Gints Beat Pats

First the bad news: the Gints first D got owned by what was essentially the Pats second-string offense. No Tom Brady, no Lawrence Maroney and no Deion Branch. That wasn't good to see. QB Matt Cassel looked at times like a Brady clone. He's been learning from some greats; he was the backup to Carson Palmer, then Matt Leinart, and now Tom Brady.

And the good news: RB Brandon Jacobs and DE Mathias Kiwanuka have improved in every pre-season game. Jacobs showed his vast potential in this one, rushing for 2 td and 130 yards on only 15 carries. He ran over defenders, around them, and just plain past them. He showed agility, explosiveness, pass-catching, pure speed and vision; and he broke arm tackles, helmet grabs, and stuffed rushers on pass plays: it was everything the Giants hoped for when they picked him in round 4 last year. He also had 2 catches for 13 yards.

And now to Kiwanuka, who made one of the best defensive plays I've ever seen! He tipped a pass at the line, picked the ball, and hurtled over a tackler to gain an additional few yards. It was the turning point. New England already had a 7-0 lead, and were driving again. Kiwanuka foreced the turnover and then Jacobs scored on a beautiful 57 yard run.

Manning looked better tonight than he did against the Jets, completing several short but efficient passes. The Gints only attempted one pass of more than 20 yards. Is this because they are hiding their long plays until the games matter, or they weren't called tonight to protect the QBs, or the OL didn't give the QBs enough time to get the ball deep? I'll assume Coughlin and Huffnagel are hiding their best deep plays for the regular season.

31-23 Giants

I can't wait for next Sunday...