Team Giants

Giants - 49ers Game 6 preview

Giants (4-1) vs San Francisco (2-4).
At Candlestick Park last week San Francisco looked to be headed to a victory over the Philadelphia Eagles. They were going into the fourth quarter with a 26-17 lead after scoring 20 straight points. The Eagles came back with 23 unanswered points to secure a 40-26 win, handing the 49ers their third straight loss. Last Monday night, the Giants saw their 12 game winning road streak end on national TV when they couldn't stop the Cleveland Browns. The Browns were perceived to be a pushover, and in actuality Cleveland's offense committed a slew of false start or procedural fouls (8) that kept pushing the first down maker 5 yards further away. It didn't matter, the Giants left town with a 35-14 loss.

Who let the dogs out?
Cleveland's Braylon Edwards caught five passes for 154 yards and a touchdown. He had gains of 70 and 49 yards on two catches in the first half alone. "We knew how the Giants cover receivers," Edwards said. "We prepared for them, we showed them how well we can play." Meanwhile on defense the Giants played like it was a first season game and they were caught flat. They got no sacks, no quarterback pressure and they forced no turnovers. On offense they did move the ball. Wide receiver Steve Smith caught nine passes for 94 yards and Plaxico Burress added four for 58 yards and one touchdown. Derrick Ward carried 10 times for 101 yards and Brandon Jacobs added 14 carries for 67 yards. All this offense was wasted mostly by three interception turnovers.

Eli Manning and the offense.
Up until last Monday, Eli was doing a great job with the offense. He had thrown just one interception until then. Even with that game, the Giants are fifth in the league in scoring, averaging 28.2 points per game and they are first in the league in total yards from scrimmage. Would Eli have done better if he hadn't been slammed to the ground by Shaun Rogers in the second quarter (bruised chest)? Maybe. Would there have been less of a pass rush on him if the Giants concentrated more on the effective rushing game they had going? Very likely, but with Cleveland controlling the clock and scoring on the defense all the time, the Giants need to pass the ball was painfully obvious to the Browns.

The loss.
As they say, no matter the opponent, you have to actually play these games to get the win. It's not Hollywood where they award you for past performances. A loss changes things up a bit. The reporters tabled a few good stories. The one about the Giants maybe going 16-0 this season is gone. Any about unbeaten quarterbacks Eli Manning and former Giant Kerry Collins are gone. It even took the edge off the comparison articles about Eli and Peyton Manning, at least for awhile, As for the team, Shaun O'Hara had the best line after the game. "We've done a good job of even after a win, preparing as if we'd lost our last game," he said. "It'll just be a little easier this week to actually do that."

San Francisco - Offense.
Last year they finished a 5-11 season with a decent defense and terrible offense that was ranked last in just about every significant statistic. Well they addressed that by hiring their sixth offensive coordinator in six seasons. Mike Martz has the offense running overall better, but they are inconsistent like last week when they failed to pick up even one first down in the fourth quarter. Like Eli Manning, quarterback J.T. O'Sullivan was good with interceptions early on, throwing only one in the first three games.
However, he has now thrown seven during their current three game losing streak. O'Sullivan has also been sacked a league-high 23 times. If they can't be as effective as the Browns were using a series of three-step drops and quick slants to keep pressure off the quarterback, they will probably have to rely even more on running back Frank Gore, who has 524 rushing yards, ranking him fourth in the NFL.

San Francisco - Defense.
Maybe it hurt more than they thought when the team lost long time veteran starter Bryant Young to retirement and Marques Douglas to free agency. The 49ers have slipped from last year, allowing an NFL high 167 points - 101 in their last three games. The defense gives up 226 passing yards per game and they certainly didn't get much of a pass rush going against Donovan McNabb last week. Against the run, they give up 124 yards per game, and have to contend with the Giants, averaging 6.1 yards per rush this season, which is the best in the NFL.

Giants - Kicking.
John Carney is tied for sixth in the NFL with 51 points. Carney has succeeded on all 12 of his field goal attempts this season. Lawrence Tynes might have spilled the beans saying he had been told he would start this week against San Francisco after rehabbing a knee injury. Then again, Tynes has a habit of rushing onto the field when no one is expecting it, like he did in the Green Bay playoff game last year. For the record, Tynes is contracted for five seasons, at salaries of $625,000 in 2008, $900,000 in 2009, $1.1 million in 2010, $1.2 million in 2011, and $1.3 million in 2012. John Carney has a one-year, $830,000 deal. The cost shouldn't be the deciding factor in this, but the Giants could use the roster spot to get another eager beaver back on the field - David Tyree.

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Notes.
Giants have only two takeaways in their first five games, the lowest figure in the NFL.

Giants are the only team in the league not to have recovered an opposing fumble.

Giants are the only NFL team that has not lost a fumble this season.

Giants under Tom Coughlin are 27-15 when they score first and 12-15 when they don't.

Giants Eli Manning, four previous times in his career, has thrown three or more interceptions in a game.
In following games he's 4-0, completing 62 percent of his passes, along with 6 TDs and 3 interceptions for a rating of 90.9.

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