、Giant Dilemmas: Why The G-Men Happen to be Playoff Pretenders

Given that the Giants won Super Bowl XLII, they've failed to produce the Playoffs in two of the past three seasons. They provided the Playoffs the season soon after winning Super Bowl XLII as the 1st seed within the NFC. However they had been one-and-done within the Playoffs thanks to the Philadelphia Eagles, their division rival. To not take away from the Giants' success, but even in their Super Bowl year, Eli did not have a stellar season. He threw 23 TD, 20 INT and had a 73.9 passer rating. Nevertheless, to his credit, Eli put the mediocre typical season behind him and continued to having a superhuman Playoff run that got the Giants to the massive game.

As expected against an undefeated Patriots team, Eli did not perform at the same time against their solid defense because he did against Tampa Bay, Dallas, and Green Bay (for the reason that order). But he did make THE throw to David Tyree, and the game winning TD pass to Plaxico Burress. The 2007 Playoffs defined Eli's career, and since then he has played much better throughout the typical season than he did in seasons just before winning the Super Bowl. A part of that's due to gaining encounter, and maybe he also got a monkey off his back and finally silenced several of his harsh critics.

The Giants continued to have a 12-4 record. Earth, Wind, and Fire was unstoppable and gave the Giants the best rushing attack inside the NFL. In 2008, Eli posted work very best completion percentage (60.three) and passer rating (86.four). The biggest sign of improvement was Eli's career low in INT (ten). The Giants looked great in most their games except the Monday Night game from the Browns plus a two game losing streak against the Cowboys and Eagles, both division rivals. Even so, both are excellent teams so the Giants shouldn't find any shame in splitting the season series with either team. Their final typical season game against the Vikings was meaningless, yet they only lost by a point.

Even though Panthers beat the Saints in the finale to also reach a 12-4 record, the Giants had the tie-breaker simply because they beat Carolina the week just before.The Giants looked as good as they've ever looked over an extended time frame. They looked like the very best team inside the NFL all season long, but it all broke down against the Eagles in the Playoffs. Eli did not have an excellent game. The Giants made errors at worst doable moments and place the defense in unfavorable circumstances against McNabb and also the Eagles. It seemed as if the Giants were saving all the errors they didn't have in the regular season for that Playoff game. The G-Men still had a chance to salvage the game late in the fourth quarter, but Steve Smith's unforced fumble sealed the deal for the Eagles. What made it worse was that the Giants already had the first down before the fumble. In 2008 the Giants blew a good chance to reach the Super Bowl for a second year in a row.

This season the Giants started out 5-0. Individuals are already claiming that the Giants are among the elite teams in the NFL and legitimate contenders in the NFC. Bill Sheridan looked great running the defense. The Giants defense looks like it has not missed a beat despite Steve Spagnuolo leaving for the Rams' head coaching job.