Giants In The Hunt For Good After Atlanta

The Giants dominated Atlanta yesterday. They clearly corrected whatever had been wrong before the bye week. One gets the sense they will now remain competitive the rest of the way this season. If so, this can become that magical season so many Giants fans anticipated.

Tiki had an awesome game... but it was the defense that played with attitude right from the beginning. After forcing Atlanta to punt, Eli was intercepted on the Giants very first play from scrimmage and Atlanta suddenly had the ball back on the Giants 20. At that point things could have gone very wrong very fast for the Giants. But the defense stood tall, sacking Vick on the first play followed by an interception by Madison on 3rd down.

The defense never looked back from there. The stat sheet shows Atlanta with 223 rushing yards but half of that total came from the only two plays Atlanta made all day - a 90 yard run by Dunn and a 22 yard run by Vick. The Giants D contolled Atlanta the entire day. Vick, sacked a career high 7 times, never found any running room and was kept neatly boxed in the pocket. Dunn's 90 yard touchdown run early in the 3rd made it 14-3. Despite the score, the Giants defense was so dominating that it was clear it was only be a matter of time before the hammer fell.

That hammer was Tiki Barber. Following Dunn's run, the Giants ended up with the ball at their own 11 yard line. With their backs to the wall, Tiki ripped off a 29 yard run throwing a shiver of a forearm as he made contact. His next carry was for 16 more yards. It was Tiki time and the Giants held the ball for 21 of the first 26 minutes of the 2nd half. Against a team that prides itself on its run defense, Barber rushed for 185 yards on 26 carries, the fifth-highest rushing total of his career.

If Tiki was the hammer, the defense was the anvil. Following Dunn's run, the defense limited Atlanta to 29 yards rushing the remainder of the day. While the offense was busy putting up 24 unanswered points, the defense forced the Falcons to go three-and-out three straight times over the third and fourth quarters. The defense played inspired football the entire game - beginning to end.

Sam Madison, Osi, Cofield - all had big games. But the news on defense was the play of Brandon Short, replacing the injured Emmons. If Short continues to play as well as he has the past two games, he will not be moved back to the bench by Emmons when Emmons is ready to return. Rather, it is more likely that Emmons, once healthy, moves over to his old spot, forcing Arrington to the bench. I love Lavar's attitude and positive influence off the field... but if he still hasn't begun to make an impact on the field by the time Emmons is ready to return? We shall see.

Perhaps most significant for the future fortunes of this team was the play of Jeremy Shockey. Shockey had 6 catches for two touchdowns (surprisingly the first 2 TD performance of his career). More importantly he played angry mean aggressive punch-your-lights-out football. As Tiki put it after the game, "Jeremy had his coming out party". Jeremy Shockey adds another dimension to this team when he plays with attitude and the Giants have to be hoping there is much more to come.

This was a turning point for the Giants. Back to back wins for the first time this season. Winning away from home against a tough NFL team. Excited by the knowledge that while the win was impressive - it wasn't close to what this team is truly capable of achieving. They know they are back to playing solid football. And they know that from this point forward - they are in the hunt for good.