I think that was the most exciting football game I have watched in a very long time. 8-4, limping along but a win is a win!</p>
It definitely was a nailbiter. The ending reminded me of the game against the 'Skins. Honestly, I've lost all confidence in Eli Manning. Its not that I don't have hope for him. I've defended him over the years and still believe he's struggling more now because of hobbled WR's, weaker pass protection, and retarded playcalling. But those unforced errors are just too much and, for the most part, they're just stupid mental errors. I'm glad that he redeemed himself a little in the 4th quarter and that comeback reminded me of his first year as a starter, when he would lead ridiculous comeback on the regular. But its about time that we see some more consistency and dependability out of him. Aside from the obvious positives (our D-line, Derrick Ward, 4th quarter Eli), I thought Madison Hedgecock and Michael Johnson were the unsung heroes of the game. Hedgecock's impressed me for a while now and he's a helluva a blocker. His play has really lessened the impact of the Jim Finn injury and it seemed like every one of those explosive runs by Ward, were anchored by a solid Madison block. Johnson just really stepped up and made his presence felt all over the field. Gibril's played well this season so that's a huge role to fill, but he held his own tonight: wrapping up players and not really loosing his man downfield. And that one close trip-up of Adrian Peterson towards the end of the game might've saved us. I can't wait for Gibril to come back so we can bench that bum, Butler, and get those two playing together. And the one downside I really got to harp on is the lacklustre playcalling by our offensive coordinator. Gilbride must've been using the "Ask Madden" feature all game long, because that was the most predictable offensive effort all season. All our our run plays were the same and we were running on 3rd and 5/6's all game long. I know Eli played poorly, but you're going to have to trust him at some point and especially in situations where you need a passing gain to keep going. He effectively gave up on our drives by doing that. Honestly, I can understand why they called him Kevin "Kill-drive" in Buffalo and he doesn't look like enough of an upgrade over Huffnagel.</p>
You know I'm not as down on Manning as alot of people are. Sure, he is running out of time but he has the exact same record as Peyton did at this point in his career, sure more into's but its something. The guy has "led" the gIants to the playoffs two staright years. I think if there was a bit more support at home and people weren;t so quick to jump on teh poor guys back, he mnight play a bit better.</p>
