Sun
Oct 28, 1:00 pm - Giants at Miami (London)
Giants(5-2)
vs Miami(0-7).
If you thought the Giants
played well last week in their 33-15 win over the 49ers, we'll say fine. It was
a nice win with just a few mistakes and it revealed some areas for improvement.
Now if you caught the Patriots - Miami game, you got to see what playing well
really means. The Giants won't be up against the 7-0 New England Patriots coming
off that game. That's scheduled as the last game of the season. Instead, we'll
see a face off with the 0-7 Miami Dolphins, who have gone from playing New England
to playing in England with the Giants.What's
that?
Besides Miami, there's one other team
out there that is also 0-7. That would be the St. Louis Rams who play in the NFC,
and are lucky not to be in all the headlines for playing in an historic matchup
in the first NFL regular-season game played overseas. Miami has scored about twice
as many points as the more anonymous Rams who have just 79. In fact, the Dolphins
156 points puts them ahead of 23 teams in the NFL when it comes to scoring. Looking
at the NFC teams, only the Giants and Cowboys have scored more points than Miami.
The bad news for the Dolphins is that they have given up more points than any
other team in the NFL - 231. Miami
- Last Week.
The Dolphins had a chance (really
not a big chance) to make their fans happy last week by stopping the New England
Patriots winning streak at six. You see the 1972 Dolphin team was the only one
in NFL history to record an unbeaten and untied season (17-0, including playoffs).
It falls on current Miami teams to sometimes stop an undefeated one from advancing
to that Dolphins record. Most of the Miami fans realized way before the end of
the first half that it wasn't going to happen.
The Patriots had scored a franchise-record
42 points by then to Miami's 7. The Dolphins defense couldn't stop Tom Brady at
all as he completed his first 11 passes for 220 yards and 4 touchdowns. The
Miami fans were stuck watching both Randy Moss and even one of their former players,
Wes Welker, have 100-yard receiving games by halftime. Miami gets another chance
at New England on Dec 23, in their next to last game of the season. Giants
- Last Week.
There's almost no sense in
going over what happened last week. Games like that don't happen too often unless
you're playing a team like the (2-4) 49ers. Oh wait, the Giants will be doing
just that, actually playing a team that's in much worse shape. Before we get to
that, we will mention that the Giants began their last game marching 83 yards
on 13 plays down the field, and finished their opening drive with a 4-yard touchdown
pass to Amani Toomer. On defense they had another outstanding game featuring six
sacks, two interceptions, and four turnovers that either produced directly or
led to 24 points. Special teams has continued to be a letdown. Lawrence Tynes
missed the extra point on the Giants' opening drive. That was his second miss
of the year. Jeff Feagles had a punt blocked for a safety. There were coverage
penalties. Miami - This
week.
The Dolphins will be playing without
Trent Green, their starting quarterback, without running back Ronnie Brown, without
safeties Yeremiah Bell and Renaldo Hill. Late news speculated that Zach Thomas
their key run defender who was involved in an auto accident after last Sunday's
game, won't be able to play. Running back Jesse Chatman, played well filling in
for Brown. Quarterback Cleo Lemon started the last two games, throwing for 492
yards and two touchdowns against three interceptions. Unfortunately for spectators
looking for an even matchup here, the Giants have not been playing down to the
level of competition as they have in past years. Giants
-This week.
If they Giants lose this week,
they will have only themselves to blame. The big weakness on the Giants is the
special teams unit, and the Giants offense has been known to suddenly sputter
when things are going well. Travel is the other big-big issue. Getting football
teams settled overseas and having them in game ready condition will be tough.
All normal practice routines have been disrupted, and a jet-lagged quarterback
tossing balls around erratically can be the difference in this game. There were
a lot of distractions all week long and they will last right up until game time.
Something like that can be a great equalizer and that can only favor an underdog,
especially one with nothing to lose. Old
Friends?
Miami's Jay Feely was the Giants
kicker in 2005 and 2006. He has made all 12 of his fieldgoal tries. The Giants
could have retained Feely, but they lost him to the Dolphins in free agency when
Feely signed a three-year, $6 million deal with Miami.
Will Allen also will
be playing against his former team this week. The Giants drafted Allen in the
first round in 2001. Looking for more interceptions from both their starting corners,
they let Allen walk to Miami after his five year contract was done. Allen had
only eight interceptions in five seasons with the Giants and four came in his
first year.
The Dolphins released Sam Madison on March 1, 2006 and the Giants
picked him up. For the Giants, Madison provides leadership to a young secondary
and he has come on strong this season with 28 tackles and two interceptions, including
one last week against the 49ers.
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 have won five in a row for the seventh time since 1990,
Only once did
they fail to make the playoffs in those seasons. A
sellout crowd of 86,000 will watch this historic game which will be seen in 216
countries.
A total of 39 broadcast partners will carry the game around the
globe, with commentary being provided in 21 languages. Commissioner
Roger Goodell recently said the league is considering holding a Super Bowl in
London at some point. Aircraft of the
Royal Air Force (RAF) and the United States Air Force (USAF) will mount a unique
flyover over Wembley Stadium. Next
Game
After the Bye week, the Giants will be playing Dallas.
Nov 11- Dallas at Giants 4:15PM on FOX.
Giants
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