The problem is most of those passes last season were caught by Plaxico Burress, and so far he hasn't been healthy enough to practice very much, and now the season starts.

Eli Manning.
He started last season as young Eli and finished as the Eli Manning - 'The Man' - the Super Bowl MVP. Some people doubted his quiet leadership as being any leadership at all (Tiki Barber?), and in the end, they were silenced. Eli became just the second quarterback in history to win a Super Bowl with a touchdown drive in the final minute of the game. His postseason numbers were outstanding - 72 of 119 (60.5%) for 854 yards, six touchdowns against just one interception, giving him a passer rating of 123.2. Eli has to bring it from the start of this season.

Plaxico Burress.
He caught 70 passes for 1,025 yards (career-high 12 for touchdowns) during the 2007 season, and he did it without much practice. So the good news in the press is that he was finally able to practice a few days in a row this week leading up to game 1. Burress had said that he would not practice until his right ankle was 100-percent healthy. So I guess we can assume he's healed? Plaxico also said that he wonders how good he could possibly be if he gets and stays healthy in that ankle area for a full season. We (and his agent) can't wait to see that.

Antonio Pierce keeps a list of all the linebackers that were drafted instead of him in 2001.
Of the 25 that were taken, only five remain in the NFL.

Giants first-round pick Kenny Phillips (free safety) might start his own list. He saw every team in the league pass on him.
Giants had him rated as a top-15 player on their draft board, regardless of position.

Every offensive player who started in Super Bowl XLII will take the field as a starter on Thursday for the Giants.
Five players who started on defense in the Super Bowl will not be on the field for the season's opener.

Defensive end Jerome McDougle was cut by Philadelphia on Saturday and picked up by the Giants.

Lawrence Tynes is unable to kick because of the knee injury he suffered in Albany.
Giants secured John Carney to kick in the season opener vs. Washington and for as long as he is needed.

Jim Zorn is the sixth head coach under Dan Snyder, who bought the team in 1999.

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