Xweapon. "The Eagles were by far the better team in the division"
How can you say that when they had a 9-6-1 record. That alone says it all. This isn't the Super Bowl. The Giants suffered from bad play calling and alot of on the field of the field problems, hince Burress. And not to mention Antonio Pierce was in the mix to as well as Bradshaw. We will not see eight in the box. You don't think were working on an offense that will spread the ball around as we spesk. Teams are gonna gave to figure out another to stop the Giants this year. Where all ready expecteing to be played close this season due to the fact we don't have Plaxico in the line up. It would be foolish no to think so. The Eagles won to good games at the end of the season and thats it. If they were that dominate team last like you claim, what happened in Arizona. Hell they came in and beat the defending world champs. The Giants beat both teams that played in the Super Bowl. We ran the Steeler's in there house and beat the Cardinals in our house. If the Eagles have a bad year, I belive we won't see Andy Reid next year.
Yeah the giants were very good last year up until the plaxico incident probably distracted them a bit, but i just think they will have some question marks. I dunno who their defensive coordinator is now, but with spagnuolo gone i feel like that will hurt the defense, at least a little bit. The offensive running attack shouldn't have any problems, even with Derrick Ward gone, but even with the receivers they drafted, the passing game to me will be interesting. Anytime you lose your favorite target, i feel like it hurts your game a bit, but probably with an offseason to adjust with his new guys, Eli Manning will keep playing at a very high level. I feel like the eagles though have less question marks. Their offense should be better, Brian Dawkins hurts a bit but it was his time to go, and his replacement will be a little better in coverage, and even then jim johnson will be creative enough to keep opposing offenses from exploiting that area. We'll have to see, it will be an interesting year
The thing is, is if the Giants felt that the reciever we have and the potential draft picks weren't gonna be able to make a run to the playoff this season. We would have aquired SEASONED talent in free agency. Terry Holt, Braylon Edwars, Boldin perhaps. Just to name a few. Like i've said, i've been watchin Giant to know that nobodies seen enough of Manningham, Moss, And Smith, or even Hixon for that matter. I'm not sayin everybody has a spot but i wouldn't be surprised at all if they stay. You look at the stats Eli Manning has when he has four or five reciever set. Good production when all good recievers are out on the field. Tall recievers with the ability to catch is dangerous, we've got three to choose from. Our firsr round pick isn't goin anywhere. We know Hicks will be on the squad and as the ability to contribute. We'll be able to run still. Our recievers will gain respect quickly.
With the Giants, Eagles, Cowboys and Redskins this has historically been a hard-nosed, tough division. At present one would have to put the Eagles and Giants at the top, but rankings and rating this early are pretty meaningless. No one has played a competitive down yet and there are still several questions regarding free agents that are unresolved. Factor in injuries, trades and 'bad' behavior suspensions, and the truth is anyone can win, lose, over-achieve or under-achieve.
I understand that fans (probably players too) need to see their team projected to win for a 'feel-good' and the others to get fired-up over. That's part of being a fan, but the famous 'power rankings' are only good on paper, or there wouldn't be a need to play the season. Having said that, I still enjoy reading the analysis and justifications - some are very much on point, other make you go - huh?
I really love how everyone has the Cowboys last place in the division. I prefer it that way as to the constant media attention they were getting early and last season. Easier to focus on football, plus I love the fact that teams are overlooking them and assuming they are in "rebuilding mode" and that the loss of Chris Cantry is a giant chunk taken out of their defense....
There is no way to predict who is going to do what this season. Injuries can kill a season in a blink of an eye. Who knows how every teams rookies are going to play out etc..
I agree Para, this is pretty much the exact same Cowboys team that went 13-3 just 2 seasons ago. They haven't had had more then one starting caliber receiver since the days when Glenn could actually play (certainly not in 2007), before it was TO, now its Roy Williams. Yeah, I would take TO on the field any day of the week, but I would take Williams off the field any day of the week, so its a pretty fair trade. Beyond that if Hurd or Austin can step up this year that might add another decent option for Romo. In the backfield since then we went from having Jones doing something every now and then, but mostly sucking, to a new Jones who can seriously play and is seriously a burner. and Choice who can switch things up every now and then. Beyond that, when Barbers healthy healthy he hasn't exactly lost any of his barbarianess. This offense still has what it needs to be a force, it just needs to stay healthy this year so its not all Romo, #1 receiver, and Choice doing all the work.
On defense I don't see anyone serious we have lost other then Canty who has been replaced and Henry who has been replaced and then some. I think now more then ever we need Newman to stay healthy as we do lack a bit of depth at cornerback, but then again losing Williams for someone who can actually cover doesn't exactly hurt either. Our front 7 still has the ability to be a force in the league and I haven't heard many people saying we really lack anything there.
So what will kill us, first injuries. No team in the league had more trouble with injuries last year and we still finished 9-7, imagine if we hadn't lost Romo for 3 games, or how about Jones for most of the season, or Witten for those last couple games (yea he played but through injuries that would have had any mere mortal on the bench), or Newman, or any number of other injuries that we had. Second, Garretts play book/plan. It is too simple and can kill us any day of the week, heres to hoping he learned his mistake last season and can improve this season.
Beyond that, both the Eagles and Giants are hoping rookies will help them out a great deal, and the Redskins... well they SHOULD always do good, but that is never actually happens. So I think this division will be really wide open this year.
To explain myself, it was supposed to say that they were by far the best team in the division at the end of the season. Sorry for the confusion it was a late night post. Obviously they weren't the best team throughout the entire year or they would have dominated the division, but they were far superior the final 6 weeks of the season.
I believe the Newark Star Ledger was the paper that reported that the Giants had worked out the parameters to obtain the 20th pick so they could draft Maclin. You say defense wins Championships?? Well, the Eagles had a better defense than the Giants last year. I believe they finished 3rd overall behind Pittsburgh and Baltimore. NY finished 5th. So if that's the case, I feel real confident in the Eagles D this year. Look at the two games the Giants played against the Eagles without Plaxico....Eli's numbers the first game and playoff game...both Eagles wins...E. Manning13/271234.610 E. Manning15/291695.802 Not very impressive and half of his yards in that first game came on a late meaningless drive when the Birds were in prevent. You keep saying Eli looks good when he has 4 or 5 receivers on the field. Well that's not the Giants style. They run the ball and rarely use 4 or 5 wider receiver sets. Maybe they are planning on changing their style this year, but Eli hasn't proven he's a good QB in their traditional sets without Plax in the lineup. If the Giants were so confident in their WR as you are, they wouldn't have drafted 2 WR this year or had been in talks to obtain both Edwards or Boldin. And I doubt Eli will be a HOF. Winning one Super Bowl doesnt get you in automatically, ala Trent Dilfer........anyone who knows anything about football knows McNabb is a much better QB than Eli..........
Speed receivers can't catch? Well DeSean Jackson looked like he could catch pretty good last year. Did you see his sick catch in the NFC championship game? A big time play in such a big spot for a rookie....as for the Giants beating Pittsburgh and Arizona? The Eagles beat the Steelers and Cardinals last year too, so what's your point?? The Giants were by far the best team in the NFC in the first part of the season. Then they took a nose dive. Maybe it was the off the field issues, maybe not. Either way, I agree that the Eagles were playing like the best team in the NFC the last few weeks of the season. Look at the the numbers from the last 4 games and the first two playoff games, the Eagles gave up 14, 10, 10, 6, 14, and 11 points. They went 5-1 in those games. The defense just couldnt get the Cards offense off the field one last time in the NFC champ. game. But I think as a young defense they will learn from that and only get better because of it. Had that game been in Philly, i believe they would have won. But that's their own fault for getting off to a bad start and not locking up homefield. Hopefully this year they can win a couple of those close games they should have won like the games against the Cowboys, Bears, and Redskins....
Rickelliot, It took you awhile to ge back. I see you've been doin some research and note taking. First of all, when i was refering to defense wins championships i'm refering to this up coming season hoss. And we did nothing but beef it up. And with your reference to confidence in our reciever core, thats just strategy. We spent money in the free agency market on getting really good talent to keep pressure on the opposing offense. It would only make since to draft some young recieving talent, add depth to our Oline, another young big running back, and a possible replace for Antonio Pierce. As for Edwards and Boldin. Nothing but rumors to me. And not picking up stars like those to or any other seasoned pro, proves that they are confident with the recieving core, duh. How can you say picking up some rookie reciever's means there's no confidence. And as far as Eli Manning. Super Bowl MVP, son. Respect that. Were's Mcnabb's? He's been an Eagle for a minute now. You got stats on that? As for fast reciever's. I in most cases fast reciever's cant catch the deep ball. The game plan of the Giants might change if we can't run the ball or don't have a number 1
Cowboys should have beat the Redskins the first time??? Way to talk down to a team that beat you twice, not just beat you but our defense dominated(this is to the Flyers fan)
And MnM guy really hates the Redskins. There are people in here trashing the Packers and calling some of the players on the Packers garbage, but yet he ignores and decides to trash the Redskins instead even though not one Redskin fan said nothing about his team.
This will be my last post(i think) in this thread, but as a Redskin fan i'm feeling conifdent about this season and see us making the playoffs and here is why
Eagles - Greg Blatche(our DC) is 2-0 against them and our defense have dominated them plus we got better there so I really expect us to dominate them once again. Plus if anyone of the injury prone stars in McNabb or Westbrook go down(which is highly likely) then i'm sure its over
Cowboys - No Terrell Owens... forget that addition by subtraction garbage,everyone in the East know this guy was talented and a big threat. Now we can all breathe a sigh of relief that he is gone
Giants - well they gave it to us last year with and without Plaxico,thats why I predict a 2nd place finish, but i expect for us to be more competitive against them this year...may even steal a win if Zorn can learn some things from Gibbs
NFC East will most likely get 3 seeds this year. NFC South don't play defense, plus they are rumbling with us and will beat up each other within division. NFC North could be a force this year though. Which ever team can stay healthy will win it, but I still say the East with 3 teams all with double digit wins
No holes and we have depth on our defense - with the exception of 2 starting CB's going down then we should be a lock for top 5 defense this year again. We have alot of depth at DT,DE(not much pass rushers, but we have enough of run stuffers), CB (by drafting Barnes we sured that position up), LB(well actually not much, but we have a lot of guys trying out for that position so i'm sure we will find a solid backup) and Safety (the young guy Moore thats behind Landry is capable) So even if Haynesworth get injured then we should be fine and compete this year...
The thing with the Cowboys is this. T.O did for the running the same thing Plaxico did for our running game. Except the Giants had a good running game with Burress in the lineup. With Terrell Owens in the lineup Dallas had a just above average runnng game. Terry Glenn has never been a dangerous reciever and wont force the Safeties to stay put. That is another thing Dallas will have to contend with. Haveing more pressure in Tony Romo's face. And we all know how he responds to pressure. Roy Williams is no T.o and you fans will find out that wasting your first round pick was a waste. As far as writing the Cowboys off, i don't think so. You guy's are supposedly america's team so you have to take the critizim a little. I just think the Cowboys have got to get a playoff when this year. The pressure is on and in this division you can't be caught on your heels. We have the toughest division hands down. This years SuperBowl is comin through our division.
When will you Cowboys fans realize that they won't make the playoffs, or win a game in the playoffs, with a head coach of Wade Phillips?!?!?
I've tried explaining this two years in a row now to you guys. Wade Phillips is a bad head coach, his track record is the same everywhere he goes. He'll have 1, maybe 1.5-2 years of a good football team, then the team crashes, even with good talent. No one cares that "this is essentially the same team from two years ago". NO IT'S NOT!!! BILL PARCELLS BUILT THAT TEAM TWO YEARS AGO, AND SINCE THEN WADE PHILLIPS HAS SLOWLY MADE IT INTO ANOTHER OVERHYPED MEDIOCRITY STORY!!!
This years SuperBowl is comin through our division.That might be true, but the Cowboys won't even come withen 3 games of it. AKA, missing the playoffs. Thank that blunderful head coach they have. Until the Cowboys change the head coach, they won't win.
oh yeah jklahre62, that post wasn't completely biased.
I'm not sure who to list as #1 in our division, but its definately a toss up between the Eagles and Giants. As it stands right now if I had to pick and be objective about it. I'd have to go with the Eagles. Eli looked lost without Plax. you can play it down all you want, but its true. Yur saying a guy like Barden will step in and replace Plax, but there is no way that happens. Barden is two maybe three years away from anything like that if he's capable of it at all! Nicks is your best option to be your #1 and he's a rookie. So its not realistic to say that he can be a #1 right away, though I believe he will contribute to a certain point. Your D though is lights out IMO. Very scary, so I'll give credit where credit is due. Only thing with your D is that middle linebacker, whats his name? Who cares BW makes him look stupid everytime we play you guys.
That said, The Eagles offseason was better as a whole. The additions on the O-line along with healthy Shawn Andrews should be enough to stop the giants D-line even with Osi back in the fold. And the additions of Maclin who will probabley contribute as much as Hicks, and McCoy as well as Ingram if healthy, and the emergence of Celek as a viable red zone threat will be more than enough to run your D backfield ragged. Not to mention that we upgraded our D too, and our DB's are more than enough to cover your inexsperianced recievers.
I will say this though. no matter what actually happens both teams look to be depending on some rookie contributions to make it to a Super Bowl appearance.
Eli did win a Super Bowl, but when did football become an individual sport? Did he contribute to them getting there and winning? Absolutely. As for the Super Bowl MVP, his numbers werent that impressive. But he did make a great play getting away from the Pats pass rush on the throw to Tyree and he did throw the game winning TD pass, to who? Plaxico, who is no longer with the team. The defense was the main reason the Giants won the Super Bowl, and that was 2 years ago, it's not the same team...
It's good to have confidence in your receivers, as an Eagles fan we have been subjected to having a top 5 QB for years with average or less than averag receivers (pinkston, thrash, torrance small, Charles Johnson, freddy mitchell - with the exception of Owens). Now, not saying Jackson or Curtis are number 1's, but they are solid number 2's. Curtis had 77 catches and 1,000 yards in his first full healthy season as a starter for the Eagles. More than Smith, Hixon, etc. have ever done for the Giants. Now granted, they may not have had a chance to showcase their skills so maybe they will step up to the plate this year. I just havent seen enough of them for me to feel really threatened by them when the Eagles play the Giants. We have one of the best cover corners in the league (Samuel) who thrives on QB"s mistakes (Eli does throw alot of picks historically although his picks were down last year) and three other soild corners (Brown, Hobbs, Hanson).....So I guess it's just a wait and see, if the Giants receivers step up, have a good season, then I'll be the first to tell you I was wrong. Personally, I'm more concerned with the G-Men running game. That's what beat us the first time we played. But Jim Johnson clearly stated that not having Plax made it easier to focus on the run, put eight in the box and let our corners cover Hixon and Smith one-on-one.
As for the Giants defense - getting Osi back is huge obviously. This should keep Tuck fresh and less subjective to double teams as you could see he wore out toward the end of the year. Hopefully for your sake Osi is fully healthy. The addition of Benard doesnt do much for me, he's just an extra body who take a few snaps and helps the d-line rotation. I'm not sure how good Canty is. he could be a great pick up, but will he be as good as Strahan the year you won the Super Bowl? I doubt it.....Boley is probably an upgrade at OLB. But I feel the Eagles aslo made some solid moves to counter the Giants pressure. We added Jason Peters at LT, considered to be one of the best, and Stacy Andrews at either RT or RG. Plus, we get a Pro Bowl lineman back too, in Shawn Andrews. They are experimenting with putting him at RT and Stacy at RG. Either way, we have upgraded our OL just as you have upgrade your DL, and don't foget, I think the Giants only had like 1 sack against the Birds in 3 games last year.
Overall, I think these teams are pretty evenly matched. What the Giants added on D I think they lost on offense. They lost Ward and Burress. Plax was obviously your biggest playmaker on offense and unless one of your inexperienced WR's can replace his playmaking ability, it's gonna be hard for the Giants to score some points unless they are running all over teams.......as for the Eagles, I feel they upgrade the OL drastically, added a real fullback which should help the run game and short yardage game. Jackson has a year under his belt and should get better and Curtis is fully healthy, plus the addition of Maclin and a healthy BW coming back. This offense should be better, and with the exception of losing the emotional leader B-Dawk, the D should be just as ferocious as last year.......gonna be some good battles between these two teams this year....HOSS!
Do I have stats on what? McNabb being a Super Bowl MVP? Of course he never was. But I do have stats on McNabb's career and Eli's, and McNabb is better. I agree with the post where the guy said Eli was lost without Plax. He was. Espceially in the 2 games the Eagles beat them. Who cares about a Super Bowl MVP two years ago, we are talking about now. The Eagles were better than the Giants when the season ended last year, and the Giants havent doen enough for me to think that has changed. All I know is if I was a Giants fan I'd be a little nervous going into the season with Smith and Hixon as my top 2 WR's.
Even if Maclin doesnt do anything this year (which I doubt) the Eagles are still good at WR with Curtis, Jackson, and Avant. And of course, Westbrook. The Giants have no one on their offense that can single handly dominate a defense the way BW can when healthy. As for not getting back so soon and looking up stats?? Nah bro, this is just knowledge I have from being a fan. And sorry if I didnt get back to you quicker, it was the weekend, I got a life hoss. Seems as if I'm willing to give credit where credits due when it comes to the Giants, I've admitted they have a sick D, but you dont seem to have too much respect for the Eagles, a team that beat you twice last year in pretty convincing fashion, where's the resepect for the Eagles D? The Giants got a blocked kick TD and a garbage TD late in the game the first time we beat you, so bascially the Eagles D shut you out, the second game, you scored 11 points, 3 FG's and safety, so the birds held your O out of the end zone again............
Unless the Giants add a top flight receiver for the 2009 season, which isn't likely, they'll be lucky to get back to the playoffs. Not having Plaxico Burress is a huge loss. Don't forget about losing Derrick Ward either. He had over 1,400 yards of total offense, averaged 5.6 yards per carry and was by far the Giants best pass catching option out of the backfield with 41 catches. Also nearly 1/3 of his touches went for a 1st down last year. The Giants will look much different offensively in 2009. They'll still pound Brandon Jacobs at you, but for the most part teams are gonna load the box and force Eli and a bunch of #3 receivers to beat you. Yes, they are a bunch of #3s right now. Maybe Steve Smith turns into something in his 3rd season. Maybe Domenik Hixon turns into a consistent threat. Maybe Hakeem Nicks has a huge rookie year. The Giants lost both starting WRs from a year ago and 1,400 yards of total offense. So unless they really figure out something in the passing game I can't see them making the playoffs. I know their defense is good and probably got better than a year ago. I just don't like how their offense looks right now. With no proven perimeter weapons it'll be tough to win 10-11 games, especially in the NFC East.
I gotta give first position to the Eagles. They had a terrific draft; the only question mark that I have regarding their offense is Donovan McNabb. If he stinks up the place, it will obvioulsy have some serious consequences and reprocussions for the team. But I think the biggest boost to the Eagles was the pick-up of Peters for their O-Line. Now their entire line averages over 300 pounds per man! That has to be one of the biggest lines in football today, and I don't care who you are, but that is going to wear down even the best offense over 60 minutes.
Next, I give second to the Giants (who I think will be very close to the Eagles). They lost some major weapons on offense and I'm not sure if they found adequate replacements for them. On the other hand, their D got a lot more stout, and with the return of Osi and a healthy Justin Tuck, I think they are going be "lights out" on defense.
I'm less sure about how this folds out, but I am going to give 3rd to the Redskins mostly because I like them more than the Cowboys. I think the Redskins didn't make the upgrades on their O-line that they needed to make, annd that will affect the performance of Campbell & Co. I think that the offense is going to still be a weak spot, but the defense just got huge! If Orakpo is the stud DE that I think he will be, and if Haynesworth comes to play, they are going to be devasting, and one of the only D-Lines that could truly compete with the Eagles and Giants O-Line.
Finally, I put the Cowboys in the bottom. I don't think getting rid of TO is going to hurt them that much. I think Roy will be much better this year, and Witten will also be a stud. On paper, they should be duking it out with the Eagles and Giants for the division title, but what the numbers don't show is that this is a very dysfunctional team (in my opinion). I think a lot of this comes from Jerry Jones, and from just internal conflicts between the coaches and the players as well.
