The NFL Week 5: A Giant Loss For Giants

    Again I will start by talking about the Massey-Peabody rankings.

    http://www.snywhyguys.com/2011/10/08/massey-peabody-week-5-nfl-power-rankings/

    This week in a mix up they weren't printed in the Wall Street Journal so Mike Salfino very helpfully posted them at his blog SNY Why Guys. As Mike says, ". I urge you all to visit the Massey-Peabody website."

    Agreed! These rankings really are very intriguing. They have in recent weeks shown that dream teams like the Jets and Eagles are overrated and that upstarts like the Bills and Lions deserve to be taken seriously. Still of course it is not infallible nor could there ever be an infallible system. While it often does very well and better than Vegas odds makers, this week, alas, a major upset with respect to its rankings occurred-my Giants(ranked 5th before the game) got whipped at home by Seattle (prior to game only ranked 27th).

    The Giants didn't seem to come into the game with the intensity of Seattle. While they were able to make some plays to keep in the game, at half time it was 14-14 whereas it would have been more like 28-7 if not for some clutch turnovers forced by the defense with Seattle deep in the red zone-ultimately they made too many mistakes and probably didn't deserve to win.

    I'm sure the Eli bashers will be blaming him for the loss after late in the game with the Jints down only 29-25, he threw a 96 yd interception returned for a TD to ice the game. Yet it was his play that put them in position to win. While it will be remembered that he threw 3 picks-especially that last one-it wont be so much that he threw a career high 421 yds in the game, or that coming in to the game he had only 2 picks all year and even now his yearly numbers are very impressive-11 TDs, 5 INTs, 1486 yds(an average of almost 300 yds per game which for a full season would give him almost 4800 yds by far his career record and also would mark the 3rd straight year of 4000 plus yds; in addition his QB rating is 102.3 also a career high).

    If we are trying to understand the causes of yesterday's loss first and foremost look at the running game which yet again had a sub par afternoon with only 69 yds. This from a rushing unit that coming in was only averaging 87.5 yds which believe it or not was already the lowest Giants rushing average since 1953. If the Giants have a problem it isn't Eli. It's a sub par rushing game, as well as sub par defense against the run which yesterday gave up 145 yds on the ground, with Marshawn Lynch burning them for 98 yds on just 12 carries including a 47 yd  run.

    That's the reality but do you think all the Eli bashers are gonna look at it? No it's all Eli's fault, he single-handedly is responsible for the loss and gets no credit for the wins.