Game #9: at NY Giants

The New York Football Giants played their first games in 1925. They lost their first game on the road to the Providence Steam Rollers 0-14. The game was played in the Cycledrome, an enclosed velodrome for bicycle racing. It held all of 10,000 patrons. The Giants would return serve on November 15 in front of 20,000 at the Polo Grounds. Both teams would win a League Championship by 1928. The Giants won in 1927 followed by the Steam Rollers in 1928. For the Steam Rollers the end would come soon. The franchise folded after the 1931 season. In those days attendance was the sole source of revenue. Being limited to 10,000 seats placed the business venture in tough straits. On the other hand the Giants have been a League stalwart. They have been to the Championship Game some 19-times having won the NFL Championship 4-times and the Super Bowl 4-times.

Forget the mathematics. Here’s the deal: Win tonight OR go into developmental mode. The Eagles have already done everything but take out full-page advertisements that declare they are on the tank train. The Marketing enterprise that is the Cowboys will not accept such a thing. Jerry Jones will always believe his team is a Super Bowl contender until the Super Bowl itself when his team is at home. Giants’ nation is scouting out Super Bowl trip packages. They have THE John Harbaugh, don’t you know. They lead the sorry NFC East with a 5-2-1 record against teams that have gone a combined 21-37-1. They also have yet to play a team with a winning record at the time of the game. You might want to cool your jets, Giants’ fan. Then there’s Washington.

Kabuki Theatre

It is totally understandable if you feel like you need an interpreter to explain what you’ve seen from this team. It plays hard. That’s beyond question. The Defense last week swarmed like a bunch of angry bees. When Puka Nacua fumbled he was immersed in a swirl of Burgundy. The Offense has moments, and even drives. But, then it fizzles. Last-second drives don’t get the job done.

Then there are the penalties. One would think the squad is the most penalized group in the League. No. The team is near the middle. This past week there were 6-total penalties with 4 on the Offense. There are column-inches out there about how bad the pre-snap penalties are. There were 3 in this last game. Washington has more than the average. In False Starts it is in the 4th-Quartile. Half of the League has 4 to 6-Delay of Game penalties. Washington is smack in the middle of that with 5-infractions. Obviously this isn’t good. But, it isn’t bottom of the barrel either. Perspective becomes elusive in a steady stream of disappointment.

And, that’s the rub: None of it is great. What’s bad is obvious. And, the bad predominates because of the record. If the season were a bowl of soup in a restaurant you’d hand it back to the waiter with orders to heat this thing up. It’s cold. If it comes back out cold again you’re going to tell him to take it off the bill. If Washington loses tonight Average Fan is checking out…if they haven’t already.

Oft quoted here NFL Lifer Pat Kirwan tells the story of Jets’ Owner Leon Hess looking out at empty seats in the stadium and shaking his head. “Nothing gets an Owner’s attention more than empty seats.” That’s coming in a big way with a loss tonight.

The Road to Misery is wide open and anxious for business. The much harder path is to dig in and win some games.

DQ?

A friend still in the DMV emailed me that the Talking Heads of Washington all say that Dan Quinn will be fired if the team loses tonight. Ok. Maybe. But, it’s highly doubtful. The insipid Sports Talk Radio people think so. Would you really let any or all of those nitwits run your franchise? So, it could happen. Never say never. But, here’s a few considerations for why not to do it.

Perp Walking the Coach out mid-season might be a catharsis for some. But, what exactly is it solving? It creates a monstrous hole at the top of the Field Operations. Who’s going to fill that? Whoever it would be will come from inside the organization. Both the Offensive Coordinator and Defensive Coordinator are in their first year. Neither of them are anywhere near ready for such a role. Maybe it would be Anthony Lynn, the Running Backs Coach. He has Head Coaching experience. It wasn’t good. But, he at least knows the ropes. Zero expectations of anything good coming out of such a move would be a wise strategy.

Firing the Coach mid-season often strips what is left of the chemistry within the Locker Room. Sometimes the replacement works well for the rest of the season. Antonio Pierce comes to mind. But, whoever it is usually is shown the door afterwards. Fire up the revolving door. Why not? It has worked beautifully for the Jets and Raiders.

Consistency is so last century.

We shall see.

Thursday Night Lights

Washington has done one thing with complete consistency this season: It’s been on the wrong side of the lucky outcome. Last week was a microcosm. Myles Garrett returns from the Injured List just in time to face Washington. Then the starting Center is knocked from the game. The Rams’ Puka Nacua lights up the team for 14-Receptions. Then he injures his knee on the last play of the game. Without Nakua and Garrett the Rams don’t win that game. The wrong side of the draw thing continues tonight.

Thursday night games are an assault on common sense. Playing a game is akin to being in a car wreck. What more efficient way to injure more players than to run them back out there with only three full days to recover? The older the player is the worse the Thursday Night tilt feels. The later it gets into the season the accumulation of contact makes the situation worse. But, only one team has to travel. In this case it’s a quick flight. Still, the Home Teams in these affairs have a 26-22 advantage since 2019. This year it holds serve at 4-3. Around the League in all games other than Thursday Night Home Field advantage isn’t what it used to be as the record is 57-56-1. It’s the slightest of advantages to be at home in today’s game. On Thursday it’s slightly larger. In a game where the slightest advantage is pursued like an unclaimed Gold Mine “slightly” is a big deal. Who’s home this week? The Giants, of course.

For the fans the choices are to either live in New York or Washington to get the game on local TV; have Amazon Prime for other reasons, or shell out more money to get Prime in order to see the game. For all of that you get to listen to arguably the worst announcing duo in the genre. Al Michaels hasn’t lost a few miles-per-hour on his fastball. It’s a lot more than a few. Then there’s Kirk Herbstreit who proves the negative of “Less is More.” But, hey, his dog is cute. Back in the day the trick was to turn the TV volume down and synch the radio with Sonny, Sam, and Frank on WMAL. Today’s version is to attempt the same with Sirius and the Washington feed.

The G-Men

For those not yet sporting some gray the term “G-Men” stood for “Government Men” which was slang for Herbert Hoover’s FBI. Find some old James Cagney movies and you’ll hear it often. Naturally, it rubbed off on the New York Football Giants.

The Giants used to be a League favorite. Yes, the League has favorites. There’s a reason the League puts the Cowboys on ten-games a year either in Prime Time or the featured 4:25 p.m. slot. The reason is eyeballs on the game. Years ago ratings were driven by the New York market. NFL on TV in the 1950s was basically owned by the franchises. (Hey, Baseball guys, this is going to sound familiar.) New York was THE lucrative market. There were no salary caps and no Collective Bargaining Agreements. So, the rich were rich. From 1956-1963 the Giants went to 6 of 8 NFL Championship Games.

The rival American Football League challenged the status quo. First of all, players went to the highest bidder between the Leagues. But, what allowed the new League to take root was the exclusive 5-year TV contract with ABC for the modest sum of $2.1 Million. That prompted the Mara ownership of the Giants to give up the territorial TV rights that had helped make the team a powerhouse. His collective revenue sharing put the NFL on the road to a business behemoth. The results were great for the League and pocketbook, but not on the field for the Giants.

After that Championship Game in 1963 the team went 74-134-4 over the next 17-years. The NFL wanted New York to have a contender. It helps ratings. So, the League sent George Young to Gotham to be the General Manager. It worked. Young built a solid team over a few years. Then he hired Bill Parcells. By the time Young retired in 1997 the franchise had won the Super Bowl twice while going to the playoffs some 8-times. Mission Accomplished.

Don’t think for a moment that the League is anything but thrilled to see the Giants on top of this Division right now.

Who ‘Dey?

Who is this Giants’ team? Good question. So far they have been playing poor teams, including Washington, and winning. There is that. But, the underpinnings are not up to Code.

Joe Theismann, who turned 77-years old recently once called the New York Giants the “New York Linebackers.” It was true. They were loaded at the position with Lawrence Taylor, Harry Carson, Carl Banks, Gary Reasons, and others. This team is similarly talented. Arvell Reese was their First-Round Pick and he shows why on the field. Also on the second-tier is Abdul Carter, another First-Rounder. And, Kayvon Thibodeaux is there as well. He tends to have good games against the WFT. All of them are elite pass rushers. The Defense is much better than it has been in recent years. But, it still gives up a lot of passing Touchdowns. John Harbaugh was desperate to land an elite Defensive Tackle. He even called the Owner of Tennessee trying to pry Jeffery Simmons loose. The Bears beat him to it. If you can imagine it he even contacted Washington in an effort to land Daron Payne before his foot got stomped.

Offensively this is a middling bunch. Their star Receiver is Malik Nabers. He’s plenty good as is Tight End Isaiah Likely. Harbaugh lured Likely away from Baltimore for $40-Million over 3-years. He’s one of the highest paid TEs in the business. And, it appears it is for good reason. He gave Washington fits in the first game as Jameis Winston got into one of his jags of solid play. The ball will be going to one of those two.

The Bell Cow Back is Cam Scattebo who also plays football in addition to making TV ads. Some people identify as various other non-human things. Cam identifies as a Demolition Derby car. He’s a 4-yard per carry guy. He shouldn’t beat you.

Finally, the Quarterback Room is, shall we say, Unique. Jaxson Dart went to Season Ending Injury List early on. Jameis did what Jameis does: Get HOT, Get COLD, rinse and repeat. Harbaugh went and got JJ McCarthy from the Vikings for a 5th-Round Draft Pick. He’s won his two games so far. Cue up the hype machine. If you scratch below the surface it’s not all Gold under the spray paint. He gets sacked once every 8.5 drop backs. He’s thrown 1-Touchdown in 68-throws. And, he’s sporting a Hip Pointer. It’s difficult to say if Washington is better off with him in there than Jameis who can, on occasion pick a Secondary apart.

Either way this Giants’ team is not on par with any of the four teams in the NFC North. With the goals for the year reduced to winning this woebegone Division and making a quick playoff exit it has to start with beating this mediocre Giants’ team