Giants Fail to Repeat

I haven't posted since the morning of the Giants - Eagles game. It's been very painful - primarily because of the very rare opportunity lost - it is not often in an entire life time that any team is so close to back to back championships. Here were the Giants - the #1 seed in the NFC - the Vegas odds on favorite to win the Super Bowl and bring home the very first back to back championships in team history.

There were many factors that contributed to this loss. I am completely dumbfounded by the failure to run Jacobs for example. Especially the sequence following Fred Robbins' interception during the first series after half time. You could see the energy with which Jacobs ran onto the field. First play - Jacobs 11 yards. Second play Jacobs 5 yards. Jacobs was running with the most emotion I think I may have ever seen. Yet - the next two plays - two incomplete passes forcing a field goal on 4th down. At the time I was completely shocked and dismayed by the play calling on that sequence and remain baffled to this day.

However, in my mind there was a much larger factor at play here as I anticipated in my weblog post immediately before the game - the wind. McNabb's arm is so strong and his spiral so tight - that the wind has virtually no impact upon his ability to throw the ball - and it showed during this game. The Eagles constantly moved the ball through the air - with and against the wind. Manning, however, was throwing wounded ducks that seemed to dance with the air currents. I strongly believe that the Giants would have won this game had it been played inside a dome.

And, if true, that has to be a cause for concern for a club that has a history of using the winds of Giants stadium to its advantage in December and January - commonly known as "Giants football". Perhaps the new stadium - even without a dome - will not have the historic circling winds that has made the current stadium so famous. But one thing is for sure - despite his protestations that the wind was not a factor (and being the QB that must play in Giants stadium are his protestations any great surprise?), anyone who has followed Giants football and Eli Manning knew coming into the game that gusty winds would not favor the Giants in this game - and they did not.

So, later today Giants fans get to watch Curt Warner and the Arizona Cardinals take on the Pittsburgh Steelers in Super Bowl XLIII in Tampa. A game that will undoubtedly be watched by all Giants fans with a touch of sadness in their hearts for what could (and should) have been.