Team Giants

Giants - Redskins Game 12 preview

Giants (10-1) vs Washington (7-4).
Last week the Redskins came away with a 20-17 win over the Seattle Seahawks. Running back Clinton Portis stole the show with 143 yards on 29 carries, and the defense pulled in two Matt Hasselbeck interceptions to break their 2 game losing streak. Playing at the same time, Eli Manning was hot in the desert, completing 26 of 33 passes for 240 yards and no interceptions as he led the Giants to a 37-29 win over the Arizona Cardinals.

Giants vs NFC East.
The Giants did great in their first shot at the other three teams in the division. Now it's time for round two and once again it starts with a game against the Redskins, this time in their stadium. In the season opener the Giants beat the Redskins 17-6 with Jim Zorn coaching in his first game, while learning the ropes with his new team of players. Zorn has the Redskins at 7-4. The Giants will host the sometimes confused (6-5-1) Philadelphia Eagles next week and then travel to a Tony Romo rejuvenated (8-4) Dallas.

Eli Manning.
The press seems to worry about everything, but maybe the fans shouldn't. With the running game being stressed over a string of games, recent stories went something like - "Can Manning pick up the pace when needed?" or "Eli Manning - mostly about ball-control". You were hoping that Eli's arm wouldn't fall off if pressed into real action, or expecting to see huge streaks of orange rust accompanying the ball as it flew downfield. Last week Manning compiled a quarterback rating of 127.3 as he won his 40th regular season game as the Giants’ starter, throwing to top receivers or backups. He is now 40-26.

Taking care.
Plaxico Burress took himself out of the game after three plays. He caught a six-yard pass on the first play from scrimmage, but on a deep route he realized he couldn't run at full speed and the defender was able to break up the pass play. Burress was trying to play with a strained right hamstring and decided to take himself out of the game. Brandon Jacobs had plenty of reason to play, the management knock on him being that he couldn't stay healthy enough to play all 16 games. Still he knew that with his knee bothering him, he wouldn't be able to give the Giants what they were expecting on the field. Both players were doing more than just taking care of themselves, they were taking care of their team.

Domenik Hixon - Very busy guy.
He had two huge kickoff returns for big yardage (83, 68) in the first half against the Cardinals, and three in all for 180 yards. Ahmad Bradshaw is the usual return man, but with Brandon Jacobs not playing, they needed him to fill in there. Bradshaw as a kickoff-return man is 36th in the league, averaging just 21 yards on 30 returns, and Tom Coughlin has felt, at least up until last week, that it was due to the blocking up front. Hixon, as the Giants' primary punt returner, had two returns for 21 yards. He was also filling in for Plaxico Burress, who sidelined himself after the first series because of his injury. Hixon wound up leading the Giants with 6 receptions and 57 yards, and he even had an end-around run for 11 yards.

The state of the Giants
They are 10-1 with a six-game winning streak. They're close to getting a first-round bye and at least one home game in the playoffs. They top the NFC East and have tiebreakers over the Redskins and Cowboys, and a two-game lead in the NFC on the Panthers and Buccaneers. The Giants are showing the nay-sayers that they can win against the tougher teams on the schedule. This season the Giants have scored 329 points while giving up only 199. The other handful of teams that have kept their opponents to such low scoring all rank first or second in their division. Those teams are: AFC - Pittsburgh Steelers 165, Baltimore Ravens 187. Tennessee Titans 175, NFC- Tampa Bay 180, Carolina Panthers 200, The one exception to all this is the Washington Redskins, who like the Giants, have also given up exactly the same amount of points, just 199. Read on.

The state of the Redskins
Their problem? Scoring points. Washington has scored only 201 points which is 128 less than the Giants, and a hundred or so less than Dallas (299) and Philly (319) who have played 1 additional game. They have only 20 touchdowns, and that's just one more than the Cleveland Browns (4-7), and the Redskins lead in that 'poor class of teams with minimal touchdowns'. The St. Louis Rams (1-9) have 13, Oakland Raiders (3-8) have 14, Cincinnati Bengals (1-9) have 15. Now, directly over the Redskins in scoring touchdowns, you'll actually find the winless Detroit Lions (0-12) with 22 and the Seattle Seahawks (2-10) with 23. You get the point. It's a tribute to the Redskins defense that the team actually has a 7-4 record. In their last three games, 2 losses and 1 win, they scored only 36 points or an average of 12 per game.

Redskins - Offense.
There are only three teams in the NFL that have not scored 30 points in a game - Cincinnati and Detroit with a combined 1-20-1 record, and you guessed it, the Washington Redskins. Sure they're coming off a 20-17 win with Jason Campbell throwing for 206 yards and 1 touchdown and Clinton Portis running for 143 yards, and the team gained 386 yards overall, but that was against a Seattle defense that was ranked 29th in the NFL. Also you have to think that Jim Zorn kinda knows a lot about how his former Seattle team operates. The Redskins season low of 209 yards came against the Giants the last time they played. The recent losses right before the Seattle game against Pittsburgh and Dallas saw them gaining just 221 and 228 yards, and scoring just 6 and then 10 points in those two games. They face the Giants with the league's fifth-ranked defense that also ranks fourth in the league in sacks per pass play. Zorn acknowledged that they didn't come through with points against two very difficult defenses "And yet [Sunday], we came back, so we have some resiliency. I'm kind of excited where we're going."

NFL MVP Shaun Alexander - Not needed?
What's up? Alexander was released by the Washington Redskins on Tuesday. He was signed Oct. 14 after backup Ladell Betts sprained his knee in a loss to the St. Louis Rams. Betts has since returned and he was in the game last week spelling Clinton Portis who was playing in spite of a sprained knee and being dinged a few times during the game. Betts fumbled the ball to the Seahawks with less than 2 minutes left and that's when Hasselbeck threw his final pass which was intercepted. With the Redskins, Alexander ran for only 24 yards on 11 carries, for a 2.2-yard average and didn't play at all against the Seahawks, in his former stadium. The Redskins had the ball at the Seahawks 1 yard line, and Alexander said he was supposed to come in, but there was a mix-up with personnel, and Betts took it in. "Or it would have been my touchdown run," he said. For the Seahawks, Alexander rushed for 9,429 yards and for the Redskins, 24 yards.

Sean Taylor.
This Sunday the Redskins will honor the late Sean Taylor with a pregame ceremony. The Giants Sinorice Moss was a teammate at Miami, "It's a good thing they're doing for him and his family. It's going to be an emotional day for both the Washington Redskins and some of the players on this team." Linebacker Antonio Pierce played one season with Taylor in Washington before signing with the Giants in 2005. Kenny Phillips, the Giants' first-round draft pick, was also a safety at Miami and took his number - 21 - when he arrived with the Giants. "Going to the University of Miami, all I did was watch him on film, and even in high school I had pictures of him taped in my locker," Phillips said.
Clinton Portis says he speaks with members of Taylor's family often and beyond the person himself, he really misses Sean Taylor, the menacing Pro Bowl safety. He firmly believes the Redskins would have been a bona fide Super Bowl contender coming out of training camp if Taylor were still here.

NFC East.
On Thanksgiving Day, the Cowboys defeated the Seattle Seahawks 34-9, and the Eagles beat the Arizona Cardinals 48-20.

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Notes.
Giants Plaxico Burress won't play in this game. (Injured hamstring).

Giants lead the regular season series, 86-61-4

Washington is 3-3 at home, Giants are 4-1 on the road.

Next Game
Dec. 7 Eagles at Giants at 1:00PM.
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