Another convincing win for the Giants yesterday, though the opponent was the hapless Kansas City Chefs. “Our” Steve Smith looks like the real deal. A few more games like this and he will be “the” Steve Smith, and that guy in Carolina will have to become “the other” Steve Smith. Not so sure about Mario Manningham, who was dropping or bobbling every pass that came his way… but my, wasn’t that touchdown run by Hakeem Nicks a pretty thing.

Eli’s injury is a concern, though. Right now they are saying “bruised heel” and “no big thing.” I hope they are right. If we have to go with Davis Carr for any length of time, the season is over, and I may finally be required to maim and kill Pat St. Denis. (I wish they’d kept the Hefty Lefty, I’d have more faith in him than David “Sack Machine” Carr).

The Scottish Kicker missed another field goal that he should have made. That is worrisome as well. Sooner or later his inconsistency is going to cost us a game. It almost cost us the NFC championship two seasons back in Green Bay. Yes, he made the game winning field goal, but only after he had missed two previous tries. They should have kept John Carney.

As for the Jets game… well, I never thought they would go undefeated. The good news was that Rex Ryan’s defense had another great game, shutting down the high-flying Saints O for most of the contest. The bad news, of course, was Mark Sanchez. I don’t blame him for the last two interceptions, which were desperation heaves in the final minutes of the contest. The first one, though, the pick six, that really hurt, and the fumble in the end zone hurt even more, negating as it did a heroic goal line stand by the defense.

Yes, I know, only a rookie, yadda yadda, growing pains, yadda yadda, he’ll learn from this, yadda yadda.

So they lost, but to a strong team. The Saints are for real. Should be fun to see them take on the Giants in two weeks time.

Next week the Raiders come visit the Giants in the Meadowlands, led by my JaMarcus “I Complete More Than a Quarter of My Passes”) Russell. The Jets are on the road for a Monday night game in Miami, where the QB doesn’t have much more experience than Sanchez. Jets / Dolphins games are always exciting.

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Life is magical and full of joy.

Two more victories for my New York teams today. The Giants totally dominated Tampa Bay, holding them to under a hundred yards of total offense, shutting down their run game completely, pitching a 24-0 shutout. On offense, Jacobs and Bradshaw both ran the ball convincingly, Eli and the receivers looked sharp. The Scottish Kicker did miss a chip shot field goal, probably because the commentators jinxed him by mentioning his name. That, and a few new injuries, were the only flies on what was otherwise a complete victory. I am especially worried about Kareem McKenzie, who was carried off on a cart. The G-Men have looked very strong to date, but the injuries have really started to pile up, and that is worrisome.

The Jet game was much more exciting. Dressed in their throwback New York Titans unis, the Jets jumped off to a fast 14-0 start and for a bit the game looked like a blowout. But a fumble changed the momentum and the Titans (in their throwback Oiler unis) came roaring back in the second and third quarters to go ahead 17-14. Then came another turnover, and Big Mo shifted back. The last quarter belonged to the Jets. Sanchez had some trouble with the wet ball, but played pretty well, all in all. Jericho was a beast, especially on that long catch. The Jets special teams were outstanding. And the defense… what was especially impressive was how much Rex changed his game plan from last week. Gone were all the blitzes. Instead the Jets focused on shutting down the Tennessee running game, their strength, and were successful.

The weirdest thing was that the two games were being played simultaneously, which I don’t recall ever seeing before, in all my years of watching football. I had to switch back and forth between them on my TiVo, and inevitably some plays got spoiled for me.

Next week the Giants go to Kansas City for their third road game in a row, and the Jets face their sternest test yet when they go to New Orleans to play Drew Brees and the high-flying Saints.

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Today is my birthday. Yes. Today I am eleventy-one years old.

(Well, no, not actually, though some days it feels like that).

I got some wonderful gifts to mark the day… from the New York Jets, the New York Giants, and Tony Romo of the Dallas Cowboys.

In the morning game, the Jets defeated the New England Patriots, long the bullies of the AFC East, who had been pushing Gang Green around on their own field for more games than I care to remember. But not today. A win is always swell, but a win over Evil Little Bill and his minions is especially sweet, since they have been so scarce this past decade. The game did not begin well for the Jets, who came out, looked terrible, and shot themselves in both feet in the first couple of series. But after that they settled down, and before long they were actually dominating.

The defense was amazing. Blitz, blitz, blitz. The last time I have seen so much pressure on a QB was when the Giants beat the Patriots in the SuperBowl, but these were the Jets. Tom Brady will usually eat you alive if you blitz too often, but not today. He looked dazed and lost by the final series. And Darryl Revis just OWNED Randy Moss. (Though once again Vernon Gholston’s name was never mentioned. Did he even play? I’m not certain).

My brother in law was at the game. He’s been a Jets season ticket holder for years, and he tells me he has never heard a Meadowlands crowd make so much noise. Rex Ryan gets credit for that as well. All hail Rex!

The defense won this game, but the offense also performed well, especially Mark Sanchez. I know, I know, he’s only played two games, but right now trading up to grab him in the draft is looking like the best move the Jets have made since drafting Joe Namath.

As for the evening game… what can I say? Aside from the fact that I sufferered several heart attacks during the closing minutes. It was not, by any measure, an especially well-played game, but it sure was an exciting one… and how sweet it is to be able to open the Jerry Jones Palace of Excess by handing the hated Cowboys a loss!

It had to be one of the weirdest games I have ever watched, though. There were times I thought these must be teams from the Bizarro world. For most of the game the Cowboys stifled the vaunted two-headed Giants running attack by stuffing Brandon Jacobs and Ahmad Bradshaw again and again. That’s not supposed to happen. On the other side of the ball, they gashed the Giants D with their own ground game. Felix Jones and Marion Barber kept breaking free for long runs. That’s not supposed to happen either. The huge, slow, ponderous Cowboys offensive line kept the Giant pass-rushers at bay through the whole game. We failed to record a single sack, and Tony Romo always seemed to have plenty of time. That’s DEFINITELY not supposed to happen. The Giants red zone offense sucked too, just as it did last week. We had first and goal on three or four occasions, and came away with field goals every time. We had one interception TD taken away by the ref’s whistle, and our field goal kicker missed a gimme kick at one point, so a good drive ended with nothing.

With all these calamities, you would have to figure the game was a Dallas blowout. And, hey, maybe it should have been. But thankfully, we had Eli Manning and they had Tony Romo. Tony must have known that it was my birthday, since he kept giving the Giants gifts. Three interceptions, I think. (There was a fumble too, so there were four Cowboy turnovers). Two of the picks were just awful throws. The third was a freakish thing where the ball bounced off the back of Jason Witten’s ankle right into the hands of Kenny Phillips, who ran it back for the TD that the refs took away.

And that wasn’t even the most freakish play in the game. That had to be Eli’s long TD pass to Mario Manningham, which MM dropped, juggled, and somehow managed to catch again while sliding on his butt through the endzone. Not exactly classic form, but hey, it counted for six points just the same. Manningham had nine other catches, for ten total, and The Other Steve Smith had ten as well, the first time in the long and storied history of the Giants that they have ever had two receivers both catch ten balls in a game. Plaxico who? I think the Giants have found their starting tandem… and when Hakeem Nicks comes back from his injury and Ramses Barden gets a bit more seasoning, we could have one of the most dangerous receiving corps in the league.

The other great thing in the game was Eli Manning. With the running game shut down, it all fell on his shoulders, and he came through magnificently, especially in the fourth quarter.

In the end, though, it all came down to a field goal try with four seconds left. The Scottish Kicker (theater folk always refer to Macbeth as the Scottish Play, since it is thought to be bad luck to mention the actual name, and I have decided the same rule should apply to the Giants kicker) had missed a field goal earlier, so it was no sure thing. And sure enough, his kick only cleared the goal post by inches, stopping my heart for a second before the refs raised their arms to signal it was good… and then he had to do it all over again, since Wade Phillips had called a timeout a split second before the kick, a bush league move that has become popular with some coaches these last couple of years. Wade deserved to lose for that alone. And thankfully he did: the Scottish Kicker’s second attempt was dead straight down the middle. Giants win, 33-31!

Life IS magical and full of joy. At least today.

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Life is magical and full of joy!!!

Haloo, halay, the Jets and Giants won today.

Solid, convincing victories for both teams. Not quite total domination, no, but the scores would have been even more lopsided if not for a couple bad turnovers.

The Jets were the morning game. Mark Sanchez made his debut with Joe Willie Namath on hand to root him on. Can’t ask for a better omen than that. Based on what I saw today, we have a quarterback, we have a coach, and boy, do we have a defense. Harris and Scott and Jenkins were monsters (though Vernon Gholston, finally given a chance to start, was still invisible). Of course, it was the Texans, so one can’t read too much into this. Still, a road victory, and there were commentators who claimed this was going to be the year when the Texans turned the corner. I loved the play when Kris Jenkins just swatted a Texan lineman aside one-handed to charge past him to the QB. Next week will be the real test, when the Jets and their new defense and their kid QB face the Patriots.

Afternoon, and it was the G-Men. The game was not nearly as close as the final score. One of the Washington touchdowns came on a fake field goal at the end of the half, the other in garbage time as the clock was winding down on the Giants victory. Albert Haynesworth, the big free agent acquisition Danny Snyder made this year, did help throttle the Giants running game, kinda sorta, though if you add Bradshaw and Jacobs together, they still had more than a hundred yards. Eli made up for it, and won the game through the air. (We won’t mention that ghastly interception). The Giant defense harassed Jason Campbell all day, and completely shut down Santana Moss, the Redskin deep threat. Favorite play was Osi stripping Campbell of the ball, picking it up, and running it in for a TD. The only downer on the day was the injuries. Danny Ware was lost right at the start of the game, and Hakeem Nicks sprained an ankle in the second half. Next week will be the real test for the Giants as well, when they have to face the hated Cowboys in Jerry Jones’ Temple of Excess with its infamous punt-blocking scoreboard.

That’s next week, though. Tonight, at least, it’s all smiles in the Big Apple, and down here in Santa Fe as well.

(Comments welcome, but stay on topic. For this post, “on topic” means football)

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David Tyree has been released by the Giants.

It was no surprise. He had a bad camp, and the Giants are heavily stocked with young receivers… but even so, it is sad to see him go. Tyree was always a lion on special teams, and whenever he did get into a game as a wide receiver, he exceeded expectations. He was never as gifted as Plaxico or Randy Moss or TO or the like, but he had more heart than any of them.

And of course he will live forever in the hearts of every Giants fan.

Some other team will pick him up, no doubt. I wish him luck, wherever he ends up.

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And yes, Virginia, there are other things going on in the world besides the HBO pilot.

Like the NFL.

So the Eagles have signed Michael Vick. OK. I’m glad it was not the Giants or the Jets, truthfully… though I do believe in second chances, and Vick has served his time. Even so, I wouldn’t want him on my team. If his skills have not eroded too badly in prison, he will be a dangerous weapon for the Eagles, and my Giants have to face them twice… and sometimes three times… a year. So this clearly makes the Birds the favorites in the NFC East.

Fine with me. The G-Men always do better as underdogs.

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Ah, NFL draft weekend… nothing like it… it still amazes me that ESPN has somehow made an annual television event out of what used to be a bunch of guys sitting around a hotel ballroom writing names on index cards every fifteen minutes or so… but now it’s must-watch TV for all NFL fans, a media extravaganza telecast live on two networks, and covered by all the rest. And god help me, I watch religiously every year, with all the draft magazines and a big bowl of chile con queso (thanks, Phipps!) by my elbow.

So how did my two teams do?

The Giants did their usual solid job. No surprises there. Jerry Reese is not a GM given to bold moves; he sits where he is and makes his picks, just like George Young used to do. And it works well. The big need for the G-Men this year was wide receiver, since Plax went and stuffed a pistol into his sweatpants and shot a hole in his thigh and the Giants’ season. There were five or six top-ranked WRs this year, and my big fear was that all of them would be gone by the time the Giants picked at 29… but the football gods were kind. The Raiders went and reached and picked the fast guy, who can’t catch so good. Michael Crabtree went, and then Macklin, and then the Viking made my day by taking Percy Harvin… who looks to be an amazing player and a real headcase. He may turn out to be sensational, but he may also turn out to be Pacman Jones, and I’m thrilled that he didn’t end up on either of my teams. So when the pick came to the Giants, they had their choice between three very promising wideouts: Kenny Britt from Rutgers, Hakeem Nicks from North Carolina, and the Robiskie kid from Ohio State. All of them will be good players, I think. I was leaning toward the Rutgers kid, Britt, since he’s a Bayonne boy, from my home town, but they went with Nicks instead. That’s okay too. He’s not quite as tall and tough as Britt, but he has better hands, they say… in fact, he has giant mutant hands that help him make incredible catches. Works for me. I am sure Eli will like that too. And if Mario Manningham and Sinorice Moss step up as well, maybe the G-Men won’t miss Plax so much next season. And hey, the last time the Giants drafted a player from North Carolina, it worked out pretty well.

The Giant picks in the second round look pretty solid too. A linebacker and an OT. Our offensive line is solid now, but depth never hurts, and if the tackle they picked works out well, maybe they can move David Diehl to the other side. He’s not a natural left tackle.

And for the Jets…

Well, you can always count on the Jets to provide some excitement. No standing pat and picking for them, no sir, instead they make a blockbuster trade, give up three players and a second round pick to swap places with the Browns, vault up the board, and grab USC quarterback Mark Sanchez. He’s going to save the franchise. (Just like that Favre guy did last year).

He seems like a great kid. Very personable, certainly, should be a hit with the media (until he throws a pass, at least). But he’s still an unknown quality. Will he be better than Kellen Clemens? Who knows? Will he be better than Brett Ratliffe, who was one of the three players the Jets gave up to get him? No one knows that either… though the fact that it was Eric Mangini, who coached Ratliffe last year, who asked for him in this trade makes me a little worried. Ratliffe looked great in preseason last year, much better than Clemens did, and I was actually thinking he might be the Jets starting QB. Did Mangini see something? Was Ratliffe just a throw-in in the trade, or is he the next Matt Cassell?

Bottom line, the Jets rolled the dice. If Sanchez is indeed a franchise QB, then this was a great move. If he turns out to be the new Matt Leinert… or worse, the new Akili Smith / Andre Ware / David Klinger / Ryan Leaf… then not so much.

Time will tell.

Meanwhile, there’s another day of reading out names to look forward to tomorrow. Whoopee!

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So the other shoe has finally dropped in Denver, and it’s now official: quarterback Jay Cutler is available for trade. No big surprise. Everybody but the Broncos has seemed to know that Cutler and Denver were done a month ago.

That decision to fire Mike Shanahan is looking worse and worse.

Big question from my end is whether the Jets should go after Cutler, now that he’s officially on the market. I admit to having mixed feelings about that.

With the NFL draft only a month away, all the draft gurus have been beating the drum about how the Jets need to draft a quarterback. Myself, I think their collective analysis is faulty. Right now the Jets have three QBs on the roster: Kellen Clemens, Brett Ratliffe, and Eric Ainge. Between the three of them, they have a total of eight NFL starts. That’s why the draft gurus keep saying the Jets need a QB.

But say the Jets listen, and draft Sanchez (if he falls to 17), or Freeman, or one of the other college QBs. Now they will have four quarterbacks on the roster, and between they will still have a total of eight NFL starts. So what’s changed? Clemens, Ratliffe, and Ainge are all young, raw talents with big arms and zero experience. Any college kid the Jets can draft is going to be exactly the same. There’s no guarantee that Sanchez or Freeman is going to be any better over a career than Clemens, Ratliffe, or Ainge.

So I’ve been against this draft-a-QB drumbeat. The Jets need more help on defense, is what they need. A big wide receiver to take the place of Laveranues Coles would also be good.

Cutler is a different proposition, however. This is no raw recruit coming out of college, this is an established NFL quarterback, one that many commentators are saying is the best of his draft class. He could be “Broadway Jay,” I suppose, and lead the Jets for the next decades. He has a big arm too, and that’s an important asset in the windy Meadowlands.

But — and here’s where the doubts creep in — he’s also shown himself to be temperamental and thin-skinned. That’s the part that worries me. If his feelings could be so badly bruised by his new coach’s attempt to trade him, what’s going to happen if he comes to New York and has a bad game, and the NYC media start in on him?

I don’t know. I just don’t know.

But it should be interesting to see how it all works out.

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So the Dallas Cowboys have released Terrell Owens.

Smartest thing that Jerry Jones has done in years. Addition by subtraction.

I certainly hope that the Giants and the Jets both have the good sense to stay away from this guy. He’s a talented receiver, sure — although age has started to catch up to him — but he’s also a locker room cancer.

Most of ESPN’s talking heads seem to feel that the only team that might take a chance on TO now is the Oakland Raiders. Is even Al Davis that crazy? Maybe so. Sorry, Lodey.

The Cowboys also released Roy Williams. The safety Roy Williams, not the recently acquired wideout Roy Williams. Williams will have an easier time finding a new team than TO. He’s a liability in coverage, but he’s still a hard hitter and a punishing tackler, might be useful as a role player in the right defense.

FWIW, I have been very pleased by what the Giants and Jets have been doing in free agency. I was sorry to lose Derrick Ward (“Wind,” from Earth, Wind, and Fire) from the G-Men, but he deserves the chance to start, and the Giants are still set at running back with Brandon Jacobs, Ahmad Bradshaw, and Danny Ware. Meanwhile, they have been bolstering what was already a pretty formidable defense, picking up Michael Boley from the Falcons, Chris Canty from the Cowboys, and Rocky Bernard from the Seahawks. Adding that trio to Osi, Kiwi, Justin Tuck, Fred Robbins, Jay Alford, and Barry Cofield should give the G-Men the most explosive pass-rush rotation in the league… and they were already pretty good at sacking the QB.

Meanwhile, the Jets have signed Bart Scott from the Ravens and Lito Shepard from the Eagles, and that should make their D a lot tougher as well.

As a fan, I’ve always loved tough D, so it’s great to see both of my teams strengthening the side of the ball.

(Comments welcome, but only on the NFL, please)

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Brad Van Pelt is dead at 57.

Shocking and sad. He was a great linebacker and a great G-Man whose career, sadly, was squandered on some very bad Giants teams. But true fans of Big Blue remember him fondly. We didn’t have much to cheer about in those days.

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