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Giants (5-1) vs Arizona
(3-2)
Last week the Cards held Seattle to its fewest
points in a home game since 2002. Seattle was toughing it out playing without
three offensive line starters, and even having the '12th man in the crowd' was
not enough for them to make up the difference. The Seahawks came up with a fake
punt and only that trickery prevented them from being shutout in front of their
home crowd in a game that they lost 27-3.
Last week the Giants threw away
early opportunities on offense and played like
creampuffs on defense against the Saints prolific passing attack.
They let the score and game get away from them playing against a very good football
team. They left New Orleans hanging their heads low in the first loss of the season
trying not to look at the scoreboard which revealed a troubling 48-27 defeat.
Arizona Cardinals.
The Cardinals are the defending NFC champions,
and they almost took the whole prize, just barely losing in the final minutes
of Super Bowl XLIII .They started this season losing their opening game to division
rival San Francisco and soon found themselves at 1-2 going into an early bye week.
Since then the Cardinals have gotten back on track by adding two more wins to
their record. Cardinals
Offense.
They are ranked sixth in the NFL
in passing with Kurt Warner having no problems hitting targets Larry Fitzgerald,
Anquan Boldin and Steve Breaston. The Giants credit Warner for getting the ball
out in an average of 2.2 seconds, saying they need about 3 seconds to get to a
quarterback for a sack. Receiver Anquan Boldin (ankle) is listed as questionable
for the game and so Early Doucet, a third-round pick in 2008, could be active
for the first time this season. The Cards are
tied with the Chargers for last in the league in rushing, averaging only 57.6
yards per game with running back Tim Hightower leading the team with only 153
rushing yards over their 5 games. The Cardinals have thrown passes 221 times,
against only 99 rushing attempts. Does this matter? It should, but last year they
ranked last in rushing and still got to the Super Bowl. Cardinals
Defense.
They rank first in the league
against the run allowing an average of only 59.6 yards a game and 2.8 yards a
carry. They held Seattle to just 14 rushing yards last week, but they are 30th
in the league against the pass. The pass defense played well last week against
Seattle. The Cardinals fired their defensive coordinator last year and it's been
reported that Bill Davis (promoted from linebackers coach) has his defensive linemen
line up more head to head on offensive linemen, rather than in the gaps. It's
helped the run defense, but it makes it tougher to pass rush. Bertrand Berry leads
the team this season with three sacks. Free safety Antrel Rolle, has 2 interceptions
and 1.5 sacks, and former Giant Ralph Brown plays nickel back. Giants
Offense.
Eli Manning had been connecting
with his group of young receivers nicely over the first part of this season. Steve
Smith has 41 catches and 525 receiving yards. Mario Manningham has a touchdown
catch in four of six games played and Hakeem Nicks has caught touchdowns in the
last three. Last week the connections broke down and Manning completed on less
than half of his passes, lost a fumble and threw an interception. He says "We
had some opportunities to hit some touchdowns, hit some big plays. We were just
a little off." You could say the running game was working well. Brandon Jacobs
had a 4.7-yards-per-carry average and Ahmad Bradshaw averaged 4.8. However they
ran the ball only 19 times (a season-low 84 yards) and some of their success might
have been more of a 'gimmie' from the Saints as they concentrated on stopping
the Giants passing attack. Giants
Defense.
Where did it go? They were the
number one defense in playing the pass and they folded against Drew Brees and
his sharp passing attack. Brees was never sacked, touched only 3 times, and was
able to build a 15 passes in a row streak in completing 23 out of 30 passes for
369 yards and 4 touchdowns. In fact, the Saints scored touchdowns on seven of
their first nine drives. The Saints ground game gained them 133 yards and 3 touchdowns.
That's a whole lot of touchdowns and first year defensive coordinator Bill Sheridan
gave the Saints credit for their game plan while still admitting to his lack of
adjustments and the poor showing by some of the players. They worked hard on their
planning and ability to execute all this week in practice in preparation for the
Cardinals. Giant Concerns.
Did
you watch the game last week? All kidding aside, the Giants are up against another
team with a big passing attack. Without pressure on a quarterback up front, Warner
can do what Brees did and quickly pass at the Giants’ safeties and linebackers.
Remember safety Kenny Phillips is out for the season. The Giants need to get defensive
tackle Chris Canty, linebacker Michael Boley and cornerback Aaron Ross back on
the field but they are all out for this game. Also of concern is that the Cardinals
have the best ranked defense playing against the run. One
way to look at it.
As one of our readers
commented. "This will be a nationally televised game with the 'almost defending
Super Bowl Champs' matched up against the 'almost undefeated' Giants!" From
thirty two to sixteen to nine to seven to five to four.
The Giants fell off the list of undefeated teams which is now down to four. That
would be the Colts and Broncos in the AFC and Vikings and Saints in the NFC. Denver
(6-0) is on a bye week so Minnesota (6-0) could be the first team to go 7-0, however
the Vikings are not favored to win their game in Pittsburgh. The other (5-0) teams
are favored to win their games.
The three teams with no wins at all are 0-6.
Tennessee is on a bye. Tampa Bay plays New England, and St. Louis plays Indianapolis,
so it doesn't look good. NFC
East.
Sunday at 4:15PM the Falcons (4-1) travel to play the Cowboys
(3-2). On Monday at 8:30PM, the Eagles (3-2) face off with the Redskins (2-4).
The Cowboys, Giants and Eagles are favored to win their games. 
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. Notes.
Giants
Eli Manning has a 16-3 record in the month of October. Giants
Steve Smith has caught 102 passes from Eli Manning, ranking him fifth on Eli's
all-time list. Giants Domenik Hixon averaged
32.9 yards per kickoff and 25.5 yards per punt return last week.
His 303 total
yards set a Giants record. Giants Chase
Blackburn lost out on a recorded sack last week on backup QB Mark Brunell.
On
review the Elias Sports Bureau decided that Brunell should be credited with a
rush of minus-9 yards. Giants 14 sacks
have come in bunches. Redskins (3), Raiders (6) and Chiefs (5).
No sacks against
the Cowboys, Bucs or Saints. Giants last
week allowed the most points in 10 years and the most yards (493) in 21. Cards
Kurt Warner started the first nine games of the 2004 season for the Giants. Cards
Larry Fitzgerald, leads the team with 35 catches and 5 touchdowns.
He led
the NFC in those categories the previous two years. Cards
are 2-0 playing on the road this season.
Last time the Cardinals had a winning
record on the road in any one season was 1976. Cards
had lost 17 of 19 prior games in the Eastern time zone until last year's playoffs
against Carolina.
Cards have lost four consecutive
games at Giants Stadium to the Jets and the Giants. Cards,
since moving to Arizona in 1988, are 4-12 in prime-time games played on Sunday,
Monday and Thursday.
Next
Game
Nov.
1 Giants at Philadelphia at 1:00PM.
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