Since we never got our promised link by Mike Dougherty on his Giants blog, I’m heasitent to plug his Journal News in any way, but I just have to, because this is really cool.  They made a tool to calculate the salaries of any NFL player.

Link to the 2008 Player Salary Tool

This is especially hard in the NFL because many of the players have more incentive salary than they do base salary, but this tool tackles it all.  For example, Giants lineman Chris Snee has a base salary of $860,000.  But with incentives, he is expected to make upwards of $14 million this season, making him the highest paid player on the team.  If you have any salary questions for this year, hit up that tool.  It’s really easy to use, and tells you the base salary of a player in addition to their expected total salary for the year.

Wow.  What a great game.  The Giants beat another very good team and moved to 2-0 in this difficult 2nd half of the season, and 9-1 overall.  That’s awesome.  I couldn’t be happier where this team is right now.  Here’s my take:

The good:
-Brandon Jacobs and the rushing attack.  They dropped 207 yards on the league’s #2 rushing defense, including a bruising 73 yard and 2 TD performance by Brandon Jacobs.  This offensive line deserves a lot of credit too.  They are an amazing run-blocking group.
-Plaxico Burress is back to making a difference.  He only had 4 catches for 47 yards, but they were big catches.  He also had his numbers dropped a little because the run game was working so well.
-Eli Manning looked great to me.  He had a few silly passes that weren’t even close, but I’ve learned that it sort of comes with him and it’s never going to go away.  Kind of like Ben Rothleisberger and his holding onto the ball too long.  You better get used to it because it’s not going away.  But Eli’s ability to step up in the pocket in this game was incredible.  He had guys coming at him from all angles, and all Eli did was take a step or two forward, and everyone went around him.  He never took his eyes off the receivers, and that’s a great thing.
-Ahmad Bradshaw.  I am now totally confident that if Brandon Jacobs goes down, which he’s somewhat prone to doing, that this team won’t be at exactly the level of rushing it was, but they will definitely be fine until he comes back.  Ward and Bradshaw are incredibly competent, and they can fill in fine.
-The blocked field goal.  How awesome was that?

The bad:
-The defensive line.  2 straight games without a sack, and I’m starting to get a LITTLE worried.  Little is in caps because it’s not really that much of a concern here, but it is in the back of my mind.  The box score says Kiwanuka had a sack, but I can’t remember it, and I can’t find it in the play-by-play log.  So it’s going as zero sacks in my book.
-The kicking situation.  Lawrence Tynes wasn’t any better than Carney on kickoffs, and Tynes had a botched extra point.  I know it was a problem with the snap and hold, but you never know what caused that.  It could be a timing issue with using Tynes for the first week.  I want John Carney back.

The ugly:
-Since there’s nothing really from this game that was ugly on the Giants, I’m going with CBS’s coverage.  They had moments during the game where the broadcast stopped for a few minutes, and they cut away from the game at the end to show us Atlanta-Denver.  WHO CARES!? I want to see my Giants! I’m in New York for christ’s sake, nobody is going to want to watch Atlanta-Denver.  And in addition, we didn’t even get to hear Phil Simms.  Just an awful job by CBS overall.

Recap show coming tomorrow.

Dr. Darryl Gross announced that Greg Robinson will not be retained after this season for Syracuse football.  IT’S ABOUT TIME!  G-Rob might just be the worst coach in college football, and if he’s not, he’s close.  Finally this program makes the necessary move to look toward the future.

http://blog.syracuse.com/orangefootball/2008/11/robinson_fired.html

According to ESPN, Former Giants head coach Jim Fassel sent a hand-written letter to Al Davis telling him he wishes to take the reins of this embattled franchise.  Fassel hasn’t had a head coaching position since he ran the Giants from 1997-2003.  He was the offensive coordinator of the Baltimore Ravens from 2003-2006.  He interviewed for the Redskins coaching position, but they hired Jim Zorn.

Full story

Offensive tackle McKenzie was arrested last night and charged with driving under the infulence.  He was in Little Falls, NJ at the time.  This is his first offense.

Tom Coughlin said it will not affect his status for Sunday’s game against the Ravens, and called McKenzie a “first-class citizen.”

The NFL penalty for a first-time offense is usually 2 game checks with a maximum of $50,000.

Some interesting nuggets for your reading enjoyment:

Paul Schwartz of the New York Post looks over the Giants 5 big free agents in the offseason: Brandon Jacobs, Derrick Ward, Corey Webster, Amani Toomer, and James Butler.  He brings up the unfortunate but inevitable truth that Earth, Wind, and Fire is probably a 1-year deal.  Ward could start anywhere where a feature back isn’t already in place, and he won’t settle for 2nd on the depth chart on the Giants unless they absolutely break the bank for him, which they won’t.  They will most likely resign Jacobs, let Ward go, move Bradshaw into his place, and put Danny Ware in Bradshaw’s spot.

Ian O’Connor of Fox Sports talked to Jerry Reese, and figured that the Giants could be turning into a dynasty.  And Jerry Reese couldn’t agree more.  It’s a fun read.

Vinne Iyer of SportingNews.com makes his case for why Eli Manning is the MVP of the league.  He says Eli should be picked over guys who have the numbers like Clinton Portis, Drew Brees, and Albert Haynesworth.

Chase Blackburn may have made his biggest play of the game on defense Sunday night, stopping Brian Westbrook on 4th and 1 to essentially seal the game.  But he got some other accolades when he was named NFC Special Teams Player of the Week.  Blackburn made three solo special teams tackles on kickoffs, two in the fourth quarter, and recovered a fumble in the first quarter, setting up a field goal for a 10-7 lead.  Blackburn is the second Giants player to win the award this year; John Carney won it in Week 3 with 4 field goals against Cincinnati.  He’s the first non-kicker or punter to win it for the Giants since the immortal David Tyree in Week 11 of the ‘05 season.

Another cool special teams note: Sunday will pit Matt Stover (447 career field goals) against John Carney (446 career field goals), who rank 3rd and 4th in NFL history in field goals.

Interesting tidbit here from Matt Mosley of ESPN.com that we didn’t talk about in our recap show (which…should be up any minute now?  I figured it would be up already…ok then).  He notes that while Eli Manning and Donovan McNabb had fairly similar numbers, Eli was much better on 3rd down which ultimately was the difference between their two performances.  Take a look at the numbers.  (By the way, since I can’t seem to post under the tables, that’s a 16 QB rating for McNab on 3rd down.  Sixteen.)

Recap episode will be up any second now.  It gets a bit heated at one point…

The Giants are there.  Firmly atop the NFC.  And boy does it feel good.  I had to be rushed to the hospital approximately 7 times for heart attacks during the game, but they pulled it out.  Let’s break down this game, Kevin Brown style.

The good:
-The running game.  Earth, Wind, and Fire racked up 219 big ones, including 126 and 2 bank cashes for Earth, 58 for Wind, and 38 for Fire (by the way, I have officially conceded after hearing Al Michaels call Derrick Ward Wind.  I give up).  Once again, Tom Coughlin shows how he is successful: run, run, run, even if it doesn’t work right away, because it will eventually, especially with the backs he has.
-Kevin Boss.  He had 6 catches for 69 yards, a TD, and was a few bobbles from another one.  He’s finally back from the Super Bowl.
-The coaching.  Spags had some trouble containing McNabb, but he kept Westbrook in check (13 rushes for 26 yards).  McNabb out-rushed Westbrook by 9 yards.  Also, don’t even bother looking at other games down the road.  Coughlin wins the Pepto-Bismol Challenge of the Year Award (I made that up, incase you’re a very gullible person).  Pulling that obscure rule out of his you-know-what was pure genius.  I’m also sure he has some people up in a particular booth that helped him out on that one.  Props to everyone who worked on that call.  It was brilliant.
-Plaxico Burress’s acting.  Get this man an agent and a house in Hollywood, he could have a movie career going here.  That was technically a good call by the officials, because there was illegal contact, but boy did Plax make sure the ref saw it.

The bad:
-Kevin Boss.  Not that he had a great game.  But that he was the leading receiver.  With 69 yards.  Eli is regressing, and it’s not good.  Despite Coughlin’s genius challenge, that decision by Eli was incredibly stupid.  He overthrew a bunch of guys.  He’s just making poor decisions.  Is he leading his team down on late drives? Yes.  Is he making some incredible throws? Yes.  Is he immensely improved from the real Old Eli? Abso-freakin-lutely.  But he shows flashes of that person of a few years ago, and it’s gotta go completely away for him to be a top quarterback in this league.
-Plaxico Burress.  He’s out of sync, he’s dropping passes, and he’s getting covered well by guys.  He needs to win emmys just to get his team yards.  Not good folks.  I’m not even worried about his off-the-field problems right now.  I’m worried about his performance in-game.

The ugly:
-The fumbling.  There were WAY too many balls on the ground, even if they had technically been down by contact.  Coughlin needs to dive into an old high school coaching trick: Jacobs, Ward, and Bradshaw need to walk around all week carrying the ball, and if anyone randomly knocks it out, they have to do pushups or something.  Because those turnovers were killer, and more could have lost them the game.
-The one big goose egg in this game: 0 sacks.  For the team that leads the league in sacks, this is really bad.  I highlighted the matchup between Justin Tuck and John Runyan in the quick preview we did.  Advantage: Runyan.  Tuck made one or two nice plays on Westbrook.  But other than that, he was nowhere to be found, along with the rest of the pass rush.  The line held just enough for McNabb to get rid of the ball quickly and to an open receiver.  And that brings me to my next point…
-The secondary.  We asked our interviewees how good they think this secondary is, and for the most part they both said we really don’t know yet.  Well I think now we know.  It’s bad.  And without Corey Webster, it’s really bad.  Terrell Thomas looks like a rookie, Sam Madison had a beautiful pick but an absolute boneheaded penalty, James Bulter is mediocre, Aaron Ross still hasn’t realized the season has started, and Kenny Phillips isn’t making mistakes but isn’t making plays either.  They need to do some patching fast, or else other high-powered offenses are going to be the end of this team, especially in the playoffs.

Overall, a win’s a win, no doubt about it, and it feels GREAT to be 8-1.  What makes the Giants elite is that they find a way to win every week, because they have so many strengths.  If they can just get all these strengths (running game, pass rush, and depth in the passing attack) to come together on the same week and play, it could be a heck of a game to watch.  To beat elite teams, they can’t be making mistakes.  They can be an excellent team, they just have to show it.

Get ready for the recap show tomorrow folks.  It’s gonna be a good one.

NFL Commissionser Roger Goodell took a look at the tape of Justin Tuck’s hit on Brooks Bollinger, and decided the fine was too harsh.  Goodell rescinded the $7,500 fine after realizing, correctly in my opinion, that Tuck’s hit was not deserving of a fine because he hit Bollinger as he was releasing the ball and partially released his grip on the way to the ground.  Once the hit was made, there was no stopping his body weight, but he did all he could do to stop himself once Bollinger released the ball.

Roger Goodell is an excellent commissioner for this league, and I knew he would make the right decision.  This is the right decision.  Tuck’s hit in my opinion was legal, appropriate, and exactly what he should have done in that situation.

ESPN.com story