I Cannot WAIT To Get To Indy

Ummmm Peyton who?! 100% understand the Luck jersey, probably a million of those floating around by now... But an Eli Manning Colts jersey?! I mean that's music to my fucking eyeballs. Talk about a home game for the Giants. I cannot wait to get my ass into Indy on Saturday and be flooded with Colts/Giants fans. Just couldn't ask for a better scenario for the Giants. All Colts fans obviously hate the Patriots, and hate Tom Brady.... but they all fucking LOVE Peyton Manning, except this guy who really wants Andrew Luck to play QB - talk about completely abandoning ship on the one guy who literally made your franchise what it is right now, what a jerk right???? But anyway, so if they love Peyton they have to have a soft spot in their heart for his little brother who's about to pass him in ring collection rankings. OOOOHHH BOY this weekend is going to be so fucking outstanding I can't even stand it! If we got Colts fans making personalized Eli jersey's, we've got a serious homefield advantage - but technically it's still a road game in the postseason so the Giants should be golden.

Giants. Patriots. Super Bowl. Eli Better Than Brady?

Who would have thought Week 9 was a preview of Super Bowl XLVI, huh? Sure, record wise you would think two 5-2 teams was a good match-up, but the Patriots hadn't beaten anyone with a winning record and the Giants first half schedule was as easy as it gets and also included losses to the Redskins and Seahawks. Well they were both different teams back then, Patriots still figuring things out coming off a loss to Pittsburgh and the Giants having huge problems both running the ball and stopping the run. Another problem for the Giants at the mid-way point was that they hadn't had a consistent pass rush because of injuries to Osi Umenyiora and Justin Tuck, leaving Jason Pierre-Paul to fend for himself - had it not been for his overly rapid development, who knows where the Giants would be right now.

The Giants won the game 24-20 on another Eli Manning game winning touchdown drive, which I'm sure Pats fans are sick of seeing by now. They also did it without starting RB Ahmad Bradshaw and #1 WR Hakeem Nicks. The Patriots could have folded up shop, but instead reeled off 10 straight wins. The Giants, lost 5 of their next 6 games before catching fire flames when it counted, including narrow losses to the last two teams they knocked out of the playoffs. Giants entered that game in Foxboro 9 point underdogs, they'll enter the Super Bowl somewhere in the range of 3 point dogs.

The Patriots are finding different ways to win each week. At the start of the season, it was Tom Brady looking like he was going to throw for 10,000 yards and another 50 TD's and the offense was going to be 2007 all over again. Rob Gronkowski (the greatest 6th round fantasy draft pick of all-time, fuck it though because my team still missed the playoffs thanks Darren McFadden, never mind) decided to put together one of the nope actually THE greatest season for a TE in the history of the game. Guy was an absolute machine, straight up uncoverable. Giants won in Week 9 yet Gronk put up 8 catches for 101 yards and a touchdown. That's about the best you could hope for against him. Once teams keyed on Brady and the passing game, The Law Firm, Woodhead and some other no name backs started to run the ball on teams. Last week in the AFC Championship, that's exactly what they did to the Ravens. With the Ravens using mostly Nickel packages, the Pats went no huddle, not allowing the Ravens to substitute and match personnel, and the Pats ran it on a softer group than we're used to seeing. Not only did the Ravens not have the matchups they wanted, the main cogs out there (Ray Lewis, Haloti Ngata) were gassed by the non-stop movement. The mix up in game plans is what won the Pats that game, and will pose a serious challenge to a Giants defense that likes to mix up personnel along the defensive line to keep their defensive line fresh and their pass rush constant. Without them being able to sub in and out, it could render their entire defensive scheme useless.

The Giants are a completely different team than they were when these two teams met. Eli Manning has been playing at a high level all season, but has taken it even higher in this postseason. Whereas Tom Brady has looking pretty human after throwing for no touchdowns and two picks last week against the Ravens - being outplayed by Joe Flacco. The Giants are as healthy as they've been all season long, they'll have the two starters they were missing in Week 9, Bradshaw and Nicks. And their defensive line is fully healthy, which is a main reason they are where they are. The regular season stats are a bit misleading, listing the Giants 32nd out of 32 teams running the ball, averaging just under 90 yards/game. That's changed since the regular season, and Manning now has a running game to work with which makes it easier to pick apart opposing defenses. He'll be going against an uncharacteristically bad Bill Belichick defense in Indy, the Pats ranked 32nd against the pass and were just shredded by Joe Flacco. Manning will have his weapons on a turf field in a controlled environment, unlike last week in San Francisco where they dealt with dreadful field conditions and constant rain and wind. Scary to think what they can do on a speedy surface against a suspect pass defense. If this does turn into a shootout, advantage has got to go to the Giants.

Eli Manning. Guy has been an absolute monster in this postseason. Big reason? 3rd downs. In situations the Giants have faced a 3rd and 6 or longer - The Giants converted 15 of 25 times (60%). Eli in those situations? 18 of 21 (86%) for 287 yards with a TD and no INTs, calculate that out and that's good for a 134.6 QB rating.

Against Atlanta: 7/7, 113 yards.

Against Green Bay: 5/5, 79 yards.

Against San Fran: 6/9, 95 yards and a TD.

That's just fucking nuts. The guy is widely praised for being a certifiable film junky, and he shows it with his adjustments at the line. He reads the defense and goes through his progressions like he knows exactly where the defenders are going to be. That wasn't the case his first 7 seasons, this comes with experience, and he has it now. This isn't a case of him being hot, this is Eli now, this kind of performance and level of play is here for good now. There's nothing he hasn't seen in this league, and going into a game in which he's already won (against a much, much better version of the Patriots) there's no reason he doesn't have an absolute field day against their awful pass defense. The Giants don't even need the run as they proved against the extremely solid SF defense. He threw the ball 58 times in piss poor conditions while getting hit and bullied on nearly every single snap, and it never phased him. Late in the game, he stood in the pocket on a 3rd and 15 and threw a fucking laser to Mario Manningham in the end zone against an 8-man coverage for the TD. Another huge 4th quarter play to put the Giants in position to put the game into OT and put them into the Super Bowl. This guy plus a dominating pass rush should have the Patriots extremely nervous going into this game, Week 9 I said this was a terrible matchup for the Patriots, and now? It's much worse. Because calling Eli Manning "elite" is becoming borderline disrespectful.... But it's okay, he's used to it.

Eli Still Getting Absolutely No Credit

ESPN - Aaron Rodgers is the MVP, and it isn't even close. Last season was the first time there was a unanimous winner of the Associated Press's Most Valuable Player award, with Tom Brady winning all 50 of the votes. This year should be the second time. One of the main criteria for being an elite quarterback is consistency. Eli Manning has been consistently good this season late in games. He has five fourth-quarter comeback wins, two more than the next-closest quarterbacks, Cincinnati's Andy Dalton and San Francisco's Alex Smith. Sunday at New England, the Giants twice trailed the Patriots in the fourth quarter, and twice Manning brought them back. On third-and-5 at the New England 10-yard line, he threw a touchdown strike to Mario Manningham to take a 17-13 lead. After the Patriots scored to retake the lead 20-17, Manning led the Giants on an 80-yard drive in the final 90 seconds that included a huge third-down throw to Jake Ballard and a pass interference call against New England at the goal line. Manning's fourth-quarter numbers: 8-of-13 for 93 yards and two touchdowns.

Okay, so Aaron Rodgers leading the unbelievably heavily favored defending champions at full strength to an 8-0 start is MVP worthy - but a guy having an absolutely phenomenal career season leading a team that has taken mass casualties to key guys at key positions isn't even given more than "consistently good late in games"? How does ESPN let women write for them? This girl obviously never played football, and odds are she just gets her information from box scores - but if he's been only "good" late in games then the rest of the QB's in the league have fucking sucked. Newsflash toots, Eli Manning is fucking great in the 4th quarter to the point where he leads the league, and it isn't even close.

This guy gets absolutely no credit, but at least give it to him when it's due. Guy goes into Foxboro and beats Brady after telling the world he's in the same class as the guy. Well Eli was obviously wrong, because he was in a higher class than the Uggs poster boy yesterday. The thing I can't stand is Eli drives the Giants to two 80 yard TD drives in the final 3 minutes of the game on the road in a place no one has beaten Brady in the regular season since November of '06, and all people talked about was the one INT he had in the 3rd quarter that obviously has nothing to do with anything since it had no impact on the final score. Now Brady, Mr Fucking Perfect can't seem to do anything wrong. Guy throws 2 picks, loses a fumble but no one is talking about how shitty he's been playing. Head to head Eli has beaten Brady twice in a row, both on 4th quarter comebacks. So why isn't there more blame on Brady? Why isn't anyone asking if he just doesn't have it anymore? Maybe he's not so cool under pressure? Maybe it was the Gatorade Bottles Fault?

PS - That's the closest Brady came to hitting Ochocinco yesterday.

I don't know but this guy needs to start feeling the heat for once. Eli has taken so much shit over his career and he's still got that "Aw shucks gee willikers I'm just out there doing my best" attitude that might just be the best thing to have playing in NY when even when you win a Super Bowl in the most dramatic fashion in your 4th season and it doesn't mean shit because everyone still seems to hate you, best to just not give a fuck. I give Eli a ton of credit, had a terrible season last year with the 25 picks and I've said for a long time many of those weren't his fault. But living amongst the most arrogant and delusional fans I've ever dealt with, Jets fans, they continued pointing to that stat and how Sanchez will be better than him (absolutely hilarious) but I don't know if the Jets can just waltz into Foxboro without their #1 RB, #1 WR and starting center, and beat Tom Brady and the Patriots like it's no big deal. Eli never once said the INT's were anyone else's fault but his own, another thing I give him credit for - but he worked hard to overcome that, and half a season in - the guy has thrown only 6 picks. Brady has 10.

For a guy who had a ridiculously high QB rating in the 4th quarter, Eli's has actually gone up after yesterdays come from behind win against the Pats. It now sits a shade over 121, ten points higher than the #2 QB, Aaron Rodgers. You know - that guy who's the clear cut favorite for the MVP. I'm not gonna lie or pull punches here, there's no way Rodgers is a unanimous MVP of this league. He's a great QB - but he better fucking win with that roster. Eli Manning needs to be considered because just like his brother - if he's not behind center, this team might have 0 wins right now. He's carrying this team on his back right now, and he's proving to the whole fucking world he's ELIte like a motherfucker.