Quote (Detroitt @ Sep 29 2014 02:27pm)

Just want to say thanks for week 1 guys! Gave us all the confidence in the world after destroying the packers and dismantling the Jets.

Here's to hoping we play the Giants every year! Cant turn down a confidence booster for my Lions

Quote (silent9 @ Sep 29 2014 05:57pm)

http://i.imgur.com/IEMdi8b.gif

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EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. -- How did Eli Manning spend a rare Sunday off during football season?

Watching football, of course.

Manning said he did some channel-surfing during the afternoon, but while the division rival Dallas Cowboys were beating up on the New Orleans Saints in the evening, Manning's attention was focused elsewhere.

"I knew we had practice today -- I wanted to start watching a little Atlanta film, and get a little idea of what they’re doing," Manning said Monday.

The Atlanta Falcons are the New York Giants' next opponent, and Manning said he has now watched all of their games on film. He probably liked what he saw, considering Atlanta's defense is ranked third-to-last in passing yards allowed per game (276.3), and fifth-to-last in rushing yards allowed per game (153.5).

The Falcons fell to 2-2 after a surprising 41-28 loss to the Minnesota Vikings on Sunday -- a game in which Minnesota was without star running back Adrian Peterson yet still accumulated a whopping 558 total yards.

The Giants are also 2-2, but are coming off back-to-back wins, with the offense looking better and better as the season progresses. Manning threw for 300 yards and four touchdowns in Thursday's 45-14 win over the Washington Redskins, but says there's still plenty of room for improvement.

"We missed a third down early on to Victor [Cruz], it was just a bad throw," Manning said. "I had a couple other throws we could have made in the green zone. There’s still some mishaps, and that’s football -- those are gonna happen every game, you’re never gonna have a perfect game, but you can strive for it."

Manning may have a new weapon at his disposal Sunday, rookie wideout Odell Beckham Jr., who continued to make progress Monday and could make his debut against the Falcons. Regardless, it sounds like Manning is feeling more and more comfortable in Ben McAdoo's new offense.

"It’s just good to see the rhythm of this offense," Manning said. "I think the no-huddle has been effective, we’re pushing the tempo, we’re getting positive plays, guys are playing fast, we’re not having the mental errors."

Manning did flip on the Cowboys-Saints game in the second half, in time to see Dallas improve its record to 3-1 on the season.

"They’ve played well the last couple of weeks, a couple big wins," Manning said. "Obviously we know they’re 3-1, the Eagles are 3-1, so we gotta do some catching up."

Despite all the talk about the NFC East being weak this year, it's one of only two divisions that currently boasts two teams with three wins, along with the AFC North (Bengals, Ravens).

And the Giants, at 2-2, look like a playoff contender as well -- at this moment, anyway.

"It’s always strong," Manning said, of the NFC East. "That’s football -- you never know who’s gonna be the hot team, the hot division. It's all competitive, and you just gotta keep finding ways to win games."

Quote (xnozx. @ Sep 29 2014 05:59pm)

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EAST RUTHERFORD – When the Giants re-loaded at cornerback this offseason, the hope inside the building was that they were building one of the strongest secondaries in football.

Stevie Brown was back. Walter Thurmond was one of the best Nickel corners in football. Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie was one of the best cover corners in the game in 2013.

Through four games, not everything has gone according to plan. Thurmond is done for the season. Brown has been benched in favor of Quintin Demps.

The Giants are now 22nd against the pass (254.5) and 10th against the run (101.2 yards/game). They lead the NFL in interceptions (7) but are also tied for second in most 40-plus yard passing plays surrendered (4).

"One thing about our secondary that I have been saying since the beginning is that we have a lot of depth," Prince Amukamara said on Friday. "A lot of guys can come in and make plays. As you see with Trumaine [McBride], he stepped up and made some plays. At the end, [Zack] Bowman almost had a pick also. That just shows that whatever coach feels like calling, the scheme works. We just have to do our job as players to go and make the plays."

But can they still be the best in football?

"That is definitely our goal, to be the number one defense in the NFL," he said. "I think last year we were top 10. I think our goal as a secondary is to get as many turnovers as we can because it helps the offense."

In addition to leading the league in picks, the Giants also have two cornerbacks, Amukamara (No. 4) and Rodgers-Cromartie (No. 8) in Pro Football Focus' top 10 at the position. Both have allowed fewer than 50 percent of the passes thrown in their direction to be caught. Amukamara has an opposing quarterback rating of 36.

No other team has more than one cornerback in the top 10, and Trumaine McBride is also in the top 30. Antrel Rolle ranks 16th among safeties.

These are the individual ingredients that typically make up a top 5 secondary. If the Giants can cut down on the chunk passing plays, it will be interesting to see where they end up by mid-October.

Could they be one of the best? What do you think?

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EAST RUTHERFORD – There is likely a part of Will Beatty that wants to address all of his detractors at once and point to his statistics through the first four games of the 2014 season.

After being labeled a laughingstock last year, and one who gave up 13 costly sacks over a dismal 7-9 season, he had to rebuild his confidence alongside his shattered leg, which also added to the uncertainty he would face come September.

This is not an easy thing to do when a steady stream of top-caliber pass rushers comes to town each week. But through four games, he is looking like one of the best offensive linemen in football.

That's right, one of the best.

Beatty has not given up a sack and has allowed just two quarterback pressures, according to the objective scouting site, Pro Football Focus. He has not been flagged for a holding penalty and has vastly improved his run blocking.

Pro Football Focus currently grades him as the No. 1 tackle in the NFL, ahead of Tyron Smith and Jason Peters.

Is part of this a product of the situations he's been put in? Sure. But Beatty's confidence is back, and he's much closer to the 2012 player that was awarded a five-year contract.

"Last year was just an anomaly," Beatty said. "We're not going back to last year. We knew coming into this year that we weren't having any similarities to last year. Last year is gone. We know what we want to get it, and by no means are we where we want to be. We had two games."

Heading into a matchup against Osi Umenyiora, whom Beatty credited with his development as a young player, he is smiling. He is measured in his confidence but isn't treating the entrance of another great pass rusher as a burden.

"Years, I have had years of reps (against Osi)," Beatty said. "Coming in, Osi was the guy you practiced against. If you can pass block him, you know there is no one that can beat you outside on the edge. Now, having the chance to go against him, it's like 'let me thank you for all you've taught me.'"

For the Giants, nothing can be better. Eli Manning now has time to let the offense develop. Justin Pugh is not strapped with having to handle a majority of the lead run blocking responsibilities.

If their two-game ascent has taught the team anything, it's that the offensive line has developed against some fierce odds.

"All you have is your hopes and dreams to go after," Beatty said.

Quote (xnozx. @ Sep 29 2014 10:59pm)

[FONT='Times New Roman']The best secondary in football? Giants still hoping to hit preseason goal[/FONT]





http://www.nj.com/giants/index.ssf/2014/09/the_best_secondary_in_football_giants_still_hoping_to_hit_preseason_goal.html



Check out some of these stats..... Prince is such a stud... could not believe he slipped to us.

Quote (Grizzy_Green @ Sep 30 2014 03:51am)

The most impressive thing about Prince isn't even his talent.. The guy works at it. You can see him getting better every single week.

And I'll let you have the Beatty thing for now.

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EAST RUTHERFORD -- You can't sack what you can't hit. It's a rather elementary football concept that, on the surface, seems to apply to running quarterbacks.

In most instances, a quarterback's athleticism and elusiveness come into play. These skills help them avoid pass rushers, but there are other even simpler ways for the plodding pocket passers to sidestep the rush. In the case of Giants quarterback Eli Manning this season, it's by getting rid of the ball before the defenders have a chance to get there.

In Thursday night's 45-14 demolition of the Washington Redskins, Manning averaged 2.07 seconds from snap to release. He averaged 1.7 seconds from snap to release on his four touchdown passes and had just four plays (all on the final drive of the first half) on which he held the ball for more than 3.0 seconds. San Francisco's Colin Kaepernick, Seattle's Russell Wilson and the Jets' Geno Smith average more than 3.0 seconds from snap to throw this season.

Manning isn't just working fast, he's functioning lightning fast, and seemingly getting quicker each week.

This was always the intended result when the Giants and new coordinator Ben McAdoo installed the West Coast offense this offseason. The scheme is based on short, quick passes that give the receivers an opportunity to run after the catch.

But it took some time. The Giants and their quarterback weren't moving at warp speed from the start. They were slow, late and a discombobulated mess during training camp, the preseason and into the first two games. Manning was at 2.3 and 2.6 seconds from snap to throw against the Lions and Cardinals, respectively, according to Pro Football Focus. He's hovered around 2.0 seconds the past two weeks when the Giants have scored a combined 75 points.

"I thought we did a good job of getting the ball out fast [against Washington]," Manning said. "I thought we had a plan, I thought I had a good plan for most of the plays and where I wanted to go with the ball, getting through my progressions.

"There's still some improvement, still some things to get better on, some things with footwork and whatnot, but [we] definitely made strides and have to keep trying to get better each and every week. You can't get satisfied, you can't think we've got this thing figured out because we still have ... room for improvement."

That doesn't necessarily mean the time it takes Manning to throw will dip even lower. It's possible that as he becomes more comfortable, he attempts to throw a few more passes deep downfield, and subsequently holds the ball a little bit longer on average.

No quarterback in the three seasons that PFF has charted average time to throw has done better than 2.36 seconds. Manning is currently at 2.27 seconds. Only his brother Peyton is lower. He's at 2.12 seconds so far this season. Peyton finished at 2.36 seconds last year.

Eli was in the middle of the pack last season at 2.73 seconds. In the new offense, he's shaved almost half a second from his snap to throw. That's often the difference between taking a big hit or being sacked and firing a completion.

"Really since camp started, [Eli] has been progressing," McAdoo said last week.

Given that the ball is in Manning's hands for a shorter period of time, the number of sacks he's taken has drastically decreased. He was sacked a career-high 39 times last season, but is on pace to be taken down just 24 times this year.

Getting the ball out quicker clearly has its benefits, especially if the results look like the past two weeks.