NFL Football at its best. NFL Football at its craziest.

Donovan McNabb rushes for a touchdown against Eagles

It was mano a mano going into the 4th quarter. May the best quarterback win.

Donovan made the plays and Eli Manning did not.

Donovan ran for one touchdown and passed for another during the game.

Entering the 4th quarter the score was a very odd 13 - 11. Don’t even ask me to explain that one. Even the ending score was a NFL 1st with the score of 23 - 11. Weird.

It is not that McNabb set the world on fire, because he didn’t. He threw for only 217 yards on 22 - 40 passing, but he made the plays he had to make including a 1 yard play action to Brent Celek for a TD to start out the 4th.

Meanwhile, Eli Manning appeared bothered by the swirling winds and only threw for 169 yards.

The Eagles will play the Cardinals for the Conference Championship just like, just like, uhh, just like nobody predicted at the beginning of the season.
Photo source Newscom

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Matt Ryan dances for joy

So what are the big stories?

No Plax and still the Giants are first. Solid offensive and defensive lines.

The Titans, rock solid, with LenDale White and Chris Johnson and an awesome defense, they had to hold back on my Lions to keep from doubling their season stats. They are number 2.

Number 3 is the Steelers. If you get a chance to watch their defense, you must do it. They are downright mean and physical! Roethlisberger has a knack for not getting sacked, too.

But the biggest surprise has to be the turnaround in Atlanta. Young Matt Ryan is playing some great quarterback for a rookie and who would have thought that Michael Turner would be this good of a running back?

It’s December, and only three teams in the NFC own more victories than the Falcons. That’s why no matter what happens the rest of the way, Atlanta’s season will be remembered as one of the franchise’s sweetest ever. You could make the case that the Falcons this year have the Coach of the Year (Mike Smith), the NFL Executive of the Year (general manager Thomas Dimitroff), the Offensive Rookie of the Year — or even the MVP in quarterback Matt Ryan — and the free-agent signee of the year (running back Michael Turner).

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Oh, and my Lions are dead last!

Photo source Newscom

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Derek Anderson spots Braylon Edwards wide open 70 yards down the field

Nobody, but nobody was giving the Giants a chance to win this game. It was Monday Night Football and the Giants are surely headed to the Super Bowl, right?

Well, just who is that Nobody guy, because he must have made a ton of dough betting on this game.

Derek Anderson was 18 - 29 for 310 yards and 2 touchdowns.

Cleveland Browns 35 New York Giants 14.

Eric Wright had an interception return for a touchdown that went 94 yards with Eli Manning failing to shove him out of bounds along the way.

“It would’ve been real embarrassing to get tackled by the quarterback,” said Wright. “I definitely didn’t want that to happen. I just tried to give myself enough room to make a move if I had to.”

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If Wright does not get the interception at that point the Giants were driving to make the score close with 8 minutes to go in the game. Instead it was all Browns. The intended receiver was Amani Toomer and he was headed for a touchdown if Wright does not show up.

Wright’s 94-yard touchdown return of a Manning interception with 8:07 left was the play of the game, snuffing out what was shaping up as a nail-biter finish. Wright cut in front of intended receiver Amani Toomer at the 6 and then sprinted down the left sideline, tip-toeing at one point to avoid getting knocked out of bounds on a shove by Manning.
Anderson then punctuated a big night with a pass to Edwards for the two-point conversion.

With his job perhaps on the line with another loss, Anderson enjoyed a happy reunion with Edwards. Anderson was 18-of-29 for 310 yards and two touchdowns and didn’t commit a turnover.

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This game not only marked an uprising for Derek Anderson, but a revival of sorts for the much maligned Braylon Edwards.

He finished the game with five catches for a career-high 154 yards and an 11-yard touchdown catch that gave the Browns a 27-14 lead five seconds into the fourth quarter.

Before the TD catch, Edwards had receptions of 49 and 70 yards in the first half. The 70 yarder, on which he beat cornerback Aaron Ross down the right side on an out-and-up, set up Jamal Lewis’ 4-yard touchdown run two plays later.

“I wanted to be like Reggie Bush [who had two TDs last week on Monday night football],” said Edwards.

Edwards’ 129 yards in the first half were more than the 95 total he had coming into the game.

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Photo source Newscom

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Eli Manning says, “Quote, quote, we will to win it all!”

There.

Had to say it. Someone had to say it and it might as well be you, because now the anti-Squibster e-mails will pour in.

As fans we can be very stubborn or at least this fan can be very stubborn. Just because a team wins the Super Bowl does not make them the best team. It does make them the Champions and that is important, because that is what all the players play for, to be Champions.

But let’s face it; did you think the Giants were going to win it all?

Hey, listen up; they were very impressive last year.

The Giants finished 10-6, and became NFC Champions after defeating the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Dallas Cowboys, and Green Bay Packers in the NFC Playoffs. They set the record for most consecutive road wins (which currently stands at 11 after the 2007-2008 postseason).
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Beating the Bucs, Cowboys, and Packers was impressive enough, but then they went on to beat the unbeatable Patriots, thus changing their name to the beaten Patriots.

And that was last year’s stuff.

Winning has a way of making you fat and happy and repeating is tough. Things change, too. There is no Strahan, for one. The Cowboys look tougher on paper, for another.

Yeah, yeah, they beat the Washington Redskins. So what. The ‘Skins are going through the new coach adjustment with some minor problems at the QB spot. Then again, maybe New York has some minor problems at the QB spot.

“It was a great opening to the season,” said Manning, who completed 19 of 35 for 216 yards and an interception. “There was a lot of emotion, a lot of excitement. You could feel it in the crowd. It was great to see Michael holding the trophy.

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Almost that entire yardage was to Plax with 10 catches and 133 yards. Maybe the next team ought to guard Plax.

Anyway, you Giant fans can send your ‘Squibster is crazy’ comments now.

Photo: Newscom

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Eli Manning won a Super Bowl and comforts Drew Stanton, because Drew is a Lion

Almost always, almost always the quarterback in the Super Bowl is a completed product, an excellent quarterback, or maybe, at the least, an aging veteran that knows all the tricks.

So what do we make of Eli Manning?

Some players’ careers build to and peak in the Super Bowl. For Manning, that showcase game might have been the starting point. In some weird way, he earned the crown jewel of his profession as the Super Bowl MVP before fully convincing most of the football world he could take a team that far.
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Did you know that this is Eli’s first championship?

“It was a huge deal,” Manning says during the lunch break at the Giants’ training camp in Albany. “You always hope to win a championship in anything you do. I’ve been playing sports a long time, and through high school and college I never won a championship. Never won a state championship, never won an SEC championship, never won a national championship.

Maybe there is something in his mental makeup that has Eli playing on the big stage. Amani Toomer says he never saw Eli crack under pressure, never hang his head.

Does not matter what we think. Eli won a Super Bowl and he just keeps getting better.

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You will pony up the dough to see Eli Manning in a football helmet live or you can just look at this picture

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Get this. In the greedy world of professional sports the New York Giants and the New York Jets are building a stadium together.

If you want to get seats, you will have to pay a seat license for the Giants games. The New York Jets are still mulling the idea over, but appear to be headed in the same direction.

Now here is the part where you have to get out your wallet. You know, that leather (imitation) thing you carry in your pocket that keeps getting thinner. Used to think if my wallet was thinner it would be way better. Now it is thinner. It is not way better. It is not even better.

This proves that the wallet theory is not like the key theory. What is the key theory? Fewer keys on your key chain and life is more relaxed. More keys mean more responsibility and concerns.

But getting back to the point and what is the point? You want to see Eli Manning chucking the ball to Plax. You want to see your Super Bowl champion New York Giants!

Giants co-owner John Mara said most of the 82,500 seats in the stadium, scheduled to open in 2010, will carry seat license fees of $1,000. Less than 5,000 seats will carry license fees of $20,000.

Mara said it would be “extremely difficult” to build the $1.6 billion stadium, whose cost is being split evenly by the two teams, without the seat licenses. Mara said the license fees will raise $300 million to $400 million.

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Man, it is tough to be a super rich football franchise co-owner. Bet he has a lot of keys on his key chain. (To go along with his extra thick and getting thicker wallet)

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Plaxico Burress catches the winning pass in the Super Bowl and dreams of his millions

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It is starting already.

In fact it probably started the day the New York Giants led by Eli Manning on a historic last game winning drive won the Super Bowl.

The celebrating, the banquet speaking circuit, the feeling great attitude, the feeling you are the best attitude, the forgot how hard it was and how lucky you were and all the things that happened at just the right times attitude.

The most visible is Plaxico Burress refusing to practice.

Burress reported to the Giants’ mandatory minicamp Wednesday but refused to work out because he wasn’t happy with the way contract negotiations are progressing between the team and agent Drew Rosenhaus.

Coach Tom Coughlin had indicated after practice that Burress did not work out because of a knee injury, but the receiver said he was healthy.

“Me and my agent are trying to get a deal done so I can stay a New York Giant for a long time,” Burress said. “I, personally, don’t like the way they’re going and I am not happy about it. I am choosing not to participate.”

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We all know that Plax is a great player. He was outstanding at my alma mater Michigan State University.

He has never been a great practice player, but now he feels important. Who wouldn’t after what he did in the Super Bowl.

Burress, who caught a game-winning 13-yard touchdown pass with 35 seconds remaining in the Super Bowl to give the Giants a 17-14 win over the previously unbeaten New England Patriots, has three years remaining his six-year, $25 million deal. He will earn $3.25 million this year, $3.5 million in 2009 and $3.75 million in 2010.

But this is just the beginning for the New York Giants and the reason it is so hard to repeat.

Good Luck, Giants.

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The Giants surprised us all by beating the unbeatable New England Patriots.

It still seems so impossible for the Giants to have won that Super Bowl.

The New York Giants did not win the Division. That little accolade went to Tony Romo and the Dallas Cowboys.

The New York Giants barely beat out the Washington Redskins for second in the division.

Then after beating Tampa Bay, the Giants had to beat the Cowboys in Jessica Simpson land, the Packers in Brett Favre goodbye it is frozen land, and then the New England Patriots we have not lost in a million years.

Now if only my Lions could at least get to the playoffs. Ha, ha, ha, ha, just kidding.

Do we now have to think of Eli Manning as the real deal? Probably not, but he did get out of his own way and have a fantastic last drive.

Are the Giants the favorites to win again? The answer is Not again. The Patriots will be favorites with Indianapolis second. We are still talking Tom Brady and big brother Peyton Manning.

Who cares, it is still too much fun to think of New York winning the 2008 Super Bowl and shutting up the Patriots.

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Jessica Simpson shocked that the Cowboys are only picked as fourth best to win the Super Bowl. New England is picked First.

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The early choice is not the New York Giants to win the Super Bowl.

No, first place looks like New England. The Patriots still have Randy Moss and Tom Brady with “Prove me guilty” Bill Belichick at coach.

The early second choice is not the New York Giants.

The New York Giants have Eli Manning, but he is still not looked upon as Peyton Manning. Sorry little brother, big brother is still the leader. Yes, the Indianapolis Colts are the early leaders for second place to win it all.

(Yeah, yeah, the Colts can’t finish second if the Patriots win the Super Bowl, because they are in the same conference. We are only trying to determine who has the best chance of winning it all.)

Now how about the Giants at number 3? That sounds pretty good. Of course, that means they have to beat out the Dallas Cowboys and that will be no easy task. The Cowboys still have Tony Romo, Terrell Owens, and Jessica Simpson.

When I spoke to Cowboys coach Wade Phillips a few weeks ago, he pointed out that the Cowboys outgained the Giants and ran the ball for more yards, yet lost.

“We won almost everything except for the score,” Phillips said. “You have games like that. The stats went our way, but they made the plays and won the game. We didn’t play bad. We played a good game. We just didn’t make the plays we had been making all season.”

Phillips, by the way, was speaking to me at Tom Coughlin’s charity golf tournament in Jacksonville, with Coughlin a short chip away.

No respect, none at all.

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Ahh, the NFL, the what have you done for me lately National Football League.

The Giants will have to go out there and earn their respect all over again.

This time it may be tougher, because we can see them coming!

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It is still hard to believe the New York Giants won the Super Bowl. They did it with a defensive line that was unreal. Will the football world try to model that?

Think about it, Eli Manning is not one of the best quarterbacks, the Giant running game is ok, Plax is Plax.

Now don’t get mad at me. You didn’t put any money down on the Giants at the beginning of the year and certainly had your doubts about them beating the Cowboys with Tony Romo and Jessica Simpson.

This is a really funny video poking fun at Tony Romo and Jessica Simpson.

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