Sun Oct 31, 1:00 pm (FOX) - Giants at Minnesota
The Vikings worst nightmare.
Lately it's the Giants. In 2000, they totally embarrassed the Vikings in the NFC Championship game 41-0. Last year the Giants were able to stop the 6-0 Vikings
cold, and send them into football hell. The Vikings couldn't recover from losing that game to the Giants, were able to win only 3 more, and they finished their season out of the playoffs.
Now the Vikings are once again running along with a full head of steam on a 5-1 record, and more than a bit concerned that the Giants could derail them once again.
The Metrodome.
The 3-0 Metrodome home advantage should mean something. This will be the fourth year in a row the Giants will play the
Vikings there, but throw out everything that makes sense when looking at this matchup. The Giants did lose to the Vikings
in a 2001 Monday night game there but they were leading 16-14 going into the 4th quarter. The Giants won the next game in 2002 at the Metrodome 27-20, and even though they won only 4 games
last year, one of them was at the Metrodome 29-17 over the up to then, unbeaten Vikings.
Randy Moss vs the Giants.
In that 2000 NFC playoff loss to the Giants, Randy Moss had just 2 catches for 24 yards. Moss came
back and was instrumental in the 2001 game with 10 catches for 171 yards and 3 touchdowns, helping the Vikings put the game out of reach after the Giants blew their 4th quarter lead. In the
2002 loss to the Giants Moss caught 3 passes for 85 yards, and in last year's loss, he had 7 receptions for 125 yards and 2 touchdowns.
Moss may not be at full strength for this game, though he managed a full practice session on Friday, his first in nearly two weeks. Moss has been nursing a strained right hamstring, and they
had him on the field for only two plays last week which extended his consecutive game streak to 102. It goes without saying that the Daunte Culpepper to Randy Moss connection is one of Minnesota's
biggest weapons.
Daunte Culpepper vs the Giants.
Culpepper is having a sensational year. He leads the NFL with 19 touchdown passes, with only three interceptions. His quarterback rating of 124.0 is also the highest in the league. How does
he stack up playing against the Giants? In the 2000 championship loss Culpepper was sacked 4 times, intercepted 3 times and had just 13 completions on 28 tries for 78 yards. In 2001 despite
throwing 2 interceptions, he guided the Vikings to a come from behind win completing 26 of 38 throwing mostly to Randy Moss (10-171) long and Cris Carter (10-46) short for 277 yards, and 4
touchdowns.
In the Vikings 2002 loss he completed just 9 passes out of 20 for 91 yards, only one of them getting to Randy Moss for 5 yards, and he was benched and replaced by Todd Bouman. In their 2003
loss, Culpepper completed 18 passes on 31 attempts for 241 yards and 2 touchdowns with 2 interceptions. The Giants were able to keep Culpepper from Moss for most of the second half, coming
from behind to win that game.
Mike Tice - Head coach.
For the second year in a row, Mike Tice has his team off to a real good start and faces a game 7 against the Giants. The irony isn't
lost on Tice who had a very disappointed owner on his hands after last years loss to the Giants at the Metrodome. Coming off last week's win, he immediately worked on focusing his team on
this game against the Giants.
After the teams fifth win Tice was quoted as saying, "We're a better 4-1 team this year than we were a 5-0 team last year. I have no problem saying that."
Still, Tice, the lowest payed coach at $750,000 this season, has his players working hard. Maybe team owner Red McCombs, with an option to pick up Tice's
contract for next season for $1 million, (Jaguars coach Jack Del Rio, the second-lowest-paid coach, earns twice as much)
will come up with a raise if Tice can prevent some sort of 'Giants jinx'. Last year McCombs went to the locker room and told the players that they 'humiliated'
themselves and their franchise with the loss to the Giants.
Tom Coughlin - Head coach.
Tom Coughlin benched weak-side linebacker Barrett Green last week and don't think it did not contribute in some way to the unexpected loss to Detroit.
I won't argue that Nick Greisen had a good game, but Coughlin set the tone for the defense when he decided to pull one of his power-trips and show all the players that he indeed is the boss,
king, head honcho, maybe god, - take your pick - of a losing week 6 team.
It couldn't help but be demoralizing for players to have one of their respected own benched like a high school kid, and what real message does it send? That no matter what you do for this
team (or Coughlin) that's important on the field, it really doesn't matter. It also undermined Tom Coughlin's own efforts. While prancing around warning to beware of the Lions, he showed he
didn't really believe it himself, because he felt he could actually afford to bench a productive player like Green for this game against a (perceived) lousy quarterback, lousy team. Message
well sent from the head coach.
Tom Coughlin - Mr. Goodguy.
Since Nick Greisen did well last week, Coughlin will now reward him. Meanwhile Green still has a lesson to learn and obviously needs to cower and beg to get his starting spot back. Never mind
that Mr. Goodguy shifted Greisen off his own starting spot previously because he was slow to recover from an injury in preseason.
Now, Greisen and Green will share one spot with Greisen handling the passing situations instead of Green, who is noted for his speed. Jim Fassel had his own unique way of losing games and
this head couch can one-up him given time.
More lessons.
Lesson upon lesson will be learned by these players who have the audacity to inadvertently challenge coach Coughlin, by being merely human, sometimes injured or unavoidably late, until Mr.
Goodguy is thankfully gone from this Giants team.
How about this lesson Mr. Coughlin from coaching 101? Put the best players on the field in their best position. Coughlin who is actually very skilled at football, continually wastes his own
talents with his self destructive head games. Coughlin looks to have obviously learned nothing from his first chance at being a head coach and can still regretfully be a head case, a nightmare
for the organization, the players and the fans.
We're worried.
Maybe the offensive line really can't do the job. Maybe the Giants have those 4 wins only because Tiki Barber finds his own way, and Kurt Warner has been able to get rid of the ball relatively
fast up to now.
Maybe the defensive front won't get a pass rush going again like last week where Detroit receivers missed only 4 of the 22 passes thrown their way for 230 yards, and an average of 10.5 per
completion.
Maybe they'll keep trying to force Ron Dayne in on 3rd and short after first advertising to the whole world, opposing defense included, that he is now trotting in from the sidelines.
Maybe they'll keep working on turning Jeremy Shockey into an even better blocker and totally forget to pass to him.
Maybe some starter will break an incidental rule and be benched for the game. (The players are worried about this one too)
Maybe one of the Vikings die-hard fans will resort to using an electronic device in the Giants hotel lobby to disrupt the wake-up calls. With many Giants late and with no excuse valid, the
Minny fans will then watch their team crush whoever the Giants can field, in relative peace and quiet for a change at the Metrodome.
Notes.
The Giants and Vikings collectively are 9-3. Two of those losses were in games played at Philadelphia against the Eagles.
Defensive tackle Fred Robbins, who missed the Detroit game with a sore shoulder, played his first four seasons for the Vikings before joining the Giants as
a free agent in March.
Nick Greisen, playing for Barrett Green last week, was in on 7 tackles, including one for a 2-yard loss, and had a sack erased by a defensive holding penalty.
Last week, the Giants faced a Detroit Lions offense that was 32nd and last in the league, averaging 227.2 yards game.
Now the Giants face a Vikings offense ranked 1st in the NFL, averaging 449.3 yards a game, almost twice as much as Detroit.
The Lions, ranked last in offense before playing the Giants, came away with 22 first downs, 325 yards and 28 points.
Next Game
Nov 7 at 4PM, Chicago at Giants.
|
