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Giants (7-5) vs Saints
(5-7)
Last Sunday the Giants lost to the
Redskins 17-16 and saw their lead in the division drop to one
game. They once were ahead by 2 1/2 games in the NFC East. Tom
Coughlin says he wants his team to win the last four games. That
won't be easy and it starts here at home with a game against the
New Orleans Saints.
The Saints lost a Thursday
night game to Atlanta 23-13. They had won 11 of their last 13
matchups with them and are the only team to pull off a win against
the Falcons this season. That earned them an egging from airport
workers when they arrived to play. The Giants face the Falcons
next, also in Atlanta.
New Orleans Saints.
The Super Bowl will be hosted
in New Orleans for the 2012 season. Like many teams the Saints
were hoping to be a participant in it and why not? The last three
years saw them winning Super Bowl XLIV, and getting to to the
playoffs twice. They hadn't had a postseason stretch like that
since 1990-92. However they started off this particular season
with a degree of difficulty. This thing called 'bountygate"
arose and the NFL handed out various suspensions to players and
coaches on the team including Saints head coach Sean Payton.
The Saints started off the season losing their first four games.
They won the next four of five with Drew Brees throwing 15 touchdowns
and only four interceptions. Assistant head coach and linebackers
coach Joe Vitt served his six-week suspension and currently serves
as the head coach. Former Rams head coach and Giants defensive
coordinator Steve Spagnuolo replaced Gregg Williams who was hit
with an indefinite suspension. To finish at 9-7 with a slim chance
at the playoffs basically, the Saints have to win the final four
games and hope for a few select teams to lose multiple games.
Saints Offense.
Drew Brees threw a career-high
five interceptions last week. That was coming off a loss to the
49ers where he had two interceptions returned for touchdowns.
To say he's not playing at his 'normal elite level' lately is
a great understatement. Overall though Brees has completed 61
percent of his passes and thrown a league high 31 touchdowns.
When he gets his team inside the opponents 20-yard line 70 percent
of the time it ends with a touchdown and that's the best in the
NFL.
The Saints are a pass-first
offense and wide receiver Marques Colston leads the team with
61 catches. Tight end Jimmy Graham came up big against the Giants
in their last matchup. He and Colston each have eight touchdowns
on the year. There have been only seven touchdowns scored on the
ground. Pierre Thomas is the best of their four running backs
and he leads the team with 425 rushing yards averaging 4.8 yards
per carry and also has 22 catches. The rushing average per game
was better last year at 132.9 yards and has slipped over 40 yards.
That's picked up over the last five games where they've averaged
nearly 120 yards.
Saints Defense.
Defensive coordinator Steve
Spagnuolo has his work cut out for him. His up front group has
been putting pressure on the quarterback, but the Saints are either
last or bottom dwellers in giving up yards in the air or on the
ground and in surrendering points. They are actually on pace to
set an NFL record for most yards allowed in a season. Spagnuolo
says he's not a stat guy and he won't dwell on the bad or the
good including that his defense played maybe its best game last
week.
They held Atlanta to 283 yards and handed them a stretch of five
consecutive possessions without a first down. Defensive end Cameron
Jordan has great speed and quickness and he leads the team with
7 sacks. Will Smith is a veteran pass rusher and he has 5. Cornerback
Patrick Robinson is fast and had a 99 yard return for a touchdown
against Philadelphia. He leads the team with 3 of their 8 interceptions
which isn't a lot for a team at this point in the season, but
they had only 9 all of last year.
Giants Offense.
Eli Manning wasn't bad last
week against the Redskins. He completed 20-of-33 passes and
threw for 280 yards. His completions were spread around, and five
each went to Victor Cruz, Hakeem Nicks and Martellus Bennett who
also had a touchdown. Ahmad Bradshaw ran for 103 yards, the offensive
line allowed only one sack on Manning, and there were no turnovers.
The killer was the unusual amount of penalties, bad field position
and the inability to convert in the red zone.
Add in one missed field goal and the Giants totaled only 16 points,
no where near what they will need against the Saints if they expect
to win this game. Keeping the ball from Brees would be a big help
for their defense. Last week the Giants dominated
the clock in the first half with Bradshaw gaining 77 yards, but
they couldn't keep that up. David Wilson's quickness and speed
could have him with a breakout game against the worst rushing
defense in the league. For that matter they should be able to
run and pass on this defense and a lot of that will come down
to the playcalling which was suspect last week.
Giants Defense.
They were torched last year
on the ground by the Saints for 205 yards. That even included
a an 8 yard run by Drew Brees for a touchdown. Brees also threw
4 touchdown passes and wasn't intercepted or sacked once while
throwing for 363 yards. There were a number of things that led
to the poor performance and they don't exist to that extent now.
(Osi Umenyiora, Mark Herzlich - ankle sprains, no Michael Boley
or Chase Blackburn - signed back the following week likely due
to this lopsided loss, using rookie linemen and secondary players,
etc.).
So is this current defense bad? Last week they gave up big yardage
on the ground and the air by not grasping the Redskins unorthodox
play selection, but they still yielded only 17 points. This week
against the Saints where they can react quicker to what they can
see on the field before them. There were no sacks last week and
Jason Pierre-Paul was lamenting that he would rather face a traditional
offense like the one he'll see this week even if it means going
up against a quarterback like Drew Brees and now he's got his
wish. He's probably thinking how they took Aaron Rodgers down
five times and kept constant pressure on him, sacking or hitting
him on more than half his passing plays. The secondary, which
now looks to have Will Smith playing at safety
considering Kenny Phillips is listed as doubtful, may not be quite
as happy.
Overall
Earlier we said that Drew Brees was not playing his best, but
he doesn't have to be to beat you. On the year Brees has thrown
31 touchdowns. Manning has
thrown just 16 touchdowns and yet the Saints and Giants are near
the top in points scored, both with 321.
Thank you Lawrence Tynes for 127 points (32 of 36 FG, all 31 EP)
because even one miss like last week in Washington could make
a difference as it did in the 17-16 loss. Tynes would get bench
sores playing for the Saints who have attempted only 14 field
goals.
The Giants will need to supersize their points from field goals
to touchdowns to win this one. Two things - The Giants host the
Saints on a short week, while they played last two Thursdays ago.
The Saints have given up even more points on the year than they've
scored.
NFC East
Except for the Giants all the games start at 1pm Sunday for the
NFC East teams. The Cowboys (6-6) play their game in Cincinnati
(7-5) against the Bengals. The Eagles (3-9) travel to Tampa to
play the Buccaneers (6-6). The Redskins (6-6) play at home against
the Ravens (9-3). The Giants and Redskins are favored to win.
The Cowboys and Eagles are not.
Check out.
The Team
Giants Store, and see some of the really unique items we put together.
There are some items you certainly haven't seen elsewhere, and each sale helps
out our site.
Giants DVDs
and Posters.
TeamGiants on Twitter.Notes.
Giants have lost three of the
last four games.
Giants in losing four of their five
games scored 17 points or less.
Giants have committed no turnovers
in the last two games.
Giants linebacker Chase Blackburn
has 69 tackles and 3.0 sacks.
Saints beat the Giants 49-24 last
November with touchdowns on 7 of 11 possessions, and 577 total
yards.
It was the second-highest total since the Bears beat them 56-7
with 682 yards on Nov. 14, 1943.
Saints Drew Brees is 4-0 against
the Giants with 11 touchdowns and no interceptions.
Saints Drew Brees saw his NFL record
54 game streak of throwing TD passes in consecutive games come
to an end last week.
Next Games
Dec 16 - Giants at Falcons.
Giants Tickets - Buy
or Sell
Dec 23 - Giants at
Ravens.
Giants Tickets - Buy
or Sell
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