Patriots 17, Giants 6 (10/12/2003)

I'm glad the Pats won on Sunday, but I'm not exactly fired up about it. I was there and saw every soggy play, and I'm here to tell you that the Giants stink right now. There's just no way to win a game when your starting running back loses a fumble on the lightest hit he got all day, no fewer than two passes are batted into the air and intercepted by the opposition, and your idiot coach goes for it on 4th-and-eight instead of kicking the field goal when he needs 11 points anyway -- and of course, the predictable result is yet another interception against a double-covered receiver.

It was a win, and I was even happy to sit in the rain to see it. Even though the special teams numbers from yesterday look ugly, it was raining, and they never really gave the Giants great field position, so I'd say they played pretty well. And the defense continues its bend-but-don't-break play and is hitting as hard as it did two years ago. The young guys are playing over their heads -- intelligently and with a lot of fire -- and the veterans (e.g. Roman Phipher and Richard Seymour) stepped up big-time Sunday.

But the Pats offense is straining under the weight of all those injuries (no Graham, no Branch, and the continual shuffle on the offensive line), and there were just way, way too many stupid penalties. (Note: I know the commentators said two of the holding calls were bogus, but Rodney Harrison's personal foul was obvious and dumb, and the clipping call on the double-reverse [not "triple-reverse," as those same commentators dubbed it] was unnecessary to the play and really hurt the team.) Now the penalties can partly be attributed to young players replacing injured veterans, but some of them are just lack of concentration or plain stupid (see any penalty committed by Rodney Harrison). They've got to get this part of their game shored up for Sunday's tilt with Miami. The Dolphins won't make as many mistakes as the Giants did, and that makes our margin for error smaller.

I do realize that Sunday's game was a trap game for the Pats (sandwiched between a big game with Tennessee and another with Miami), and they did play with a lot of heart again. I'm just not all fired up for a Super Bowl run based on beating a bad Giants team. Now, if the special teams and defense continue to play well, and the offense kicks into gear, we could be in first place as of next Monday.

That's all for now,

- Scott