Meadowlands

I'm a lucky boy--I got to go to the Meadowlands in New Jersey on Sunday to see my beloved G-Men take on the Minnesota Vikings with my folks. The weather was absolutely fantastic--the temperature was in the 50's when we arrived for tailgating shortly before 10 AM, and although I didn't check, it had to be up to the 60's by game time. I tailgated into a T-shirt, didn't even bring my jacket into the stadium, and only put my sweatshirt on at halftime because I was worried it might get beer spilled on it under my seat. My mother put together a great tailgating spread--homemade chicken barbecue and sausage soup. And the seats were great--in the back corner of one of the end zones, 17 rows up. We had a great few of the action in that end, and we had binoculars for when the game was on the other side of the field, though we hardly needed them. I also got some neat pictures of some of the on-field action which are now up on my photo site.

Unfortunately, those were the highlights. The Giants themselves provided mostly lowlights, losing to the Vikings in heartbreaking fashion. The offense and special teams played terribly all day, with only the defense keeping the game at all interesting. The offense finally got their act together late in the 4th quarter, putting together a great drive and 2-point conversion to tie it up with just over a minute remaining--I was convinced that they were going to win it in overtime with the momentum in their favor. But the defense promptly took a nosedive, letting the Vikings far enough down the field to kick the winning field goal, although I can't really fault them for one bad series during the entire game. That's just the type of loss that makes me really worried about Sunday's game against the hated Eagles. A couple of other observations:

-Early in the year, a lot of Eli Manning's errant passes were overthrows. He got away with more than his share in part because of the height advantage of his primary downfield threats--Plaxico Burress and Jeremy Shockey are both 6'5, and Amani Toomer is the shortest of the trio at 6'3. Of the four interceptions Eli threw on Sunday, two were tipped passes, and it seems to me that the other two were underthrown. It seems like maybe he's trying to make an adjustment in his throws. I'll give him the benefit of the doubt at this point and have faith that he'll get it worked out soon.

-Plaxico Burress is getting a lot of press as the best free agent pickup in the league from this past offseason, but I think Antonio Pierce was at least as vital, if not moreso, to the Giants' success this year. He's a real playmaker, which shows on the television broadcasts, but more than that, he adds a lot of fire to the team, which is difficult to see if you're not there live. He pumps up his teammates and does a lot to fire up the crowd to give the defense that "12th man" advantage during home games.