Nice read

[Bronx33]

http://giants.com/news/eisen/story.asp?story_id=10171

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. – The Giants will know a lot more about themselves after they play host to the Denver Broncos on Sunday.

They will know if the offensive shortcomings that plagued them last week in Dallas, particularly on third down, were a one-week aberration for a team that still leads the NFL in points-per-game.

They will know whether the defense has solved its own third-down dilemma and it can stop a 1-2 punch at running back that has helped Denver become the NFL’s No. 3 rushing team.

Moat importantly, they will know if they are capable of beating one of the league’s best and hottest teams. The Broncos are 5-1 and have won five consecutive games since stumbling on opening day in Miami. Each of those victories was over a team with a winning record.

“They have done a good job,” Giants coach Tom Coughlin said. “They haven’t turned the ball over in four games. They seemed to be able to do whatever was necessary at home. They are 4-0 at home; they are 1-1 on the road (including a victory at 4-2 Jacksonville). They have an outstanding running game. Their defense features multiple looks with multiple blitzes coming out of the secondary. So they put the same kind of pressure on you on both sides of the ball, if you will. They run the ball well. They set up their play action passes, their nakeds, all of the things they like to do off of those particular looks. And then on defense they pretty much come after you with your offensive team having to prepare for a number of looks and to handle that kind of pressure.

“So to win the game you have to stop the run, do something about the running game to allow you to be able to defend other areas, and you have to be able to run the ball yourself into multiple looks and go ahead and pick up the various blitzes they will throw at you in terms of being able to protect the passer. They have also upgraded, I think, their special teams outfits.”

It sounds as if the Giants face a rather formidable task. The unknown is how they will respond after last week’s disheartening defeat in Dallas where the Giants a) scored a total of six points off four Cowboys turnovers; b) succeeded on just one of 11 third-down conversion opportunities; and c) tied the game with 19 seconds remaining in the fourth quarter, but never touched the ball in overtime.

[Bronx33]

“Anytime you play as poorly as we did last week you look forward to that next opportunity and this is the one,” running back Tiki Barber said. “It’s a home game, and we’ve played better at home than on the road this year. We look forward to making something happen for us, scoring some points, taking advantage of the opportunities our defense inevitably will give us, because they’ve done it all year. In Dallas we didn’t take advantage of them.”

Coughlin said the players’ attitude has been good and they practiced well this week. But he also made sure to remind them that they couldn’t dwell on the defeat, because 11 games remain in the season.

“I think that they were down,” Coughlin said. “Our team was down. They were very, very much into winning last weekend’s game and they came very well prepared. Our focus was outstanding and our meeting on Saturday night was excellent. Our practices have been very good and so in not gaining what we went down to Dallas to get, we were down. We were very disappointed. As I sensed that and spoke to our team, what I really wanted to do was make them understand and compliment them for the good things that happened, but also point out the things that weren’t good. So from that standpoint, we also looked at the fact that it is a very long season and we have to learn from our experiences and move forward. There’s no sense in dwelling on something that occurred yesterday. It’s time to spend a few hours studying the results, learn from it what you can, and move on.”

When they did, the Giants found perhaps their most formidable opponent to date. Denver is third in the NFL in rushing yardage, averaging 153.3 yards a game. The speedy Tatum Bell has 395 yards and three touchdowns, while the more powerful Mike Anderson has rushed for 358 yards and two scores. Quarterback Jake Plummer has not thrown an interception in his last four games, and he’s doubly dangerous because of his ability to scramble and throw on the run.

“Jake’s a competitor,” safety Brent Alexander said. “You can’t look at how strong his arm is, how fast he is. He’s going to compete and he’s going to do whatever it takes.”

[Bronx33]

“We know they’re a great running team,” linebacker Carlos Emmons said. “Their scheme is a lot different than anyone else’s in the way their linemen block. It’s something you have to work on all week to try to get adjusted to. It’s going to take a lot of great plays from our D-line as far as adjusting to their scheme and the linebackers have to handle their cutback, because they cut back a lot.”

Offensively, the Giants expect to improve their third-down conversion percentage, which will give them more continuity, momentum – and more opportunities to run the ball.

“We have to be better on third down than we were last week,” quarterback Eli Manning said. “We can’t have penalties, we can’t shoot ourselves in the foot on different things, and where there are plays there to be made, we have to make them and we can’t make mistakes. We’re going to have some bad plays. Denver is going to do some things where they’re going to win on some plays, but we just have to hang in there strong and take advantage of the shots that we have.”

The Broncos are as good stopping the run as they are running the ball themselves. They have allowed only 88.3 yards a game.

“This defense is really tough,” Barber said. “We’re looking forward to it. We’re excited about seeing what this offense can do against a defense that has proven to be one of the top in the league so far.”

The Giants are beginning a stretch in which they play four of their next five games at home. The road game is at San Francisco, which is 1-4. But with the formidable Broncos in town, the Giants are focused only on Sunday’s game.

“We just go week-to-week and you try to win,” Manning said. “You prepare for the game that you are playing and you try to win that one and you keep up with the standings and how things are working out in your division. But, really all you can do is take it one game at a time."

[Bronx33]

Notes

• Split end Plaxico Burress did not practice because of back spasms and was added to the injury report as questionable. Emmons, linebacker Reggie Torbor and safety Gibril Wilson, all of whom have ankle injuries, did practice. Emmons remains listed as questionable, while Torbor and Wilson were upgraded from questionable to probable. Burress, Barrett Green (ankle, questionable) and cornerback Will Peterson (back, out) did not practice.

“He’s going to see more doctors and get more opinions,” Coughlin said of Green.

Green, who had offseason knee and ankle surgery, has played in just one game this season. Coughlin was asked if he expects to have Green anytime soon.

“I don’t know that,” Coughlin said. “I don’t have an answer for that. In the beginning … he worked pretty much every day, but it was more how many snaps could he work kind of thing. Right now, he’s not working at all. Maybe something good will come out of that. We’ll have to see. You know what it is he’s got his two situations; one he’s coming off an ACL and the other he’s coming off an ankle surgery as well. So, he’s got some issues.”

• Rookie Eric Moore has been splitting time between defensive end and linebacker in practice. Moore, the Giants’ sixth-round draft choice this year, has been inactive for every game.

“We felt a couple of weeks ago that Eric might be a guy that we could work with because of his pass rush skills and his athleticism,” Coughlin said. “So, we began to try to slowly work him at both spots and introduce him to that spot in case we the need would arise. So, he’s been working at that spot.

“He’s played and worked at both. If you watched him this week individually, he was with the defensive line and then we’d work him some at linebacker and then we’d work him some during the team periods at linebacker.”

• Manning has thrown at least one touchdown pass in each of his last six games, throwing for 13 scores and just four interceptions in that span.

[TerrElway]

Leading the NFL in points after playing such powerhouse defenses as New Orleans (third to last in socring D), Arizona (26th in scoring D), and St Louis (last in scoring D).

SD has a decent defense (20th in scoring D) and they mustered 23 points. Dallas has a good defense (12th) and they came up with a whopping 13 points.

I just hope they kill Eli, the NFL already is gagging on Pusston's man meat while it gives Eli a lap dance. Screw them and the devil's horse they rode in on.

[orange crusher]

That would be huge for Denver if Burress is unable to play.

[TheReverend]

If we must wait until the playoffs to take our revenge on Peyton... we can at least maim his little brother on Sunday.

[Atlas]

Here is another article I thought I would throw in here. Dirty blocking is written about once again.

SoCals link:http://www.nydailynews.com/front/sto...p-305117c.html

Big Blue plans
on bucking Broncos



BY RALPH VACCHIANO
DAILY NEWS SPORTS WRITER


Giants hope to stop Mike Anderson and Denver's running game.

Lost in all the heat the Giants' pass defense has taken lately is the fact that their run defense, for the most part, has been outstanding. The only blemish came in San Diego, when the Chargers torched them for 268 rushing yards.
The Giants said that was an aberration. They'll have a chance to prove that it was when they face the Denver Broncos tomorrow.

There aren't many teams with running games as dangerous as the one the Chargers have with LaDainian Tomlinson, but the Broncos (5-1), as always, have one. They have the NFL's third-best rushing offense - one place ahead of San Diego - averaging 153.3yards per game. And they have two running backs each on pace to approach 1,000 yards.

In other words, the Broncos are up to their old tricks. The names may change in their backfield, but the results never do.

"They have a unique scheme in the way they go about their business with the run game," Tom Coughlin said.

"What they do, they do good," added defensive tackle Kendrick Clancy. "They do it damn good."

So what do they do? Why haven't they seemed to skip a beat from the days of Terrell Davis and Clinton Portis? How have they turned Tatum Bell (58carries, 395 yards) and Mike Anderson (88-358) into two dangerous and potentially 1,000-yard backs?

The key, Giants defenders say, is Denver's offensive line and the unique zone-blocking schemes the Broncos traditionally employ. Actually "unique" is being kind, since it's often been called "dirty" - though no Giant seemed willing to call it that this week.

Basically, the Broncos' offensive line blocks side-to-side, which gets the defensive line and linebackers moving laterally instead of straight ahead. They also block low, looking to take defenders out at their knees in order to create an instant hole.

The way to combat that, according to Giants linebacker Carlos Emmons, is to play disciplined football and stay in assigned gaps. Discipline, however, wasn't exactly the Giants' strong point in that game against the Chargers, and it's something they've been inconsistent with for most of the year.

"I think we've been an up-and-down team in that sense," Emmons said. "We watch plays where we play it great and we have that one letdown. We have a play where everybody's right and one guy doesn't do it. Good teams find those holes."

[Odysseus]

Keys to the game:

Broncos: Beat the crap out of the Giants, Little Payton, Coughlin, Dayne's old team and bludgeon their defense like you said the wrong thing to one of our cheerleaders. "What? I didn't you? What?"

Giants: Don't say anything stupid and pray really hard Broncos plays flat.