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Obviously, the New York Giants aren’t off to the best start in the 2014 NFL season. Last weekend they fell to 0-2 on the season with a loss to the Arizona Cardinals. Once again, quarterback Eli Manning is not off to the best start to the season either, throwing for three touchdowns to four interceptions.

Despite the struggles, though, Manning is successful in one department, and that’s the sale of his no. 10 jersey.

According to the DICK’S Sporting Goods Jersey Report, which reflects sales both nationwide and online, Manning had some pretty tremendous success last week in regards to the sale of his top.

The younger Manning rose 12 spots on the overall sales list, checking in at the no. 15 for the week, cracking the top 15. For as much as people like to criticize the play of Eli, and maybe rightfully so in some cases, he still has a nice fan following, and that’s reflected in the sales jump mentioned above.


Now if he and the team can get it together and get a nice winning streak going, then we could see his popularity soar once again and those sales might even be able to crack the top 10. If his sales numbers are doing so well when the team is in this funk, there’s no telling what could happen if they get hot again.

This article is brought to you by DICK’S Sporting Goods.

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EAST RUTHERFORD – Tom Coughlin is not Chip Kelly.

Though both study feverishly to find ways to better their team, Coughlin is not the kind of coach that pumps music at the beginning of each practice in hopes that it will scientifically make his receivers run routes better...or something.

But every now and then, Coughlin will surprise his players.

Today, the Giants were treated to a bumping pre-practice soundtrack that included "Danger" by Mystikal and "Hypnotize" by Notorious B.I.G. It's safe to say that the musical choices were not hand-selected by Coughlin, a noted Frank Sinatra fan, though the coach may have a more eclectic taste than we're conditioned to believe.

At first glance, it seems like his way of relaxing a team that is staring down a second straight 0-3 start, which would mean bad things for just about everyone. Antrel Rolle already called a players-only meeting and Coughlin has been ratcheting up his inspirational rhetoric of late, according to several players.

The result? Coughlin unwittingly staring out at the players stretching in front of him while one of the best rappers of all time wafted out of the speakers behind him.

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EAST RUTHERFORD -- Hoping to salvage this season before it gets too far away from them, the Giants management council took actions into their own hands.

Antrel Rolle, one of the team's five captains, called a players-only meeting earlier this week. Rolle wasn't the only veteran to speak at the meeting.

The message?

"Just go out there and play fast," Rolle told The New York Post. "First and foremost, know your assignment and that's going to allow you to play fast and confident. Go out there expecting to win, expecting to make that play, as opposed to playing cautious and not really knowing what the outcome is going to be.

"You've got to go out there expecting to dominate. The mind is a powerful thing. Mind controls all."

The Giants have dropped their first two games of 2014, after beginning last season with six straight losses. Coach Tom Coughlin and his players have all week quickly brushed off any comparison between the two situations.

Coughlin has remained especially upbeat given his quite regular crusty disposition. The Giants even had hip-hop music blaring on Friday as players danced and barked through warmups.

The Giants appear to be desperately trying to make sure this season does not go in the same direction as 2013. By the time they got their act together last year, the season was realistically over. Now, they still have a chance.

Coughlin wasn't against the idea of a players-only meeting, especially one of this variety.

"I think they were just discussing the predicament we are in and what they would like to do to get out of this predicament, and the idea that we have beat ourselves," Coughlin said. "Let's stop doing that. I thought, from what I know, and I wasn't there, it sounded very positive."

The Giants play the Houston Texans on Sunday afternoon at MetLife Stadium. Back-to-back home losses to the Cardinals and Texans (with Drew Stanton and Ryan Fitzpatrick as their quarterbacks) and an 0-3 start to the season would be troublesome. As a result, the Giants appear focused on themselves this week. They want to be the team that dictates the game on Sunday, rather than the other way around.

In the first two weeks, the Giants have fallen into a big first-quarter hole. They have been outscored 24-0 in the first quarter so far this season.

"That's what we talk about all the time. Go back to John Wooden, it's your team. Your concern is your team," Coughlin said. "Obviously the opponent coming in here and you're looking for strengths, weaknesses, how they play, what their strengths are, so on and so fourth, but your team is where most of your attention and energy goes to try to correct the things that prevent us from winning a game."

Rolle's message at the players-only preached much of the same. Concentrate on yourself, expect to win and it will happen.

Let's see if it works.

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Eli Manning is showing signs he can fit in well with Ben McAdoo's (l.) offense.

A little more than a month ago, with his new offense showing few signs of progress, Ben McAdoo asked for a “leap of faith” from his players. He believed his offense would work, and he wanted them to believe it, too.

Then last Sunday, they could finally see that for themselves. It may not have been perfect execution, but that wasn’t the fault of the system. There were enough good signs to prove that McAdoo’s offense can and will work for the Giants.

There’s no need for blind faith anymore.

“You feel like you see the opportunities,” said Eli Manning. “You see the plays that we made and you feel good about those. You see some of the plays that were out there to be made and we had good opportunities to make them, we just didn’t execute quite well enough.”

“I think it is very close,” added receiver Victor Cruz. “I think we made a lot of plays this last game, a lot of positive plays, and I think we are definitely close to being that top-tier team, scoring a bunch of points.”

Laugh if you want, considering the Giants have scored 14 points in each of their first two games and their offense is currently ranked 30th in the NFL (averaging 269 yards per game). But there were some obvious signs of progress during the Giants’ 25-14 loss to the Cardinals. Manning looked like he fit very well into the West Coast-style scheme, completing an array of quick, short passes, and the Giants were able to efficiently move the football.

The only problem was they couldn’t hold onto it well enough − three turnovers and five dropped passes. And that’s not McAdoo’s fault.

“Three turnovers, there’s no excuse for it,” McAdoo said. “It is inexcusable. What it does is deflate the team. It costs you plays. It costs you series and it takes points off the board.”

That’s not insignificant − especially with the Giants 0-2 and facing what is essentially a must-win game against the Houston Texans on Sunday. But it shouldn’t distract from the big picture, either. For all the worry about McAdoo’s scheme and whether it was good for Manning and whether the Giants players could learn it in time, it’s clear now that it can be a success.

The evidence was there, even in the first half when the Giants had only three offensive possessions and just one that resulted in a touchdown. They moved 48 yards on their opening drive before Manning rushed a throw, bouncing a pass off a defensive lineman that turned into an unlucky interception. But he was 4-for-4 for 43 yards before that happened, and he was 12-of-14 for 135 yards in the first half, too.

Why? Because his receivers didn’t drop any passes and he was pressured only once − on the pass that turned into an interception, because running back Rashad Jennings missed a block on a blitzing linebacker. When McAdoo’s players did what they’re supposed to do, the plays he called worked, and everyone looked comfortable − although that’s not a word that McAdoo wanted to use.

“We are not quite comfortable yet,” he said. “We need to be comfortable being uncomfortable is what we need to be right now. We are continuing to grow each and every day. We have made some progress. We are continuing to plug away and we are climbing that mountain and trying to get to the peak. But we are not there yet.”

That was obvious in the second half, but even that wasn’t a disaster. Manning may have been only 14-of-25 for 142 yards, but keep in mind his receivers dropped five passes that would’ve gone for at least 96 yards − and that’s not counting any extra yards they would’ve picked up by breaking a tackle. It’s also worth noting that he was pressured on eight of his second-half passes, too, which became a factor on his misses. And one of his two sustained drives ended with a Jennings fumble in the open field, 17 yards away from what could’ve been a game-tying touchdown.

Those turnovers and miscues are why the Giants’ offense keeps stalling, why they haven’t broken the 14-point barrier this season. But that’s not a failure of McAdoo’s offense, it’s a failure of his players.

Maybe that’s a small consolation with the Giants standing at the edge of another abyss, but McAdoo always said his offense would be a “work in progress.” Clearly the progress is already there, and undoubtedly there will be more. And if the Giants can keep their season alive long enough, maybe it can turn into the high-scoring offense they’re all expecting more quickly than anyone expected.

And that’s what McAdoo wanted his players to believe all along.

Quote (xnozx. @ Sep 19 2014 12:30pm)

[FONT='Times New Roman']Eli Manning New York Giants jersey sales rise up the ranks[/FONT]



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Quote (Genetics @ Sep 19 2014 12:31am)

if they fucking watch the games, then austin davis would be somewhere around the 22-28 mark