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Giants - Cardinals
Game 9 preview

Sun Nov 14, 4:15 pm (FOX) - Giants at Arizona.

Giants at Arizona.
Just like old times, which usually meant good times for the Giants, they play against Arizona this week. These teams used to meet twice a year before the NFL changed things around a bit, and the Giants overall record against their former division rival is 77-40-2. This season the Cards are 3-5 and the Giants are 5-3. The Cards are ranked 29th on total offense, and 18th on total defense. On rushing defense they rank a lowly 26th. Tiki Barber can run all day against much better defenses, so is this a chance for the Giants to come away with a win?
The Giants are ranked 15th in total offense, and 10th in total defense. A win here would be encouraging. It would show the team that they could recover from a bad offensive showing and that the defense could maybe learn to win, at least against a weaker opponent, without top quality starters like Michael Strahan and Keith Washington lending a hand.
The bad news is that the Giants seem to lose to the Cards at the worst times, and this would be one of those times, with the Falcons and Eagles coming up next.

Tiki doing the job.
Going into this game Tiki Barber has accumulated 1231 total yards from scrimmage, the most in the NFL by 147 yards over Edgerrin James (Indianapolis) and 152 over Priest Holmes ( Kansas City). His longest run of 72 yards sounds impressive enough, but don't forget to add in Tiki's longest reception of 62 yards. Only 3 of the top running backs have more rushing yards than Tiki and that's by 72 or less.
The top wide receivers, being more specialists in their area, don't come anywhere near Tiki in total yards with Javon Walker (Green Bay) ranking 12th with 783 yards, and Terrell Owens (Philadelphia) at 14th with 747 total yards. Tiki's efforts account for 45.3 percent of the team's net yards, and he has 6 rushing touchdowns, matching the team's total for the entire 2003 season.
Tiki, with 820 rushing yards, is second in the NFC to who else, but Shaun Alexander (Seattle) with 879 yards. Some Giants fans cringe every time they hear Shaun's name mentioned in a football highlight, which is quite often, and no one should cringe more than Ernie Accorsi the Giants General Manager. Shaun Alexander is an outstanding running back the Giants could have had playing right alongside Tiki Barber if they hadn't selected Ron Dayne instead. It was their choice and somehow they had Ron Dayne pegged as a power running back, and Shaun Alexander as a running back whose style too closely matched Tiki Barber. How wrong they were and how right they were.

Tiki Barber and Shaun Alexander.
After 8 full games their numbers are amazingly close. You think Tiki, with 163 carries, gets called on too much? Shaun has 173. Shaun has racked up more yards, 879 to 820, for an average of 5.1 per carry ahead of Tiki's 5.0, and Shaun has the edge in rushing touchdowns, 9 to 8. Tiki moves ahead if you look at rushing first downs, 40 to 35. Like we said, close, close, close. Tiki moves way ahead of Shaun when the ball is in the air.
Tiki has twice as many receptions, 31-12, with 12 resulting in first downs, compared to 6. Tiki also has 4 times the amount of receiving yards, 411 to 100, with 6 of them going for 20+ yards, compared to Shaun's 1. Where Shaun has the edge is in receiving touchdowns. He has 3 and Tiki has 1.
Depending on how they're used, those numbers would shift this way or that, but overall they are close. We know Tiki already has an identical twin, but could you imagine these two players playing side by side for the Giants. The opposition could be seeing double digits on the Giants scoreboard week after week. Meanwhile, Ron Dayne remains a problem child for the Giants.

Ron Dayne.
Is Ron Dayne the problem, or did the Giants turn things into a problem? Ron Dayne was a misfit from day one, and that wasn't his fault. The Giants should take the blame for hanging with their mistake, trying to make Ron Dayne into a power back just so they didn't have to admit it was indeed a mistake. The only way the Giants could look good with this now is if Ron Dayne somehow became productive with them.
If Ron turns out to be good with another team, the Giants showed they wasted his talent here. If he ends up a bust elsewhere, then they were really wrong to have selected him in the first place especially over some others. We hope Ron Dayne does get a chance to regain his respect for himself and the many fans he had throughout his college years. Ron Dayne held his head high through it all, his followers have been forced to be quiet, and Ron certainly has the respect of his teammates. Giants fans should give him that same measure of respect as well.

Ernie Accorsi.
No one wants to be wrong about their number 1 draft picks. After all, if you're in the football business and you have a whole field of top college players to pick from, the results should certainly be favorable (if you know what you're doing). Only time will tell if GM Ernie Accorsi redeemed himself in some partial way for some of his first round draft picks.
Ron Dayne looks to go down as a poor choice for the Giants and now Shaun Williams (lost for the season following knee surgery) has been easily replaced by rookie safety Gibril Wilson. He's a fifth-round draft pick out of Tennessee with only five starts. We won't go into the Tyrone Wheatley ordeal.
In an effort to come out on top, and bypassing others (Ben Roethlisberger), Ernie Accorsi moved mountains to wrangle getting quarterback Eli Manning onto the team as the Giants' pseudo number one in exchange for two 1st rounders, a 3rd rounder, and a 5th rounder.

Cardinals on defense.
They are better defending the pass, and
Kurt Warner has been sacked 18 times in the last three games. The Giants have given up 34 sacks this season. This week tackle Luke Petigout is coming off of a concussion, but center Shaun O'Hara is back on the field. Maybe this week the O-line can buy Kurt that one extra half-second he always seems to be searching for.

Kurt Warner.
Hey Kurt, you have to know when to hold them and know when to throw them. Because of the state of the offensive line, Coach Coughlin mostly gave his star quarterback a pass (so to speak) for fumbling the ball away twice and being sacked 7 times, but now the offensive line is back at full strength. Tiki's running should also keep some pressure off Kurt Warner. Still, Kurt's history of losing the ball is growing and he's only thrown 5 touchdowns in 8 games, and it seems some sport writers want fresh story lines.
They want Eli Manning on the field for better or worse and for something to write about. We rather like reading stories on some of the secondary players, including the full article on practice team player Raheem Orr, a former Rutgers defensive lineman, who wasn't moved up as a possible replacement for the injured starters or as a backup. Say, aren't there any Jesse Palmer stories out there?

Cardinals on offense.
As we said, they are the 29th-ranked offense in the league, up against the Giants 10th ranked defense. However, that was with Michael Strahan and Keith Washington on the field. The Cardinals have Emmitt Smith running the ball, and remember him? He's still good. Emmitt Smith is ranked 5th in the NFC with 565 yards averaging 3.7 yards a carry, and should do just fine against a defensive line having lost both starting defensive ends.
Even before the loss of Strahan and Washington, the Giants rushing defense was not as good as it's passing defense, and they have to be thankful for an aggressive and talented secondary. Without some good pressure up front, these guys will be very busy and Emmitt Smith will look 10 years younger.

The curse of 'Inside the NFL'.
They did it to the Giants again last week.
Bob Costas, Dan Marino, Cris Collinsworth and Cris Carter all picked the Giants to win over Chicago, and the Giants lost. Since week 2, whenever they' all agree in unison on a Giants game, they have picked wrong every single time. That's 24 out of 24 wrong picks. This week the Giants would have had a lock except Marino was a holdout and he picked the Giants. At least they won't all get it wrong this week.

Cards Veterans Day Tribute.
For this Sunday’s home game, the Cardinals will honor veterans of the United States armed forces, including former Cardinals safety and Army Ranger Pat Tillman. The tribute coincides with the nation’s observance of Veterans Day on November 11. The special pre-game ceremony includes a video which has comments from Denver Broncos quarterback Jake Plummer, who played with Tillman at Arizona State and with the Cardinals. At halftime, the 36th Army Band will perform. A two-minute Cardinals video tribute to Pat Tillman and all veterans will be played following the halftime performance. In addition, all fans in attendance will receive a red memorial wristband in honor of Tillman. Let's all remember the Veterans, current members of the armed forces, and their sacrifices for this country.

Notes.
Last week Tiki Barber scored his 35th and 36th rushing TDs.
That moved him past Ottis Anderson (a former Cardinal) and into fourth place on the Giants' all-time list.

Tiki Barber has rushed for 820 yards in 8 games and is on pace for 1,640.
That would top Joe Morris' franchise-record 1,516 yards in 1986.

Last week Ron Dayne was involved as a lead blocker on kick returns.

Giants have won four of the last five meetings with the Cardinals.

This is the last time the Giants will play in Sun Devil Stadium.
A new $370 million stadium is expected to be completed here in time for the 2006 season.

Cardinals defense is tied with the Giants for the NFL lead, with 20 takeaways.
Both teams are currently tied at 3rd in the NFL with a +9 turnover ratio.

Cardinals Emmitt Smith has rushed for 6 touchdowns and is on track for 12.
That would be the 2nd-most in team history. John David Crow had 14 in 1962.

Cardinals 24-23 win over the Miami Dolphins last week ended their 17-game road losing streak.

Cardinals have a chance to win 3 straight home games for the first time since 1999.

Cardinals have the best red zone defense in the NFL (10 touchdowns allowed in 30 opponents possessions inside the 20).

Next Game
Nov 21 - Atlanta at Giants at 4:15PM.

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