NY Post: Giants’ Secret Weapon: Jessica Simpson
Today in the NY Post, a funny story came about when stating that if Jessica Simpson is in attendance for the Giants/Cowboys game at Texas Stadium this weekend, that she would be the Giants’ secret weapon. She has been an obvious distraction for Romo on multiple occasions this year.
People all over are making big deals about it.
According to the NY Post, Online Sportsbook.com has a line on whether Simpson will attend. Yesterday, bettors thinking she’ll be at Texas Stadium come Sunday, could get a 1-to-1 wager, but those believing she will stay away had to lay out $140 to win $100.
This Week’s Opponent: The Dallas Cowboys
The Dallas Cowboys are the number 1 seed in the NFC playoffs, which means that they have the comfort of being at home every game they play in the NFC Playoffs.
The Giants are the number 5 seed in the NFC playoffs, meaning they will be on the road the whole time (except of course of the slight chance of the number 6 seed made it to the NFC Championship Game, which didn’t happen). You would think that they would hate the fact that they don’t get the comfort of being at home. Well, no. That is not the case here. The G-Men actually get the comfort of being ON THE ROAD. Imagine that, the comfort of being on the road. Well, in this case of the 2007-2008 Giants, it is true.
A team that went 3-5 at home and embarrassed their home fans throughout the year, while annoying road fans throughout, will head back to the one place that they just missed on embarrassing, Dallas.
The Giants lost a high-powered offensive game in the NFL’s opening week, with the final score being 45-35. In this game, the one before he re-aggravated his ankle injury, Plaxico Burress burned the Cowboys, catching 8 passes for 144 yards and 3 touchdowns receptions.
One player to look out for on the Giants defense is Gibril Wilson. He has owned Tony Romo this year, picking him off once in each game that he has faced him in this season.
Giants Players Have No Fear of Dallas
Asked by Pam Oliver and ESPN about what the Giants have to do next week, Eli Manning said:
“We’ve been there before, we know what it’s like. We’re going to be ready and we’re fired up
about going to Dallas. The third time may be the charm ”
Strahan said:
“I think as a team we feel pretty confident that we can beat anybody right now.”
When asked by ESPN’s Sal Paolintonio about how far the Giants can go, Strahan said:
“Well if we thought we couldn’t go all the way, we might as well forfeit next week. We’re going to hustle to go all the way, we’re going to fight to go all the way, and that’s our focus.”
Amani Toomer in his post-game press conference talked about Dallas:
“We love playing them, we have a lot of success down there. It’s probably one of the easier weeks to prepare, not because they’re not good or anything, but because we know what they do and they know what we do.
“I know everybody on our team is really excited to get another chance, with the way we started our season down there coming up short, I know everyone is really excited.
GIANTS SMASH TAMPA, WILL FACE DALLAS NEXT WEEK!
FINAL SCORE: GIANTS 24, BUCS 14
Eli Manning shrugged off all of the criticism he’s faced since the 23-0 blowout playoff loss in 2005 as he led the Giants to his first career playoff win this week in Tampa! Eli had 2 TD’s,
zero interceptions, was 20-27, and had a 117.1 rating as the offense started their engines in the second quarter.The offense had -2 yards in the first quarter, the worst amount of yardage gained in the first quarter of a playoff game since the ‘01 Ravens.
Great job by the Giants defense to stop Giant-Killer Jeff Garcia from beating the Giants a 3rd straight time in the playoffs. The defense started off fine, but then allowed a touchdown to Tampa as the Giants faced an early 7-0 deficit. The Giants then took the ball and scored a touchdown of their own on a short Brandon Jacobs pass that was nearly deflected with 10:02 to go in the first half.
On the next Giant drive, Amani Toomer caught 3 passes for 40 yards that ended in a Brandon Jacobs touchdown run. The Giants extended their lead to 14-7. The Bucs got the ball back and tried to score before the half unsuccessfully, as the Giants got the ball back to run out the clock and head into the second half. The Bucs fumbled the kickoff at the start of the second half and Corey Webster recovered.
Webster, who started the first few games, did poorly in the beginning of the year leading to him being inactive and limited to special teams duties. He played in place of the injured Sam Madison and did a great job including an interception, that fumble recovery, and also a key deflection of a Jeff Garcia pass intended for Joey Galloway.
The fumble was lead to a Giants field goal and a 17-7 lead. The Giants then scored a touchdown on a drive where Eli Manning found Amani Toomer to make the score 24-7 with 8:03 remaining in the game.
The Bucs’ Alex Smith caught a TD pass a little bit later, but it didn’t make a huge difference. The score was 24-14 and the Giants got the ball back. They ran it a little, but the Bucs ended up getting the ball back. Jeff Garcia threw a pick to R.W. McQuarters, a play that was originally ruled out of bounds but overturned by booth review, sealed the deal.
Well, The Giants pick up their first post-season win since the 2000 NFC Championship Game that was won 41-0, and Tom Coughlin grabbed his first playoff victory since 1999.
Giants/Bucs Gameday!!!
Well, Ronde is still running his mouth, calling Plaxico un-athletic. Well, if he is so un-athletic then why did he jump his huge body of your small body last year at Giants Stadium?
The Giants will face the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in weather that is supposed to be in the high 70’s and clear skies.
The injuries include Sam Madison, Kawika Mitchell, Dockery, Shawn O’Hara, and some others. It seems Shawn O’Hara won’t be able to play and the same thing goes for Sam Madison. The others are probably a game-time decision.
Well, I’m taking the Giants in this one, but I won’t give a score. I believe Eli will be cruising in the warm weather, and Plaxico Burress will get pumped up after the Ronde criticism. The better team here is the Giants, and the easiest way to figure that out is by looking at the records, the Giants are 10-6 to the Bucs’ 9-7. Yeah, yeah, yeah say what you want about the Bucs resting their players or else they would have had a better record, but the Giants had a better record all the way until week 14 and 15, around there, and they fought hard all the way, earning every win, unlike Tampa, losing two straight games.
OTHER GAMES:
If the Giants beat the Buccaneers, they will face the Dallas Cowboys since the Redskins lost to the Seahawks yesterday.
Also, the Steelers came from 18 points behind but still lost to the Jaguars despite having the ball with over 30 seconds remaining… they had no timeout left but plenty of time to get downfield. Roethlisberger was under heavy pressure and he just wanted to pitch the ball to the running back, but the Jaguars huddled around him and knocked the ball out to win the game and advance to the Divisional Playoffs.