BleedinBlue

I have said his name so often that it rolls off my tongue with no problem. I thought I would never get Osi Umenyiora right, but I eventually got it with ease. On the other hand, Osi was just a nickname, his full name is Ositadimma Umenyiora. There's a player on the Syracuse basketball team that I still get tongue tied on: Doyin Akintobi-Adeyeye! If he fails at basketball, maybe there's a place for him on special teams for the Giants.

That's my thought too. I suspect they will cut their losses with JPP (unless he accepts a low ball offer and proves himself first) and the front office will target the best defensive ends in free agency and open their wallets to get them.

After starting this thread to showcase Richburg, I was sorely disappointed in him last night at Lincoln Field. He looked lost and was overpowered getting shoved back into Eli, time and time again. For a guy who dominated at the center of the line for the first several games, he sure took a step backwards against the Eagles. It hurts me to point it out.

In a best case scenario: we beat the Redskins for the second time and split against the Eagles and Cowboys. That way, we might win the division even if we're 8-8 because our division sucks so bad. Our in-division games are never predictable and never pretty. This team can redeem itself if it stomps the Cowboys into the ground and then grinds it into dust. And I want to hang a donut on the Eagles when they come to MetLife. That would cheer me up. It's really astounding that we're still tied for first place in our division. Unbelievable.

I feel this game is a crap shoot. These in-conference games are always battles and/or surprises. It has nothing to do with who has the best players or the best statistics - it's all about how much grit the players have and how good of a game plan the coaches put together and how well the team executes that game plan. If I was a betting man - and I'm not - I wouldn't touch this game with a 10' pole. Forget about everything you remember about the history of these two teams - it's a clean slate tonight and both teams are hungry. I'll root my ass off for the Giants, but have zero expectations either way.

2014 was quite a haul as well since they picked up Andre Williams in the 4th and Devon Kenard in the supplemental 5th round.

Well, bullying your opponent is what you're supposed to do. I've never seen an offensive lineman push his guy 30 yards backwards though. If the guy didn't fall, I think Richburg would have pushed him all the way into the end zone...lol The storal of the morey: never stop playing hard until the whistle blows!

I have tried to figure out how far he pushed his man out of the way, but it looks like he's marched him 30 yards backwards. That's gotta be embarrassing to a defender to literally get ridden out of the play by an offensive lineman for 30 or more yards.

I don't know if anyone has seen this or how to get it on the page like a YouTube video, but it shows one of the most incredible plays I've ever seen an offensive lineman make, especially a typical plodding center. Richburg blocks for more than 20 yards downfield. Here's a link that shows the gif. You have to page down, but it's easily recognizable as it's the only video on the whole page. Click it to start it. Freakin awesome. https://grantland.com/the-triangle/your-nfl-all-surprise-team/

Not only the first round, but the last 2 years of second round picks. Richburg is coming into his own and is turning into a monster at center. Have you seen him downfield 10 yards blocking? That's amazing for a lineman, especially a center. And I have faith that Collins will turn into a pro-bowler. He's still learning, but he's made some brilliant plays already for a rookie. But Beckham Jr. and Flowers are grand slam homerun type picks for sure.

Bobby Hart (#68) is no light weight either. An inch shorter than Flowers, but same weight and wider. I am surprised most from the draft, at Ty Sambrailo who I thought wouldn't go before round 5, yet Denver took him in round 2. All the pre-draft analysis of him was that he was athletic, but would be a long time project on the front line and his negatives outweighed his positives. Well, Denver handed him the starting LT job and he's been stellar and the team is 5-0. Andrus Peat also looked pretty solid early, but is now out for 4 weeks with a grade 2 sprained MCL. In hindsight, I couldn't be happier with us taking Flowers. He is a godsend on that front line and together with Richburg and Pugh - the line from center to the left side is superb. I love Flowers attitude and character. He's one tough hombre. I'm hoping Hart will pan out to get worked into the right side at some point. I think he's as good as Jerry right now and will eventually earn the starting RG position. I guess only time will tell.

This is a great story in this morning's paper: http://nypost.com/2015/10/15/ereck-flowers-built-for-giants-eagles-he-wants-to-be-a-jerk/ Ereck Flowers built for Giants-Eagles: He wants to be a jerk By Steve Serby Rashad Jennings holds Ereck Flowers back after a scuffle in the opening game with the Cowboys. This is the hostile, vitriolic place that can make knees knock and legs turn to jelly, especially if you wear a Giants uniform. Even before you enter this bubbling cauldron of venom, fans of the Brotherly Love Eagles have been known to hurl eggs and invective at your team bus. The meek have no chance to inherit the earth inside the Linc, especially on a Monday night. Only the strong survive these riotous blood-and-guts brawls. It is right in Ereck Flowers' wheelhouse. It helps being a 6-foot-6, 329-pound aircraft carrier, yes. But this isn't a rookie who scares easy. If at all. This is a baby-faced assassin with a mean streak. Linebacker Devon Kennard was a rookie out of USC last season, and he wasn't fazed by the Linc. "The fans are rowdy, and they're not nice, and they don't like us", Kennard said with a smile. "So it's just a fun place to play. It kind of reminds me of a college feel". Kennard said he thinks Flowers will blossom in such an environment "I think he'll thrive", Kennard said. "Erecks a competitor. Hes a beast. He has all the ability in the world, and the tenacity to go with it". "Im glad he's on my team". Right tackle Marshall Newhouse depicts young Flowers as an "even-keeled Terminator." "Just him wanting to finish guys", Newhouse said. "Him wanting to be a jerk out there. That's what being a lineman in the NFL's about, at the end of the day. So just having that physicality about him and that finish mentality, he's got it, for sure." Center Weston Richburg was a rookie at the Linc last October. "Pretty hostile", Richburg said. "It wasn't anybody kind of trying to harm us or anything, but you're getting flipped the bird. But that's expected. Its a pretty intense divisional rivalry". He isnt worried about Flowers. "He's got a good attitude for games like this", Richburg said. "He's gonna keep his cool, and be able to handle whatever comes at him." Flowers talks softly, but carries a big lick. "He's been able to get under some guys skin a couple of games I know Dallas, he got under some guys skin, and he just keeps his cool, which is good to see younger guys keeping their cool in situations like that", Richburg said. How does he get under their skin? "He plays through the whistle", Richburg said. "He's a guy that's gonna give high effort, and that may get on some guy's nerves sometimes." Eli Manning doesn't mind having a bodyguard left tackle like this one bit. "It doesn't seem too big for him", Manning said. "He's been banged up a little bit and shown toughness, wants to be out there. Been impressed with just how quickly he just knows everything thats going on, and knowing his assignments." No one epitomizes talk-is-cheap-play-the-game more than Flowers the strong, silent type. "He's quiet, he doesnt say much", Manning said, "but he's competing out there. He has an intensity to him, you can see that, determination, hes ready to go." The atmosphere wont bother him? "I don't think so", Manning said. "I dont think it's too much, or anything going on is gonna get him rattled." Manning took his first regular-season snap in garbage time in Philadelphia in 2004. "I remember my first play, I handed it off to Tiki Barber, he went about 75 [yards] for a touchdown. I said, This is easy",  Manning recalled, and smiled. "And then I took the biggest hit of my life [from Jerome McDougle] on the last play. It was my welcome-to-the-NFL hit, for sure." Odell Beckham Jr. recalled his introduction to Eagles fans last season. "Treated you like royalty, he cracked. The fans cheer, the fans yell. Either way it goes its all noise. You just block it out and play football." Flowers has heard plenty about the Giants-Eagles rivalry. "Its a division game. Those are the biggest games of the year", Flowers said. "I like all games." But is he OK dealing with the hostile crowd? "That's fine", Flowers said. Nothing scares Flowers, does it? "Oh, nah, nah besides losing", he said, and chuckled.

Actually, after you say repeatedly for awhile, it's really quite easy. Oh-diggy-zoo-wah....however, together with the first name, it's a mouthful. I pronounce it Oh-wah-mog-bee, but the last syllables might "bay" instead of "bee" as Jim points out.

What's even more amazing, is that number 41 could have easily knocked the ball out of his hands when he hit the ground, but appears to have given up as though he thought Donnell had lost the ball or something. I am so thankful he did not go hard after the ball like he should have and knock it out of his hands.

Ahh...the ole Charlie Horse. This has nothing to do with Cruz, but yesterday morning when I woke up, I stretched my legs out and yawned and did something stupid - I pointed my toes out like a ballet dancer while stretching my legs. BAM - felt like I was stabbed in my calf with a dull knife or shot in the leg with a 12 gauge slug. Holy shit that hurts when your calf muscle spasms out. Anyway, I quickly put my toes against the wall and shoved them back towards my ankle as hard as I could until the pain was bearable enough to stand. And then I stretched my calf some more by leaning forward on the floor like I was doing a pushup and shoved my toes as hard as I could to stretch my calf. Now it's more than 24 hrs later and it is still very sore. Charlie Horses hurt like crazy and I haven't had one in several years and it's almost always for the same reason - I'm waking up in bed and inadvertently stretch my legs out before stepping onto the floor and point my toes downwards....duhhh. When my mind is clear, I purposely bend my toes backwards while stretching out my leg and am mentally awake enough to avoid pointing my toes down. Oh well...it's just a real pain in the ass (or calf as it may be) when they happen. Oh well - sorry to go off on myself. Go back to the real subject now that I got that off my chest.

Although we're not getting a ton of serious injuries, the nagging little ones are sure adding up. I'm concerned about our areas of depletion....i.e., LB'rs, edge rushers, WR's, TE's, and lack of depth at the CB position. I have to give credit to this team and the coaches for being able to win games with backups...and in some cases, backups to backups and even players off the street. This team has a lot of heart and they are very much team oriented which bodes well for the rest of the season. Watching 5'10" Whitlock going up against a 6'7" 350 lb offensive lineman is a perfect example of the old saying, "it's not the size of the dog in the fight, but the size of the heart". Whitlock certainly proves that....as does Will Tye. And then there's Unga who hadn't played a down of organized football for more than 2 years while spending a couple years on a mission field in Guatemala City after leaving BYU. If we could have a healthy Beason for the season (like that's going to happen) and keep OBJ, Cruz, and Randle healthy, and get Selvie and Ayers back to full health...we have a shot at going all the way. Thankfully, we haven't had one of those career ending injuries (apart from JPP, dumbass) to a star player this year. This would be a great week for our annual bye, but that ain't gonna happen for 5 more games after we play 4 relatively soft opponents (knock on wood) and then entertain that Patriots at MetLife. Would much rather have the bye before playing the Pats, but that just isn't in the schedule. Regardless...this team is depleted in crucial areas and not sure what we can even do about it.

That's for sure. One thing that kind of got ignored in last night's game was Damontre Moore's 2 sacks and nearly a 3rd one. Moore had a good game last night and should see more playing time as long as he can keep his temper and stupidity in check. He has the hunger and the capability to rack up a dozen sacks in the season if he can just play under control. The inside of the defensive line has been solid as heck. Little Whitlock is fun to watch as well, but won't become the next Strahan. We need Ayers back ASAP.

Miles White has been on the Packers' squad for the last couple of years. He was an undrafted player, but saw time on the field in his rookie year before spending the entire season last year on their practice squad. I'm sure that McAdoo knew the kid from when he was there. We signed him off their practice squad a couple of weeks ago - the same time we promoted Tye to the active roster to replace Fells. He has some game, but he's not OBJ...or even Randle. I was glad Eli hit Geremy Davis for a 16 yarder. Davis is a big strong tough bastard who isn't afraid to go across the middle and has super-glue hands. He just needs to build confidence and have a better understanding of the game at the NFL level. It will come.

I read your post and it made me "go to the stats" and you were right. I made my last post based on taking your observations into consideration. I just wanted to take it a little further and see how many TD's we were giving up through the air as well as look for any long passes. Prince and DRC rarely get beat on the long ball.

It is somewhat misleading because the stat that we're 32nd out of 32 teams is based on total passing yards against us (1,265) which is only slightly more than Oakland and Atlanta (31st, and 30th). The stats that aren't taken into consideration for ranking is that we've given up 6 TD's through the air compared to 10-12 from other teams, yet not as good as Denver (2) and Seattle and St. Louis (3). Also, the avg pass against the Giants is 7.2, which is slightly to the left of the mean for all teams. Personally, I'm happy having the no.1 rushing defense while keeping the air game out of the end zone. Our numbers would improve in the air defense if we had a legitimate pass rush. Dumb JPP! And we need Ayers back.

Good point. I hold my breath in the 4th quarter as it's like a completely different game. 4th quarter starts and our opponents suddenly play like the Patriots on their best day even if we've stomped them in the ground for 3 straight quarters. Hard to make any sense out of it. It's like the coaches and Eli drop a 100 points in their I.Q. when the 4th qtr starts and it gets worse as the clock ticks down.

We rank no. 1 in run defense. Unfortunately, we rank no. 32 in pass defense. QB's have their best games against us. Not really sure what the deal is, but if I was to guess - we are so focused on the run game that we send our LB's and a safety into the line to stop the run giving the QB a chance for a short dump pass over the top of the LB'rs. Prince and DRC have done a stellar job this year, but it's those short dump passes that have added up against us.

I think it's a trap game. Of course, every game can be a trap game, but this one looks like it's predisposed to be a bad day for the Giants. Just a gut feeling that doesn't go away. Hope it's just indigestion from all that bratwurst I ate last night. Run defense is solid, but we have to get pressure on the QB and shut down the air game (which we haven't been very good at). We better have a 4 TD for me to feel good going into the 4th quarter

I think it also has to do with keeping information obscure from teams getting ready to face them. Every team analyzes who will be on the field the Sunday (or whatever) they will face them. They know who is going to play and who isn't and contrive a game plan based on who they believe will be on the field. Therefore, coaches usually keep injury information as vague as possible to throw off their opponents. Also, a person's health is a private thing and no one has the right to peruse an individual's medical report unless an individual gives up that right by letting the details be known.

That sucks. But I believe we are doing far better than usual with injuries so far this year. A lot of nit-picky things, but nothing major like a torn ACL or broken leg. Hopefully, Kennard will be back on top of his game after a short rest.