Larry Brown Sports

The New York Giants released Ahmad Bradshaw last week, and it’s a mystery how many potential suitors are going to line up for the oft-injured running back this offseason. Bradshaw had his ups and downs in New York last year, but the season ultimately ended in disappointment as the Giants missed the playoffs. One of the issues with that team, he says, was a sense of entitlement.

“We couldn’t come together as a team,” Bradshaw told the NFL Network on Tuesday, via The Star-Ledger. “Everybody seemed to think the season would come together in one game. We didn’t have the chemistry we had the year before … We didn’t play together, take advantage of the opportunities we had. … Everyone thought the games would just be handed to us. It was a tough season.”

That sounds to me like the definition of the Super Bowl hangover. One of the reasons it is so tough for a team to win back-to-back Super Bowls is the inability of players to stay as hungry as they were the year before. When you take into consideration the fact that the Giants defied the odds twice in four years and won championships as an underdog, it becomes even more difficult. Plus, it didn’t help that the back end of their schedule was so brutal.

As for his future, Bradshaw raised more than a few eyebrows when he essentially began selling himself to the New York Jets immediately upon his release.

“The New York Jets are a team that I’m excited to hear about, just to stay home, not make a big move from New York,” Bradshaw said. “It’s just right across the street from where I am now.”

The Jets have many needs outside the running back position, so Bradshaw would likely have to take a significant pay cut to stay in New York. He could also return to the Giants on a new deal, which he has not yet ruled out. He better sort this thing out fast. Fantasy owners are already curious.

After an embarrassing loss to the Baltimore Ravens on Sunday, the New York Giants will need a ton of help next week in order to make the playoffs. The G-Men have to beat the Philadelphia Eagles at home and have the Dallas Cowboys lose or tie, the Minnesota Vikings lose and the Chicago Bears lose. Stranger things have happened, but the chances are looking slim.

As for that 33-14 loss in Baltimore, Eli Manning was baffled that his team has put itself in the position it is currently in.

“It’s shocking,” Manning said according to the NY Post. “It’s one thing to lose and it’s one thing to be in there and something happens at the end of the game and [another to] not give yourself a chance. To get down early and getting no momentum, get no spark that can get us going and consistently not making plays that are there and not executing to our ability, it can be confusing.”

Since starting out the season 6-2, the Giants have lost five out of their last seven games. They have been outscored 67-14 in their last two games, during which Manning posted a passer rating of 58.5. The only thing New York can do now is attempt to take care of the Eagles and hope for the best.

“All we can do is go out and try to get back to playing better,” Manning said. “Whatever happens after that, you can’t worry about it. … So whether we make the playoffs or we go into the off-season, at least we go into that last regular season game and … we have a sense that we played well and ended on a good note.”

The Giants have stumbled into the playoffs and gone on to win the Super Bowl twice in the past five years, so in a way this is their style. They seem to enjoy digging themselves out of a hole, but the one they’ve created this year could be too deep to crawl out of.

Photo credit: Jim O’Connor-US PRESSWIRE

The New York Giants suffered their most embarrassing loss of the season on Sunday — a 34-0 throttling at the hands of the Atlanta Falcons. In the process, the G-Men allowed the Washington Redskins and Dallas Cowboys to climb into a three-way tie with them atop the NFC East. Ahmad Bradshaw missed the game with a knee injury, and the running back feels he could have helped the team spare some embarrassment had he suited up.

“It was just a couple pieces missing, a couple things we couldn’t finish,” Bradshaw said Monday according to the Star-Ledger. “I just would have liked to have been there. A lot of things would have been different.”

Bradshaw, who said he expects to play against the Baltimore Ravens on Sunday, is one of the better backs in the league when healthy and certainly plays with passion — even taking it too far in some instances. However, to think one player could have done much to change the fortune of a team that lost by almost five touchdowns would be ridiculous.

Rookie David Wilson ran for 55 yards on 12 carries, meaning he averaged an impressive 4.6 yards per carry. When a team digs itself into that big of a hole on the road by way of turnovers and missed field goals, there’s very little a running back can do. New York is certainly a better team with both Bradshaw and Wilson healthy in terms of versatility, but it’s tough to agree that much would have been different if Bradshaw played. Total domination is total domination.

After their dominating 42-14 win over the Houston Texans on Monday night, most experts, analysts and fans are calling the New England Patriots the best team in football. Osi Umenyiora agrees that no team is playing better than the Patriots right now, but he still feels as though the New York Giants are the team to beat.

“When the Giants are playing our best, there’s no question we’re the best team in football,” Umenyiora told ESPN 98.7 on Tuesday, via the Star-Ledger. “We’ve just been inconsistent. So if we can play the way we’re capable of playing – the way we played against San Francisco, the way we played against Green Bay, the way we played against the Saints for the majority of the game – I don’t think there’s a team that’s better than us at all.”

The Giants are the reining Super Bowl champions, so technically they are still the team to beat until the trophy changes hands. In terms of going head-to-head with New England, history certainly tells us New York has the edge. That being said, consistent play is one of the factors that determines who the best team in football is. The Giants have been able to get hot at the right time in past seasons, and they’ll have to do it again this year as they have just a one-game lead over the Dallas Cowboys and Washington Redskins in the NFC East.

We know the Giants hardly lack confidence and love to let everyone know about it. They have proven they can beat the NFL’s best teams when they play their best football, but that can be said about a lot of teams. If the G-Men don’t find that consistency of which Umenyiora speaks over the last three games of the season, they may not have a chance to defend their title in January and February.

H/T Pro Football Talk
Photo credit: Jason O. Watson-US PRESSWIRE

For whatever reason, the New York Giants seem to fall asleep in the month of November and into early December every season. Fortunately, they tend to turn things on at the end of the regular season and during the playoffs. After losing three out of their last four — including a game to the Washington Redskins that has made the NFC East race incredibly tight — Tom Coughlin will need his players to be their usual selves in December.

Safety Antrel Rolle believes one of New York’s biggest problems has been its attitude.

“I think we just need to get back to being a little nasty, having a nasty attitude,” Rolle told WFAN’s Joe Benigno and Evan Roberts. “Like I said, don’t do anything that’s out of the line of football, but have a little nasty attitude, get a little bit more dog in us, and go out there and play the game. Play the game physical, play the game tough, play the game hard, and we’ll give hugs and kisses after the game.

“But while that game is going on, we respect no one. And that’s how the game of football needs to be played.”

December also happens to be the month when Rolle turns into a quote machine, but that’s an entirely separate discussion. The Giants are now only one game up on the Redskins and the Dallas Cowboys, and both teams have shown signs of coming as of late. Uninspired play could be to blame for New York’s recent rough stretch, but it should also be noted that their schedule has been brutal with seven straight games against teams that are now .500 and above.

And it doesn’t get much easier. The Giants close out the season against the Saints, Falcons, Ravens and Eagles. They could very well need to win three of those games to win the NFC East. Getting a little more nasty would be a solid place to start.

The New York Giants lost to the Pittsburgh Steelers last weekend for a number of reasons, one of them being their poor play defensively. One of the reasons the Steelers were able to overcome a number of poor calls from the officials was that they moved the ball and established a solid running game. On Monday, Tom Coughlin called his defense out for the lackluster performance.

“It was soft, no question,” Coughlin said according to The Star-Ledger. “It was soft early. We came back and played a little bit better and then they had their breakout there at the end of the game.”

Even Justin Tuck agreed that the Giants’ defensive front seven was “mushed” around by the Steelers offensive lineman. Considering the fact that Isaac Redman ran for 147 yards on 26 carries, that seems fairly obvious.

“Not to the point where they were more physical than us,” Tuck asserted. “But to the point where you got a guy in the gap and Redman was just behind his guard, behind his guard, and a guy jumps out of his gap trying to get around to get to Redman and he kind of like filters forward for three more, four more yards, and that’s just us got to do a better job of escaping blocks and getting to the ball carrier.”

Redman gained 74 yards after contact, so the Giants clearly did a poor job of tackling. That is likely wear Coughlin’s assertion that his defense was soft comes in. New York should have an easier time against the Bengals and BenJarvus Green-Ellis on Sunday. If not, they could turn the NFC East into a much tighter race than it needs to be.

The NFL replacement referees have not been around for over a month, but you wouldn’t have been able to tell that watching Sunday’s Pittsburgh Steelers-New York Giants game.

The Steelers overcame at least two bad calls from the officials to beat the Giants 24-20.

In the second quarter, the Giants were down 7-0 and had a third-and-goal from the two. Eli Manning scrambled after not being able to find anything in the end zone, and then he fired for Victor Cruz. The ball was nearly intercepted by Steelers CB Ike Taylor, who stepped in front of Cruz. Safety Ryan Clark came across and crushed Cruz, laying him out with a shoulder-first hit. Clark was penalized for a personal foul after the officials say he hit Cruz in the head. Replays showed that he led with his shoulder.

FOX NFL rules analyst Mike Pereira disagreed with the call. “That is not a blow to the head and not a foul. Pass had not even hit the ground yet,” he wrote on Twitter.

Instead of having a fourth-and-goal from the two, the Giants were first-and-goal from the one and scored on the next play. That was a four-point difference.

The Giants benefited from another questionable call a few plays later.

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