Bill Simmons: Eli Manning on the Road...

[Mavs Man]

He makes a good point:

To all the Giants fans who flooded my mailbox last weekend after my "I can't take Eli Manning on the road" Bucs-Giants pick with a relentless stream of "He's 7-1 on the road!!!!" e-mails. Jeez, I didn't realize he won his last seven road games against Philly (scored 16 points), Detroit (ditto), Miami (13 points, 59 yards passing), Buffalo (four turnovers and nearly killed the G-men), Washington (played one good half), Chicago (ditto) and Atlanta (congratulations). What was I thinking? The man was a road warrior!

Now, if you're going to make the argument Eli has a better chance of succeeding on the road because he doesn't have to worry about his own fans turning on him, that's somewhat logical. Just don't tell me that seven up-and-down road wins against an easy schedule meant that I shouldn't have been afraid of him in Tampa Bay. (Yes, that was a triple negative.) He needed to show up in a big road game, he did, and now we know he has it in him. I think.

Yet, he picks the Giants to win outright.

Giants (+7.5) over COWBOYS
Normally, I'd worry about getting sucked in by the Team That Looked a Little Too Good In Round 1 (always a red flag), but that's offset by the "Any time two teams play for a third time, it's usually a war" rule that's a mortal lock for Manifesto 5.0.

Here's my problem with laying the points: Without a healthy Terrell Owens (whether he plays or not), the Cowboys offense doesn't look so imposing anymore, and their collective limp to the finish looms as an enormous red flag (as well as a direct violation of Rule No. 6). Plus, didn't the Giants play them tough in the previous two games? Don't we need one underdog covering in Round 2? Could there be something to the whole "Eli looks better on the road than at home" thing? Could the wave of Giants running backs eventually wear Dallas down? What if Dallas needs to keep Jason Witten in to block and T.O. can't go -- who becomes Romo's possession receiver? How good do you feel about Wade Phillips in the playoffs? Couldn't the Giants absolutely win this game outright?

I say yes. And since the Giants are peaking at the right time, it was already a no-brainer to take the points before I realized it would be sweet revenge following a weekend's worth of cranky e-mails from the Tri-State Area. You wanted me to believe in Mr. "8-1 On The Road," Giants fans? Fine! I believe in Eli Manning! I was wrong! Now I'm on the bandwagon and you can't kick me off! Come on, Eli! TAKE US TO THE PROMISED LAND, ELI!!!!!!!!

The Pick: Giants 33, Cowboys 30.

 

[Yakuza Rich]

didn't the Giants play them tough in the previous two games?

They lost by double digits both times and Dallas was leading for most of both games. They certainly didn't blow them away, but I can't see saying they "played them tough" either.

Reason #1 why I don't take Simmons' columns' with a grain of salt....he doesn't follow as closely as he claims and more often than not doesn't know what he's talking about.




YAKUZA

 

[Tom [Giants fan]]

They lost by double digits both times and Dallas was leading for most of both games. They certainly didn't blow them away, but I can't see saying they "played them tough" either.

Reason #1 why I don't take Simmons' columns' with a grain of salt....he doesn't follow as closely as he claims and more often than not doesn't know what he's talking about.




YAKUZA

The Giants did play the Cowboys tough in the first game. It was within 3 up until about 4 minutes to go. I'd say that's pretty tough.

 

[5Stars]

The Giants did play the Cowboys tough in the first game. It was within 3 up until about 4 minutes to go. I'd say that's pretty tough.

How many of the Cowboys starters were not playing in that game?

 

[thekavorka]

you'd have to be a homer to not say the giants played the cowboys tough in the 2nd game.

if not for a hold on roy williams where he was out of the play, the game would have been 24-24 in the 4th quarter.

but the game shouldn't have even been that close in the first place, if the cowboys didn't commit stupid penalties

 

[InmanRoshi]

Giants played us tough both games. And, yes, we did limp down the stretch. I do think TO is healthier than most national media know, and I do think the time off was good for us to "reboot the computer". I also think Shockey is a huge loss for the Giants matching up with us, because the Giants really don't have anyone who can exploit the middle of the field which means Wade should have a full arsenal of middle blitzes to take advantage of the Giant's second string center and Eli's scatterbrained tendencies.

And 1 playoff win agaisnt a phenomenally mediocre Tampa team doesn't completely wash away a year's worth of of evidence (actually, multiple year's worth for Eli and this cast) that the Giants are a completely inconsistent team with no ability to string along consecutive strong performances. Everyone acts like that New England game was so impressive... I thought the Patriots were just toying with them. For the last month Belichick has been working their base defense and their run offense with Maroney against teams like the Jets likely because of weather and also to just work on the kinks before the playoffs. They tried to do the same thing with the Giants, but after the Giants got the lead the Patriots finally took off the gloves and went back to "Patriots Football" in the second half with the shotgun and the 4-5 WR sets and blitzing Eli and proceeded to steamroll over the Giants like a junior varsity team.