Eagles Vs The 2012 NFC East: New York Giants
BREAKING NEWS, Eagles, News Friday, June 22nd, 2012
There is a six-letter word in the English language that, when heard by any Philadelphia Eagles fan after a team, “any” team wins a Super Bowl, is profanity to their ears. What is that word? “Repeat”.
This has been the chant around New York and by Giants fans across the nation since the night of Super Bowl XLVI last February when the New York Giants came from behind to defeat the New England Patriots 21-17.
This word has been filling the airwaves and uttered on every TV sports show the entire off-season. There is a certain disdain and a measure of “hater-ism” emanating from that part of the brain…bleeding from the heart that the typical Eagles fan feels, wondering what it’s like to be World Champs. Never having been in the position to offer such profanity or utter the word, we will set out to see if this is the year the 2012 Eagles will win it all. What does New York have that we don’t? Aside from Super Bowl rings that is.
The Giants have won two of the last five Super Bowls (four in franchise history) by beating perennially, the best franchise in football (the New England Patriots), twice. Finishing 9-7 and edging out the Eagles in the process, they made their way to The Big Dance by simply outplaying the competition. Less than five weeks remain until the start of Training Camp, and much of the talk around the league has been in the Eagles favor, but the road to the Super Bowl goes through New York right? Well, the most talented team in the Andy Reid era will have something different to say about that.
Philadelphia boasted one of the top offenses in the NFL in 2011 with rankings in the top ten in every major category. But costly turnovers caused the team to finish with a -14 turnover ratio and out of the playoffs, losing the division by one game to the N.Y. Giants. The Eagles have locked up two young superstar weapons in the league’s best running back, LeSean McCoy and dazzling speedster, wide receiver DeSean Jackson (for the next five years) while developing one of the best offensive lines in recent memory, even with the loss of Jason Peters for the season with a torn Achilles tendon.
Quarterback Michael Vick will bounce back from a subpar 2011 season, but will find it difficult at times against what could be the best D-Line that N.Y. has had. Defensive end Justin Tuck is the face of the defense, and had 11 sacks last year, but beware the Long Arm of the “Paul”. Jason Pierre-Paul is a superstar in the making who led the team with 16 sacks and Osi Umenyiora also had nine on a defense that produced 48 total sacks.
The Giants finished 27th in total defense giving up 25 points a game and 376 ypg. New York’s “D” surrendered 255 ypg through the air and allowed 28 touchdown’s, while opposing running backs gathered 121.2 ypg and 15 touchdowns. But statistics aside, the Giants offer a very physical defense that can disrupt any top flight team. Just ask the Packers and the Patriots.
Vick and company will challenge the Giants short and long with a deep corp. of receivers that will battle a New York secondary that had 20 interceptions. Safety Kenny Phillips and defensive back Aaron Ross both finished last year with four interceptions each. But you can’t beat the Giants if you’re not taking care of the football. They Eagles offense must correct that. “If” that becomes an issue at all in 2012 the defense will bail them out of a few jams.
The Giants offense offers the reigning Super Bowl MVP in Eli Manning, a now elite quarterback who went 30-40 and 296 yards and a touchdown in the Super Bowl and looks to add to that status this season. They did however lose running back Brandon Jacobs, tight end Jake Ballard, and receiver Mario Manningham to free agency. Rueben Randle, second round pick out of LSU will compete with Domenik Hixon for the third receiver spot. Randle could be the surprise of the draft for New York.
Either way you slice it, Philly’s secondary, after getting the work in at the OTA’s and at Mini-Camp, have shown great promise to being the defensive backfield we expected last year. Nnamdi Asomugha and Dominique Rogers-Cromartie are looking like the All-Pro players they were supposed to be.
The Eagles defense will be tough to run on, but running back Ahmad Bradshaw will try to give the Eagles all they can handle. Kevin Gilbride says he likes the quickness and explosiveness he sees in first round pick, running back David Wilson from Virginia Tech, a back with pass catching ability and breakaway speed. But against the likes of Pro Bowl defensive end Jason Babin, former Pro Bowler Trent Cole and new run stopping Middle Linebacker DeMeco Ryans, the Eagles could have one of the toughest defenses in the NFL. Throw in one of the finest draft classes Philadelphia has had in recent memory and…yeah, we’re talking about going back to the Dance and finally getting that elusive World Championship!
The 2012 Philly-New York rivalry will pick up this year where it left off from 2011, and promises to be games that will go down as classics. The Eagles already know they can beat the Giants, that’s a given. But this year there’s a certain confidence, a silent swagger, a quiet calm that speaks louder for them this year than any one player could at his eloquent best. The Giants have shown it’s not how you start but how you finish, but in Philly that didn’t quite ring true as the Eagles finished one game short of the playoffs.
Season prediction: Eagles split, winning at home but losing a close one in New York. Eagles win the NFC East Crown. There will be no Giants repeat ending any conversation of a New York Dynasty.
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Posted by Mylow Young
on Jun 22 2012. Filed under BREAKING NEWS, Eagles, News.
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GLI – thank you for the assist my man – Songs – any follow on stupid douche bag questions??
And Songs – the ENTIRE TEAM had a team record number of turnovers last year – for example – I know you know very little about eagles football – but last years 1 pt loss to San Fran – two very key turnovers – not Vick…. the R Brown play (if he just holds the ball an easy FG – and the Maclin gets hit from behind while on last minute drive)
I have no ‘argument’ idiot – you wanted to have a postivie discussion about factors of Super Bowl winning teams – one of the common traits (even for the Gnats – the year Manning threw for the most ints in his career – no SB) – whihc is a question YOU asked…
one of the common factors is the team (aka the QB becuase the punter is not throwing too many picks) with fewer turnovers wins? Guess you didn’t know that huh?
No Vinnie – your information is spot on – no hating there – Vick needs to do better (and be smarter) no argument from anyone on that fact. HE has all the physical tools (be nice if he were 6 inches taller), but he does NOT need to be an ESPN highlight film.. just efficient.
So if I’m understanding this correctly….you guys are saying, all of the Eagles misfortune of not winning the SB is due to the QB play throughout the last 14 seasons? Yup and I guess none of the teams that won the SB, had solid defense play, only solid play from the QB, thats why the won the SB, correct?
Efficient QB is just another ingredient to a SB team it is not the ONLY ingredient! Its a little more complicated than just saying you need an efficient QB (efficiency from the QB is very important, probably more important than anything else, no doubt, but to win the SB all we need is efficient play from the QB? am I understanding this correctly?) …
So lets not depend on the defense to keep the game within reach for the QB to be effective. How about special teams and field position. No none of that counts either. It rests all on the shoulders of the QB…so why the hell does the offense and defense even bother suiting up…Yea you dont need the coach to come up with a good game plan either, just throw the QB out there and tell him to be efficient.
Songs is looking for simple answers to satisfy his simple mind. He asked me about last year’s giants versus last year’s Eagles. My answer to the reason they won the superbowl and not the Eagles was two things – QB play and luck.
Now the conversation has spinned out of control to the whole Reid tenure.
You need many many things. And luck is certainly one of them. But Songs and Jake think all you need is a head coach that they will approve of. And they only approve of head coaches that have already won superbowls. So if you asked them if they thought Sean Peyton had what it takes to coach a team to a SB in 2009, they’d say, no he’ll never win one. If you asked them if Cowher had what it takes in ’05, they’d say no. And so on.
The bottom line as RT777 stated above, it takes an entrie Teamto Win a Championship from the Coaches tot he Players and to be honest, The Eagles hav simply not been good enough when it has counted.. No more or no less, find your reasons,bad calls,weather,Coaches, Star players underperforming. etc,etc… The Eagle have just not been good enough across the board to win a Super Bowl yet, hopefully this is the Season they put it together and play and execute and coach as a TEAM…
RT – understand your points but you are jumping into the end of a Songs conversation – you need to expect it to be silly and stupid – Songs is a douche, and wanted to have conversations about the ‘possible’ giant dynasty – and why the eagles don’t have one -
remember RT – if songs is involved in the conversation – it aint real – I just think its hilarious what a complete idiot the guy is and enjoy like hell hammering away at him… for entertainment purposes only.. Have seen a couple sites saying eagles are team to beat in NFC East… thoughts
Oh, I hear you Navy, and it kind of surprised me that you would be one of the guys involved in that type of conversation “you need only one thing to win a SB”…In my opinion there are a handful of posters on this site, that show knowledge of the game with their posts…and you are one of them!
@Schiller, I agree I think luck plays into it too…Health wise, I think luck is a factor…possibly a bad throw that doesn’t result into a TO, or a fumble that bounces back in the lap of the fumbler, in my opinion could be attributed to luck….But the overall ingredient is simple, which can be defined in one word, in my opinion and that is production.
@Navy I dont think the Eagles are the team to beat. If am I player on the Eagles team, the team to beat, would be the defending SB champions. We didn’t even make the playoffs last season, I would have to disagree with all of those sites saying the Eagles are the team to beat. We didnt do ish last year, we don’t deserve to be considered, the under dog role fits this team much better!
The question wasn’t “what one thing do you need”
The question was “what did the SB winning teams have in common?”
To distill what I was trying to say down to “throw the QB out there” is bogus. That’s not what I said. Of course all other facets are essential, but like on Animal Farm, some facets are more essential than others.
Baltimore may have an awesome D, an awesome RB, but honestly, do you think they’re going to win the show with Flacco at the helm? I don’t…at some point he’ll revert to Flacco.
When Minny was running a couple years back…did you not know how that would end? Peterson could run all he wanted to, Allen could have 5 sacks, but you knew, that when the chips were down, Favre would Favre it and throw a pick. I watched the game with a bunch of Vikes fans and we pestered them all NFCC game…”you know what’s coming don’t you….you don’t know when but its coming” Of course they did. That stupid pick was not a suprise.
Do you think Buffalo will supplant NE this year? Doubtful. Why not? They have 2 better RBs, a much better defence, better DL, LBs….sure there are other considerations, but what does it really boil down to? Fitzpatrick vs Brady. If those 2 switched places, I bet you’d be leaning Buffalo.
On the flip side, you’ve got Brady carrying the, what? 30th, 31st ranked D for the past several years. You don’t think Denver isn’t going to roll to the Div title with Manning this year?
Again, the difference between players on NFL teams is minimal. Even when I talk about int percentage I’m talking about the diff between 2.3 and 3.3%. That’s only a couple of picks a year. but those 2 or 3 picks = 2 or 3 wins usually.
When the chips are down, Vick is going to Vick it, and that will have a much more detrimental effect that being 3.4 yrds behind the other team on punt returns.
You can talk other stats all you want…but the diff between the #1 kick return team in the nfl (27 yrds/return) vs the eagles 21 yrds/return…or about 12 yrds a game.
Do you honestly think that played as much of a factor in the rise of SF and our tire spinning as them having a QB who wen from throwing 3% ints to 1% whereas ours went from a 1.6% aberration back to his career avg of 3%? The one factor that led to the 49ers doing what they did last year was QB play.
Oh….and I totally expect a reversion to the mean for those 49ers. Smith was way above all his averages last year, and he’ll revert. Only thing they have going for them is their diversion.
QB is not the only factor. Not the only consideration. But it is the most important factor, the most important consideration, and we’re weak there.
That being said, lets cut out the Garcia talk for God’s sakes. He’s 82.
hey vinnie, you have a better option for a back up, how well do you know his fitness, and what do the birds have now at back up, jack, Blanda played until what age as a back up, this guy Garcia is a winner, perefect compliment to Vick, and the rook foles, I was never a big Vick fan, until all the bs, naysayers, your an fn genius, you have all the stats nailed down,but you can’t measure a man’s heart with your stat sheet, vick has the heart, unlike your mcnabb, ihope he nails it this yearto shut up all the detractors and put to rest the fraud mcnabb
Dude. Its 2012. He’s 42 yrs old. He hasn’t thrown a pass in the NFL since 2008. One the birds for 1/2 a season in 2009. He was out of football for all 2010. (ok…not exactly true…he had a scintillating 50% 9td 11 int campaign with some team caled the Omaha Nighthawks, which I think is perhaps 2 levels above the old-timers flag football league that I play in) Back for 5 games in ’11 where he was 3rd string behind TJ Yates and the absolutely horrible Jake Delhomme.
If you can’t get ahead of Jake Delhomme on the depth chart its time to move on. I’ll take my chances with Foles and Kafka over Garcia at this point.
Never said that Vick doesn’t have heart. Never questioned his desire to win…But Rudy Ruettiger had heart too….but I’ll take intelligent play over heart any day at the QB position.
Garcia as a back up is all you need to say to lose Any credibility! No one has called him in years and you want him. You are a joke. You know more than all the nfl gm’s