PHILADELPHIA -- The Philadelphia Eagles ended their opening drive with what has become the trendiest thing in football: the wildcat formation. Quarterback Donovan McNabb went wide as a receiver and cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs head case DeSean Jackson was in the shotgun at quarterback.
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| Tom Coughlin's Giants may be even better than last year's Super Bowl squad. (AP) |
It happened early in the contest and a team uses that gimmicky formation prematurely only out of fear. Fear of getting their doors blown off. Fear of a mismatch. Fear of ... the Giants.
How'd the Giants respond? This is the most fearless team in the NFL and it showed in what ended up being one of the more physical games of the weekend. New York's first touchdown drive was a gorgeous 10 play, 80-yard bruiser, with Brandon Jacobs acting as the hammer and Derrick Ward the sickle.
After a Giants field goal the second drive was again 10 plays, 80 yards and suddenly the score was 17-7. The Eagles and the Lincoln Financial Field crowd were shell-shocked. The Giants had run 27 plays to Philadelphia's six.
This is Giants football. They don't do a whole lot of fancy pants tricks and goofy formations. They wrap their hands around your throat and shake violently.
Giants 36, Eagles 31. Number of doubters: should be zero.
The Eagles fought back and mounted respectable resistance to an increasingly formidable juggernaut. They played hard, but were simply outmatched. They could have run the Wildcat, the Tomcat, the Alleycat ... even the Pussycat Doll and it wouldn't have mattered.
With apologies to Tennessee, the Titans aren't the best team in football. Who cares if they're undefeated? They play in the AFC South, which is the Sarah Palin of divisions. The Titans aren't in the same class as the Giants. New York's offense is far superior and its defense just as capable if not better than Tennessee's. Yes, better.
If you don't think the Giants are the best team in the NFL, you need a CAT scan, or at the very least, you must go watch more game film. The scary part is this team could end up being better than last year's Super Bowl team.
After the game, the Giants didn't brag. They said very little about their future or standings in the eyes of their NFL brethren. That's what you'd expect from a Tom Coughlin team. In fact, when it comes to quotes the Giants are sometimes intentionally boring.
"It's great to win here," coach Tom Coughlin said. "It reinforces everything we believe about team, supporting each other and finding a way to win the game."
Great words, Tom. Thanks. Never heard that comment from you before.
