Since the big storyline of the day seems to be "Three times a charm?" describing the Cowboys going for the sweep of the Giants, I decided to stroll down memory lane for a moment. I looked up the two Giants games from the regular season in the archives to see what I was saying about them at the time. My memory of those games are filtered and altered by the knowledge of a 13-3 season, watching the offense and defense play the entire season, etc. I wanted to see what I was thinking then.
In the first one, there was all the uncertainty of a season-opener. We really didn’t know what kind of team we had, but there was optimism and hope. After the Cowboys went out and scored 45 points, the offense was the object of my affection. (And still is...mostly, get well soon, T.O.). The object of my derision was the defense, especially the secondary that got torched by Eli to the tune of 35 points. Of course, back then it was without Terence Newman and it was Jacques Reeves introduction to the starting unit.
Here was my write-up right after the game.
The next day, I had more thoughts on the game. I praised the offensive line for its pass blocking, was loving T.O. for being a playmaker, dipped a toe in the MB3 vs. JJ debate, and beat up on the secondary again.
Since that game to now, I’m still praising our pass blocking, still loving T.O. and praying that his ankle heals, have come to the full-conclusion that MB3 is the man, and have learned to live with the secondary which has gotten better, although still a problem spot.
But, things were definitely more upbeat when we went to New York and whooped the Giants on their own turf. This was during the midseason roll and this victory put us at 8-1. We had just gone to Philly the previous week and won there, so this was the second of two road victories in the NFC East. Our only loss was to the New England Patriots and our offense was just crushing opponents. Ah, those were heady days. Before the uneven play in December and the uncertainty that caused.
One of the big themes of that game on the negative side was the penalties. That was really plaguing us for a while. Luckily, we were clicking on all cylinders so we were overcoming those mistakes. This was the week that Wade broke out the no-penalty pledge that everybody signed.
Here were my thoughts on the game we won 31-20 on November 11th.