Sunday Afternoon Hangover: Too Early To Worry?
The New Meadowlands Stadium (NMS to many, now) had a strange feel to it last night. The Giants did little to inspire their decreasing legions with their play. Steeler fans seemed to be everywhere on a night that provided less of what people came to see rather than more of it.
Either the Steelers are very good, or the Giants are very bad. Or maybe it’s the other way around. Who can tell?
Pittsburgh, whose season is being threatened by the impending suspension of Ben Roethlisberger, looks like a team that that has little to worry about in the quarterback department. Byron Leftwich and Dennis Dixon both appeared to verrrrry comfortable taking snaps for Mike Tomlin’s crew.
On the opposing sideline, a different opera was playing. The Giants’ franchise quarterback, Eli Manning was out of uniform, still convalescing from head wound suffered last Monday vs the Jets. His understudy, Jim Sorgi, is hoping his shoulder can heal in the next three weeks to avoid the year-long purgatory for the infirmed, formally known as injured reserve.
The very green Rhett Bomar was under center in the inaugural Giants’ home affair at NMS. He struggled to make plays, and to the delight of the smattering of real Giant fans that can still afford to attend the games in person, he actually made a few. But, in general, he was out-manned by the notoriously staunch Steeler defense.
If Sorgi is sent to the gallows, the Giants will almost have to explore bringing in a veteran signal-caller. Names being bandied about last night were Jeff Garcia, Kerry Collins, Steve DeBerg, Earl Morrall and Norm Snead.
Another youngster, punter Matt Dodge, pounded a 63-yard punt, but then hit his next one about half that distance. His inconsistency will both help and hurt the Giants this year. It’s a fact that fans are going to have to live with. It doesn’t look like the Giants will give up on him and bring in a veteran at this point.
Perry Fewell’s new defense played fairly well, but anytime they line up in Tampa 2, they give up yardage. They go from attack mode to read-and-react mode. I’d rather see them die trying to stop the offense at the soonest point of attack than concede the chunks of yardage they did last night. We’ve seen too much of that already…
Is it too early to worry? Never. I’m sure the team is aware of their shortcomings and is working on solutions. But, in the interim, fans worry.
