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Giants - Redskins
Game 2 preview

Sun Sept 19, 1:00 pm (FOX) - Washington at Giants

It's been far too long for the paying fan.
The Giants, and their ticket holders, have suffered seven straight home losses. The last time the Giants won in a home game was in the season opener last year playing against Kurt Warner and the Rams. Who sitting in the stadium a year ago rooting for Kerry Collins and the Giants would think they'd be rooting for Kurt Warner in this year's seasons opener?
In fact, rooting can be a tricky thing these days. If you attended the season finale against Carolina, you would find
that only 17 players who played in that game still remain with the Giants. It's not that the Giants are "rebuilding". Management doesn't like that term and favor the Giants being called a "team in transition".

What's in a name?
The connotation of team rebuilding sounds too much like a long term thing. However, longtime Giants fans would remind management that the last time the Giants officially considered themselves a 'team in transition' was in the 70s. They finished in last place or next-to-last eight times in the 1970s, and did not play in one postseason game. "Those that do not learn from the past are doomed to repeat it." Sounds like something Tom Coughlin would say, but what he actually said for this week is, "“My number one axiom about being successful in this league is to win at home. That's where it starts." OK Tom, let's go with that. The fans are with you.

Kurt Warner.
Kurt didn't do too badly last week considering the state of the offensive line, and the fact that a few key passes were dropped. Could he have done better? Certainly, as well as the rest of the team, but after all it was week one for a 'transition team' and lessons have to be learned. As we said last week, we don't want to see Warner looking focused downfield way too long, ignoring the pressure coming at him. That can lead to disaster (again).

Eli Manning.
The Eagles were so anxious to get at Eli Manning on the first NFL play of his career, that they let Tiki Barber scoot past them for a 72 yard touchdown. Overall Manning completed 3 of his 9 passes for 66 yards and was sacked once (really hard) by
Eagles Jerome McDouglen in his brief outing, and got clobbered good when he didn't show field awareness. As we said above, he's not going to learn it from Kurt Warner.

Washington and the Giants on offense.
Aside from Clinton Portis rushing for a 64-yard touchdown run on his first carry, the Redskins had to settle for just 3 field goals, two of which were set up by turnovers. If you thought the Giants played poorly last week, remember that they actually scored more points than the Redskins.
Portis averaged 5.1 yards a carry. Take away his 64 yard run and his average is 3 yards a carry.
In comparison, Tiki Barber averaged 13.9 yards a carry. Take away his 72-yard touchdown run and his average is 4.9 a carry. Ron Dayne averaged 3.5 yards a carry.
In the air, Kurt Warner, even being sacked 4 times to Mark Brunell's none, out threw his counterpart in yardage 203 to 125, and in yards per completion 12.7 to 9.6. Eli Manning picked up 66 yards on his 3 completions for 22 yards per completion. One of our staffers commented that the Giants were lucky they're going to face a conservative team at this point, with the defense hurting and in the learning stages. He figures for a low scoring game, the Giants have a good chance to steal this one with some big plays in the air or some Barber / Dayne razzle-dazzle.

Washington and the Giants on defense.
You have to hope that every week this group will improve.
The best strength the Washington offense has is that they get to play against the Giants' defense. Will Allen (sprained left knee) will be in better physical shape than he was last week so the corners will be strong, but the Giants have lost Safety Omar Stoutmire for the year with a torn ACL. Also, either one or both Michael Strahan (strained gluteus) and Carlos Emmons (strained groin) may have to sit out this game. Luckily they won't be facing Donovan McNabb and Terrell Owens again this week.
The Redskins defense last week held Tampa Bay to just 169 total yards, including just 30 rushing, and they sacked Tampa Bay quarterback Brad Johnson 4 times. They did this without the help of former Giant Mike Barrow (knee injury) who was their leading tackler for the past two seasons. Ernie Accorsi had called Barrow's signing in 2000 one of the team's best of the free agency era, but he claims they wanted him to take a 60 percent pay cut so he asked for his release. Last week the Giants had to face former player linebacker Dhani Jones who signed on with the Eagles.

Notes.
Giants have lost nine straight games.
The Giants are responsible for 20 percent of Joe Gibbs
65 career losses. His record against them is 12-13.
Michael Strahan has not missed a game since 1998 and just one since 1996.
Mark Brunell will be the eighth Redskins quarterback in nine games against the Giants over the past four years.
Mark Brunell was Giants coach Tom Coughlin's quarterback for eight years in Jacksonville.
The NFL this weekend will honor former Arizona Cardinals safety Pat Tillman, the first NFL player killed in combat since the Vietnam War.
All NFL players will wear a No. 40 decal - Tillman’s uniform number - on their helmets this weekend.
Fans attending the game are urged to arrive early to allow extra time for the ongoing security precautions.

Next Game.
Sept 26, Cleveland at Giants 1:00 PM - CBS.
They looked pretty tough in their 20-3 opening day win against Baltimore. The Giants would be best off facing them with a 1-1 record. Cleveland will be coming off a game against Dallas into Giants Stadium.


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