Life is meaningless and full of pain.

I saw this one coming. Three missed field goals will always come back and bite you in the ass.

Great D, but Mark still has a lot of maturing to do.

With the Colts and the Bengals yet to come, I think we can kiss the playoffs goodbye.

And I’m not feeling good about the Giants game tomorrow either.

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It was a good day to be wearing green in the NFL.

The Jets won their morning game convincingly, even with Mark Sanchez nursing his knees back in New York City and Kellen Clemens playing abysmally in his stead. Hardly mattered. Gang Green’s running game was hitting, and the defense played lights out. Of course, they were in Tampa Bay playing this year’s Bucs, so it hardly counted. Josh Freeman, the heralded Bucs rookie QB, looked just awful, but maybe some of that was Rex Ryan’s D. Still, these Bucs are so bad they ought to make them go back and wear the creamsicle uniforms until they start playing better.

The Jets are still in the playoff hunt, but just barely. They pretty much have to win out, and with the Colts and the Bengals on their schedule, I think that’s unlikely. And next week they have to beat Atlanta, who have a bad record but gave the Saints all they could handle today.

Green Bay won as well. Another “green” team.

And, sadly, this evening the midnight green Iggles of Philadelphia defeated my Giants in a heartbreaker. All the talking heads are saying what a great game it was. Pfui. It was an EXCITING game, yes. The G-Men came out stumbling and spotted the Iggles to a two touchdown lead, then battled back for the rest of the game. Every time they closed the gap to one score the Eagles would get punch in another one and widen it again. Finally the Giants managed to take a one-point lead at 31-30… only to have the Eagles get a long TD on the very first play after the kickoff. The scoring continued after that, and finally ended 45-38 in favor of Philadelphia. The Giants racked up a ridiculous number of passing yards, and both teams left points on the board. McNabb missed one wide-open receiver who was streaking downfield for what should have been a certain touchdown, receiver Mario Manningham of the G-Men had two endzone receptions disallowed for having one foot out of bounds, and his fellow wideout Hakeem Nicks had a couple of TD passes bounce off his hands. There was also a Giants linebacker who dropped what would have been a certain pick-six served up by McNabb. It too bounced off his hands. (And weirdly, it wasn’t a pass after all, but a forward fumble, but after our LB dropped it players on both teams just ignored the live ball lying there on the grass). There were fumbles, a punt return for a TD, an freaky pass broken up by an Eagle that caromed off his thigh into the hands of the Giants tight end… lots of crazy, colorful, thrilling stuff. Both teams played hard.

But a great game? Pfui. For fans like me, who appreciate defense, it was far from that. Neither team brought their defense, from what I saw. The Giants certainly proved themselves unable to stop the Eagles. After ranking as the best defense in the NFL at season’s start, our D has fallen apart. Especially the pass rush. McNabb had all day back there. Eli played one of the best games I have ever seen him play — his stats were off the charts, and would have been obscene if Manningham could have stayed in bounds and Nicks could have caught the balls that were bouncing off him — despite the fact that he was under pressure every snap. McNabb, on the other hand, could have filled out and filed his tax return in the pocket on a couple of those plays. What the hell happened to the Giants’ fearsome pass rush? We have the same players as last year and the year before. With added depth; by rights we should be better. But Bill Sheridan, our new defensive coordinator, does not have them playing the same agressive attacking style that Spags did last year, that has made a world of difference. Sheridan needs to go. I want my Big Blue D back. I like winning games 13-10 much more than losing them 45-38.

Oddly, despite the loss, the Giants may still have a better chance of making the playoffs than the Jets do, provided the Cowboys continue their traditional December collapse. But I am not holding my breath. Next week’s game against the Redskins has the look of a classic trap game. After getting up emotionally for the big games against Dallas and Phillie, the Giants are all too likely to suffer a bad letdown against the Skins and get upset, which would effectively end their season. I’ve seen it happen before. And Washinton is better than its record. And even if they get past the Skins, the Vikings are waiting at season’s end. The only silver lining in the clouds over the Meadowlands is the fact that the Giants own the tiebreakers over the Cowboys, so if both teams finish with the same record, New York goes to the playoffs and Dallas stays home. But right now Dallas is a game up.

Life is magical… but full of pain.

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And down go the Dallas Cowboys, for a season sweep.

Only a SuperBowl tastes sweeter than a victory over the hated Cowboys. Once again, as in the playoff game at Dallas two years ago, all the talking heads picked Dallas, and once again all the so-called experts were wrong. If anyone had told me yesterday that Tony Romo would complete 41 passes and Eli Manning would complete 11, I would have figured the game for a Dallas blowout… but if anything, the final score should have been more lopsided in favor of the G-Men. The last Cowboys TD was a gimme in garbage time, and earlier in the game our Steve Smith let a sure TD catch go skipping off his hands. The keys to the victory were a pair of amazing plays, a catch-and-run by Brandon Jacobs, and a punt return for a TD by Domenick Hixon. You’ll see them on the highlight reels this evening.

Will the G-Men make the playoffs? Well, they have a chance now… but the road ahead still looks pretty damn rough, with the Iggles next week and the Vikings at season’s end. But for this one week, at least, life is magical and full of joy.

Pretty amazing week in the NFL all round. Evil Little Bill and his P-men were upset as well, the Saints had a close call and an amazing win (has Dan Snyder fired that kicker yet?), and the Raiders knocked off the Steelers with Bruce Gradkowski doing his best Kenny Stabler imitation. Things are getting really interesting.

And Dallas faces the Chargers next week. Maybe I won’t need to kill Pat after all.

(P.S. Flozell Adams is a thug, and may be the dirtiest player in the NFL).

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Life is magical and full of… uh… a tiny teeny bit of hope?

The Jets beat the Bills of Buffalo last night in Toronto, which was good. Defense looked awesome, especially Darrell Revis, who completely shut down that loudmouth TO. Offense, not so much. And things got even worse on the offensive side of the ball when Mark Sanchez dove for a first down and hurt his OTHER knee, the one not already in a brace. Really, he’s taking this “following in the footsteps of Joe Namath” thing too far. Kellen Clemens looked awful in relief. If Sanchez is seriously hurt, Gang Green is done.

And if not… well, there’s still a slim chance we could make the playoffs. All we’d need to do is sweep our last four games, including the undefeated Colts and red-hot Bengals. That’s going to happen, sure. Uh-huh.

But Rex does have the defense playing lights out, so that’s something.

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Life is… well, not magical, but tolerable today.

Jake Delhomme threw more interceptions than Mark Sanchez today, so the Jets beat the Panthers and still have a pulse. A very faint one, to be sure, but still a pulse.

Revis was amazing, completely shutting down Steve Smith.

Obviously my teams can only play well when I am here watching. I can never leave home again.

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Life is meaningless and full of pain.

Suddenly it seems a thousand years ago when the G-Men were 5-0 and dominating. What the hell happened? Clearly I can’t leave the country during football season. My teams just seem to fall apart without me.

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I am about halfway through watching the football games that were TIVO’d for me while I was overseas.

I came back from my trip sick to my stomach, as I reported last post. These games are only making me sicker.

Life is meaningless and has no joy but the Raiders.

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Life is meaningless and full of pain.

‘Nuff said.

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That was the most complete Giants victory I have seen in years. Almost total domination in every phase of play. It would have been another shutout except for a Sinorice Moss fumble and a very bad call by the refs a few plays later, when a quick whistle (which no one heard) negated a Giants fumble recovery and touchdown.

I’ll say this for the Raiders, though. They have a very good punter.

The NFL can be merciless. It was only a few years ago the Raiders were playing in the Superbowl, but since then…

JaMarcus Russell is no Rich Gannon. He did manage to complete more than half of his passes today, in between getting sacked and losing fumbles. Gods, what an awful quarterback. And the rumor is that Zombie Al won’t let the coaches bench him.

Eli had a perfect passer rating. Even David Carr looked good. And Mario Manningham and Hakeem Nicks both played great games. Our young wideouts are really coming along. And the running game looked great today.

Of coursse, the real test will be next week, when the G-Men face the undefeated Saints.

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