Last year: 9-7,– 21-20 loss to Seattle in wild card round
Passing: Tony Romo – 220-of-337 (65%) for 2,903 yards, 19 TD, 13 INT
Rushing: Julius Jones — 267 carries for 1,084 yards, 4 TDs
Receiving: Terrell Owens — 85 catches, 1,180 yards, 13 TDs
Defense: Demarcus Ware (59 tackles, 12 sacks), Roy Williams (53 tackles, 5 INTs, 14 passes defended).
First-round pick: Anthony Spencer - DE - Purdue
Where to learn more: Dallas Morning News
Preview: This team will live and die with the play of Tony Romo; it’s as simple as that. People will talk about the changes with the ‘nicer’ Wade Phillips, 48-39 overall and a stellar 0-3 record in the postseason.
He’s a great defensive coach, taking all the talent that A.J. Smith drafted and signed in San Diego, along with benefiting from a great offense that would force teams into situations and built a winner enough to convince Jerry Jones into cutting The Tuna loose.
Of course with Parcells out of the picture, everyone now says how horrible it was and how great Phillips is and the defense will continue to produce.
BUT...
DB Terrance Newman has missed time in the preseason due to "a small tear in his plantar fascia that will keep him out of the last preseason game. He said he will play against the Giants on Sept. 9 but it's something he will have to deal with the whole season. It's not the worst news, but it's not good news either," according to Todd Archer of the DMN. That leaves untested players against the Eagles, New England, St. Louis and the Giants in the first eight games of the year, teams that would seem to rely somewhat on the pass.
ALL THAT BEING SAID,It still goes back to the beginning. This is Romo's world and we're all just living in it. I mean when have you seen Eli or Donovan F. McNabb with a legitimate American Idol?
He played well after taking over Statue Drew Bledsoe and made the Pro Bowl. He won't hold the kicks anymore, the reason they didn't come back against Seattle in the fourth and move on to the Super Bowl last year and he smells like apple pie, sugar and spice and everything nice.
MY PREDICTION:
Everyone has the Cowgirls finishing first because of that pretty face. But these are the same people who said REALLY LOUD LAST YEAR that the Redskins were going to light up the world with Mark Burnell and Clinton Portis. I'm running thought their schedule and the best I can do for them is a 8 to 10 win team, a trend I smell might plague this division...
Philadelphia Eagles
Last year: 10-6,– won 23-20 over New York Giants in Wild Card, lost 24-27 at New Orleans Saints in Divisional Round
Passing: Donovan McNabb – 180-of-316 (57%) for 2,647 yards, 18 TD, 6 INT
Rushing: Brian Westbrook — 240 carries for 1,217 yards, 7 TDs
Receiving: Brian Westbrook — 77 catches, 699 yards, 4 TDs
Defense: Jeremiah Trotter (88 tackles), Trent Cole (43 tackles, 8 sacks), Brian Dawkins (76 tackles, 4 INT, 14 passes defended.
First-round pick: Kevin Kolb - QB - Houston
Where to learn more: Philadelphia Daily News
Preview: I guess when you take your team to four straight NFC Championship games and a Super Bowl loss, you've got nine years in the league and you're winning games (although the Eagles were 5-4 when he went down?), it doesn't matter that you only completed 57 percent of your passes in the West-Coast Andy Ried offense?
Interesting that McNabb was having a career year before the injury, yet Elisha (Manning) needed to do a lot better than 57% to be an elite NFL quarterback? The pedigree does give the Campbell's Soup boy a lot of leeway, but last year was clear that this team is built around the defense.
Which makes the release of Trotter that much more confusing. The Eagles have been cheap for years, but Trotter had come crawling back after a couple of decent years in Washington because he loved the city, the team, his coke dealer didn't like to travel or something. Whatever the reason was, you can't really knock the hustle of Reid in charge.
The Walking Walrus is 80-46 with only two losing seasons out of eight. The other six he's won at least 10 games, so it's easy to say that this guy knows what he's doing and if he says Trotter is done and the defense will move on despite the loss of linebackers coach Steve Spagnuolo to the G-Men because they still have Jim Johnson.
BUT...
Even with a healthy McNabb, an injured McNabb and a revitalized Jeff Garcia, running back Brian Westbrook still led this team in rushing AND receptions. Reggie Brown, Greg Lewis and Jeremy Bloom (the Olympic skier to the right with silver medalist Sasha Cohen, who despite getting cut makes the page because of the eye candy on his arm) scare no one. Nevertheless with McNabb pulling the strings and linebackers coming forward to slow down Westbrook, they seem to produce and that is why they continue to win. This has to end sometime, but it's just not right now.
MY PREDICTION:
The only time I ever liked the Eagles was on Madden 93 when they had Randall and Reggie White on defense. Other than that, I've always hated them and it's only grown with time. So it hurts me to say that they will defend as division champs. The defense will continue to play well as Lito Sheppard (6 INT, 19 passes defended) continues to get better. They'll win 9 to 11 games, but the real question will be after the season when they don't win the Super Bowl if his is the year they finally blow up this team?
Washington Redskins
Last year: 5-11
Passing: Mark Brunell – 162-of-260 (62%) for 1,789 yards, 8 TD, 4 INT
Rushing: Ladell Betts — 245 carries for 1,154 yards, 4 TDs
Receiving: Santana Moss — 55 catches, 790 yards, 6 TDs
Defense: Sean Taylor (89 tackles, 7 passes defended, 3 forced fumbles), Andre Carter (47 tackles, 6 sacks)
First-round pick: LaRon Landry - LB - LSU
Where to learn more: Washington Post
Preview: This will be short because this team sucks. They sucked last year and they'll suck again this year. I mean, honestly, I can remember hearing Mike Golic and Mark Dumbass and the rest of them about how great this team was, about how Joe Gibbs was finally back and Brunell would lead them to the promised land.
How'd that work out? Not so well, huh?
They drafted Landry, who will Taylor, Fred Smoot and Shawn Springs in a backfield that should dominate and they do, just on paper and in video games. Probably because Phillip Daniels, Renaldo Wynn, London Fletcher and Randall Godfrey are all on the roster and are all past their primes. Rocky McIntosh, the 2006 first round pick from Miami had surgery to start his career and all my Giants fans remember the on again off again Cornelius Griffin.
So you can bring Joe Gibbs (145-87 overall, but 21-27 since return), Al Saunders, Gregg Williams, Joe Bugel and Bernard King down, it's not gonna make a bit of difference.
BUT...
Portis (with Lisa Rodgers? and Lyric?) is healthy and he did run for 2,831 and 16 TDs in two years since the trade from Denver (How's that working out? OK for both sides? Oh, OK). If Gibbs remembered one thing, it's how to run the ball, so whether it's Portis, Betts or T.J. Duckett (Wasn't he best used in Atlanta as part of D(uckett) V(ick) D(unn)?), the Skins will run the ball and give their young QB time to grow into his position. Jason Campbell (110-of--207, 1,297 yards, 10 TD, 6 INT) is a Mississippi-born boy with enough talent to start at Auburn, so that's got to be good for something. Plus he's got Santana Moss (who would look real good in Kelly Green right now), Antwaan Randle-El, James Thrash, Brandon Lloyd, Corey Bradford and Madison Central, MS graduate Michael Espy (if he makes the team). They could be a great offense...MY PREDICTION:
They won't be a great offense. They won't be a great defense. If they win 8 games, it's a banner year because I just don't think they've got what it takes. Simple as that.
New York Football Giants
Last year: 8-8,– 23-20 loss to Philadelphia in wild card round
Passing: Elisha Manning – 301-of-522 (57%) for 2,903 yards, 24 TD, 18 INT
Rushing: Tiki Barber — 327 carries for 1,662 yards, 5 TDs
Receiving: Plaxico Burress — 63 catches, 988 yards, 10 TDs
Defense: Antonio Pierce (102 tackles, 9 passes defended), Osi Umeniyora (24 tackles, 6 sacks, Sam Madison (33 tackles, 2 INTs, 10 passes defended).
First-round pick: Aaron Ross - CB - Texas
Where to learn more (As if I need to tell most of you, but): The Bergen Record, New York Daily News, New York Newsday
I've saved the best for last, or at least the subject I feel I know the most about...
I'll start with last year, which I didn't think was as bad as everyone else. I was ready for defensive coordinator Tim Lewis to leave two years ago, but it did take Lavar Arrington a moment to understand his role.
In fact, if you take away all the injuries just on defense from last year (Arrington, Straham, Osi and Madison's hamstring), they wouldn't have been one of the worst in the league. That's because Lewis' system was based on the front seven (six) getting pressure to avoid exposing the lack of talent in the backfield. When Straham went down, that went away and like every Giants fan, you dreaded seeing a QB drop back because someone would always be WIDE OPEN...
So I'm happy to see our new GM Jerry Reese make a priority of ridding the team of injury cases. I thought Luke Petitgout was great, but a bad back as a left tackle isn't a good combination. Will Demps seems like a great idea, but he's busted up and why not go with young in the secondary. The high-priced vets hasn't exactly rushed any busts to Canton.
Speaking of which, it doesn't matter what reasons he held out - Straham is NECESSARY if this team is going to do anything. Period.
Speaking of menstrual cycles, let's focus on the offense and to borrow another phrase from the Great One...FINALLY, Tiki Barber has LEFT the Giants.
He was great. He did a lot and we wouldn't have done as much the past two season without him, but he was dreadful last year off the field and regardless what is said, that effected everyone else besides him on the field.
The New York media are like vultures merged with jackals. They'll hound and haunt a story till it's picked clean and Barber only helped his own cause, as was described extremely well by our fellow blogger...
So it's Brandon Jacobs and a case of characters to fill the place of the greatest Giants running back since...Frank Gifford, Ken Strong and Y.A. Tittle.
OK, so Tittle was a quarterback, but the other two are in the Hall, someplace I don't think Tiki will make, which brings us to the Hall of Fame quarterback pedigree...
The one cool thing that Tiki left was the fact that he called our quarterback Elisha and I've kept that moniker. Seems our boy is getting married to this chick. She's an old girlfriend or something, but I hope she understands what she's getting into.
Not that I have any clue about that or really care, but as long as we don't get more pictures like the one to the left...I don't know or care if that's the same chick. One, he's drinking MGD and that's a college boy's beer. Two, he's gotta start feeling cameras just like he would feel defensive ends from his blind side. And third and finally, he needs to not look like such a tool.
As Giants fans, we all want to be his biggest fan. We all want to believe that when Ernie Accorsi made his final big move as Giants GM, that he was binding the franchise with someone worth all the trouble and the signs have been there.
He's performed great late in the games and he was having a pretty good year until Amani Toomer went down. Toomer was his security blanket, a reliable receiver underneath who could catch the ball when Jeremy Shockey and Plax-a-can't aren't open or double-teamed.
His return is necessary for Manning to have a stellar season, but I'm more and more convinced that won't really be the case. I know it's the preseason, but he's actually got a QB coach, he's got total knowledge and control of the offense and all his weapons are healthy and behind him.
After all that, I'm still torn what to think about this year. I know it's going to take a non-playoff season to get Tom Coughlin off my sidelines, but I can't root for a Giant-free January, mostly because that would mean the NY Jackals would start calling for Elisha's head and I don't think it will matter if he has a great year or not.
Looking at the schedule, I see why everyone has them at 8-8. It wouldn't take much for that to move two games in either direction, but I think it will depend on the offense to finally carry the defense, not the other way like it's been for, like, ever...
Here's hoping I'm wrong, Elisha goes to another playoffs and Coughliln gets fired anyway.
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