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Game 8 preview

Sun Nov 6, 4:05 pm (FOX) - Giants at San Francisco
San Francisco wants me.
'San Francisco wants me, Lord I can't go back there.' Not exactly the correct lyrics, but 11 Giants playing on this team, as well as about a million Giants fans, remember the "Fiasco in Francisco" in the 2002 playoff game. The Giants do in fact have to go back there, to the scene of the crime, where NFL officials helped rob them of a victory that would have sent them to a second-round playoff game in Tampa. The officials cost the Giants a second chance on Matt Bryant's 41-yard field goal attempt.
The NFL said the crew should have called a pass interference penalty on the 49ers, on holder Matt Allen's desperation pass attempt after the bad snap. Bryant would have had a chance to try the kick again, and from a better spot. "It does us no good," Fassel said of the league's apology. "It doesn't do us a damn bit of good. It's water under the bridge."
As GM Ernie Accorsi pointed out, "a bitter pill to swallow," but ""the officials didn't blow a 24-point lead. The 49er's got the 39-38 win, and the Giants 'lost their heart' in San Francisco..

Fassel Aside.
It hurts to remember, but for those who can't get enough of this stuff, that was another Fassel Folly. Chris Bober had short-snapped for most of the past seven games, and Dan O'Leary had hurt his thumb. In the playoffs, Fassel wanted Bober to concentrate solely on being the starting center, so he brought in Trey Junkin who hadn't played since the preseason for Dallas. Junkin agreed to end his retirement and help out a coach who had worked with him when he played in Arizona.
Junkin bounced the snap on a field goal try that would have put the Giants ahead 41-33 midway through the 4th quarter, and on the final play, Junkin's snap was low and away. Allen never had a chance to set it up for Matt Bryant. After the game, Fassel confirmed the problem was the snaps, not the holds or kicks, right? "Pretty much," Fassel said "He snapped real well all week, up until the last few."

Strong head coach vs Smart head coach - Jon Gruden - San Francisco.
Last week, Jon Gruden decided to sit Simeon Rice against the 49er's to prove a point. The Bucs lost the game, and they had no sacks and forced no turnovers in that game against the 49ers, who were on a five-game losing streak. It seems that Simeon Rice had missed a meeting. "I didn't forget about the meeting," he said. "I thought it was at our regular time, 8 o'clock. They moved it to 7 o'clock. Hey. What can you do about it? I showed up at 8." Sound familiar?

Strong head coach vs Smart head coach - Tom Coughlin - San Diego.
Tom Coughlin decided to sit Plaxico in the first quarter against San Diego, and the Giants ended up losing that game. In the second quarter, Burress caught five passes for 52 yards, including a 5-yard TD catch to help bring the Giants closer to a one point gap at the half. Would Burress have made a difference if he had been allowed to start the game? "Yeah, probably," said Eli Manning after the game, "But we've got to get stuff in order off the field and get people to show up for things on time." Burress said, "I took it with a grain of salt and brushed it off and tried to stay in the game as best as I could."

Strong head coach vs Smart head coach - Joe Gibbs.
Last week, Joe Gibbs decided that LaVar Arrington should play the second half after Warrick Holdman was benched during Washington's 36-0 loss to the Giants. Tiki Barber had run for 206 yards, mostly on Holdman's side of the field. The Redskins up to then, had used Arrington sparingly as a pass-rusher or as the extra linebacker when the defense opted for a 3-4 formation, even though they have been barely squeaking out their wins this season. Two of their losses were by 7, and 2 points.
We thought that coaches worried about other teams taking out their top players, Head coaches continue to prove the point that they're bigger than the game, and the fans, and even the owners, who entrust them with the power to do these things. Who knows, just maybe, the Skins, Bucs and the Giants would be sitting at 6-1 instead of 5-2? Enough said before we get ourselves in way too much trouble.

Cody Pickett.
Cody Pickett started the season as the Niner's fourth quarterback, and is the fourth starting QB in five games. Pickett played quarterback in last week's 15-10 victory over Tampa Bay after second-stringer Ken Dorsey injured his left ankle. Pickett was in the game earlier, making a special teams tackle. Despite his lack of experience, only 11 career passes, the Giants just have to remind themselves of Doug Johnson, Kurt Kittner, Tim Hasselbeck and Craig Krenzel. Since 2002, all four backup quarterbacks have led the Falcons, Redskins and Bears to victories against them.

Jesse Palmer vs Antonio Pierce.
Jesse Palmer, the former Giants quarterback was signed as a backup by the 49ers this week. Palmer didn't play last season behind Eli Manning and Kurt Warner, but he really knows the Giants offense after four seasons with the team, and he used to lived in the same building and hang with Eli Manning.
Tim Hasselbeck and Antonio Pierce helped the Giants last week against their former team. Pierce said the Redskins' defense prepares on each snap for five different plays, watching for keys that will tell them which play it is, and the Giants altered some of their offensive plays. Jesse Palmer could offer quite a bit of insight to the 49ers and may end up on the field considering Cody Pickett's brief amount of experience in the NFL quarterback position.

Billy Davis and Jim Maxwell.
Jesse Palmer knows the Giants offense. San Francisco's defensive coordinator Billy Davis was the Giants' linebackers coach all last season, and he definitely knows the defense and the players. In addition, linebacker Jim Maxwell signed on with San Francisco just last month, and he spent all of last season and this summer with the Giants. Watch out.

Giants Defense.
The defense has given up so much in the first 6 games, that even after last week, they're still ranked 30th in the league. They're up against a San Francisco offense that's ranked 31st in the league. Last week the 49er's used Joe Nedney's five field goals to beat Tampa Bay 15-10. The offense gained only 208 yards, but they got 101 yards rushing from Kevan Barlow. If the Giants defense holds them to just field goals, they should win this game.

Giants Offense.
Eli Manning wasn't sharp last week. He missed a number of throws in a windy Giants stadium and finished 12-for-31 for 146 yards and one touchdown. Still, Eli was in total command of the ship, and always aware of what the Redskins defense was up to. Eli expertly guided the offense on drive after drive, controlling the clock and the offense did what it had to do with it's time on the field. That's what Eli does when he isn't sharp. The Giants are ranked 13th on offense, going up against a San Francisco defense ranked 32nd in the league. They give up an average of 427.3 yards per game.

What we don't want to see.
Cody Pickett struggling so bad in the first half that Jesse Palmer comes in, and with the Giants defense reverting to pre-Washington style play, Palmer then leads his new team with a few come from behind touchdowns, and a close win over the Giants. We can't have that to write about next week.

Notes.
Giants are averaging a league-best 29.9 points per game.

Jay Feely is the first Giant with 50-yarders in three consecutive games.
Only Joe Danelo (1981) and Steve Christie (2004) kicked three 50-yarders in the same season for the Giants.

Tiki Barber has averaged at least 4.2 yards or more per carry since 1999.
Tiki Barber is averaging 4.58 yards per carry in his career. Only nine running backs in history - including Hall of Famers Jim Brown, Barry Sanders, O.J. Simpson and Joe Perry - have rushed for at least 7,500 yards while maintaining an average of 4.58 yards per carry or better.

Michael Strahan has played in 182 games as a Giant, and is directly behind Lawrence Taylor and Joe Morrison, both tied for 4th on the games-played list with 184.

Next Game.
Nov 13,Minnesota at Giants 1:00 PM - FOX.

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