Monday September 22
Excuses and Mistakes
The Giants' 24-21 overtime win over the Washington Redskins Sunday afternoon (which I attended) was more than just "A Kick in the Teeth," as the Washington Post headlines this morning. It showed the Redskin devotees for the whining, myopic fanatics they truly are. Complaining about penalties when each Giant touchdown drive was "pure," not aided by the schlock roughing-the-passer (2) and pass interference and defensive holding (4) calls the refs threw the Skins' way. Forgetting that the Skins -- benefitting from those same calls -- gave up two golden red zone opportunities in the first quarter, set up by some brilliant kick returns, to come away only with 3 points. For instance, Post columnist Tom Boswell writes:
"Grotesque" only if you ignore that the Giants made three length-of-the field drives (74, 80 and 57 yards) beginning about 8 minutes into the game, burned the Skins premiere CB Champ Bailey on a superb TD to Amani Toomer, and played with confidence in all aspects of their offense. The game was over at halftime; the Skins did not so much "storm" back as manage a lucky 2-point conversion coupled with some more referee interference on wacko false start penalities and the like. As NFL.com notes, "They rallied only because the Giants started returning the favor, committing 11 of their 15 penalties after halftime."
Read it and weep, Redkins faithful. A short glimpse of glory at 2-0 is followed by a hard dose of reality. The end of the season started at FedEx Field yesterday.
Posted by glenn at