New York Giants Preview: Hater View vs. Homer View

The Facts:

2007 Record: 10-6
Season End: Super Bowl Champions
Offensive Rank: 16th
Defensive Rank: 7th
Key Additions: QB David Carr, S Sammy Knight
Key Losses: LB Kawika Mitchell, LB Reggie Torbor, S Gibril Wilson
Day One Draft Choices: S Kenny Phillips, CB Terrell Thomas
Marquee wins: @ Redskins, @ Buccaneers, @ Cowboys, @ Packers, vs. Patriots


Homer View:
The Giants are the defending Super Bowl champions. They were the best team in the league by the end of last year and earned every bit of the Lombardi Trophy. For this team, it all starts up front on defense. Rookie defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo did a phenomenal job using the personnel along the D-Line last year and they led the league in sacks (53). Michael Strahan retired very recently, but he was only third on the team in sacks. Justin Tuck will step in and take his place, and he had 10 sacks last year. Pro Bowl DE Osi Umenyiora will start opposite Tuck and the inside will be anchored by underrated Fred Robbins. At Linebacker, Matthias Kiwanuka now has more experience starting at OLB and is poised to break out. Antonio Pierce is far and away the best MLB in the division. In the secondary, Aaron Ross will improve after a strong rookie year and Corey Webster had a breakout in the playoffs last year. Sammy Knight is experienced and had 4 INTs for Jacksonville last year while Kenny Phillips was the best Safety in the draft. In any case their job will be easy considering the pass rush that will be generated by the D-Line. On offense, Eli had a coming out party in the playoffs last year and we should see more of that this year. Eli has great weapons, and will have TE Jeremy Shockey back, who got hurt in before the playoffs. Also, recent 2nd round picks Sinorice Moss and Steve Smith should step up with another year in Coughlin's offense and 3rd round pick Mario Manningham was super productive at Michigan. The running game ranked 4th in the league last year and the entire line returns, along with all 4 of the Giants' RBs. Jeff Feagles and the David Tyree-led coverage unit should remain solid.
Prediction: 13-3


Hater View:
Eli Manning had a good postseason, but in the regular season he posted his worst passer rating since his rookie year. Don't be fooled by a couple of games. He had a great start to his season back in 2006 but never gained any consistency. He's had 11 100+ rating games, but he's never managed to make it a trend. Even his great postseason game against Dallas was followed up by a 21-for-40 effort against Green Bay in the NFC Championship. He's a talented QB, there's no question about that, and is fully capable of dominating in stretches, but has never been able to put it together for 16 games. They won mostly off of hunger and determination last year, and as Super Bowl Champions I would expect less of that grit this year, which will hurt. Another knock on Eli's success next year is Shockey's return to the huddle. Eli isn't a tremendously strong leader type, and has struggled with strong personalities in the huddle, such as Tiki Barber and Shockey, in the past. Shockey could be a curse rather than a blessing, and keep in mind that he isn't happy and was close to being traded this off-season. He could easily be very detrimental to his QB this season. The defense loses the gap-toother face of the team. Michael Strahan's retirement takes one of the greatest pass rushers in NFL history off the line and leaves Justin Tuck to take his place. Tuck has only ever started 3 games in his career, and despite a good season last year, is a question mark as an every down player, given his weakness against the run. This could also effect Osi Umenyiora's play on the other side, and if the pass rush doesn't keep up, then the defense will be in trouble. The team lost Kawika Mitchell and Reggie Torbor at LB, who started a combined 29 games last season and picked up nobody to play WILL, while last year's SAM Kiwanuka is coming off a season ending leg injury. Corey Webster was a borderline bust before the postseason last year and his improved play was exaggerated because his plays were in big spots rather than consistently throughout the games. Gibril Wilson kept that secondary together and he signed a big deal with Oakland, leaving rookie Kenny Phillips and journeyman Sammy Knight to start in his place. Last I checked, Lawrence Tynes was still the Place Kicker, who nearly blew the season by missing a chip shot with time expiring against Green Bay.
Prediction: 8-8 coming back down to earth


Realistic Projection:
I don't think Strahan will be a big loss, considering the year Tuck had last year. Also, with a the better half of a season starting under his belt, Kiwanuka will probably be used more freely as a pass rusher, especially in Nickel and Dime. I think the defense will be a little down from last year, but still solid enough due to the D-Line. What's worrisome is an apparent lack of depth compared to last year. On offense, they'll be good even if Eli remains the Eli of old. They did go 10-6 with him his usual, average self. However, the added confidence from the Super Bowl run is exactly what a player like him needs. He's always been a guy whose confidence has been his worst enemy. Shockey is the real question mark here. He could blow this team up, but could also be that pro bowl TE that Manning missed in the postseason. In any case, the entire O-Line is in their prime and last year they proved the running game will be strong no matter who carries the ball.
Prediction: 12-4, benefiting from 2nd place schedule.

NBA Game Review: Game 2 NBA Finals

Game 2 of the NBA Finals was one of the better games of the playoffs. The stars all had at least average games, open shots went down, the tempo was high and a beautiful blowout turned into a scrappy comeback. Fun game.

I'll start by breaking down the Lakers:

*Derek Fisher: 9 PTS, 3 a**, 3 STL
Quiet as usual game. Generally played good off-ball defense, but struggled containing Rondo on the ball. Had a pretty quiet game offensively, as he usually does. Made a big steal when down 9 late in the game that led to a fastbreak that cut the game to 6.

*Kobe Bryant: 30 PTS, 8 a**, 3 STL
Strong, strangely quiet game. Had a quiet first half, scoring only 9 points, but wasn't really shooting much anyway. Allen did a solid job on him and he was in mild foul trouble. Second half was a whole other story. Scored 21 and orchestrated the big comeback late. When the Lakers got away from the Triangle and went to a Kobe pick and roll/isolation based offense the team started to put up points. He also did a very nice job driving and dishing in this one. Had 5 Assists in the Quarter, 3 of which were to open Three-Point shooters. The other two were Ronny Turiaf alley-oops. Got bumped a lot and didn't really get the calls he might have wanted, and you could tell he was frustrated. Credit him for, besides one time, keeping his cool. I wonder why on earth he didn't get the ball at 0:14 left while down 4. Bizarre. He decided to take over and carry his team too late I think. Seemed like he really only started to step up once his team was already down 15.

*Lamar Odom: 10 PTS, 8 a**
Bad game. I never got the feeling that he was ever really in this one. Started off good, but seemed to disappear the longer the game went on. Had a really bad charging foul at the end of the 3rd when the Celtics were pulling away that really gave Boston that added momentum and didn't seem to ever really get back in the game. Also got into fould trouble in the second half. The Lakers were down 2 points with 14 seconds left and Odom wasn't on the floor. That's the kind of game he had.

*Vladimir Radmanovic: 13 PTS, 10 REBS
Had one of the more bizarre, two-faced game you'll see. Really up and down. Got two fouls really early, got subbed out and wasn't to be seen for most of the first half. When he came back in Paul Pierce had a field day with Vladi guarding him. Rajon Rondo, 8 inches shorter, blocked his three point attempt and flushed down the following fast break. Then when down big in the 4th, Radmanovic woke up and was probably the second most influential player on the comeback. He hit 3 really big Threes and snatched pretty much every board away from Garnett, taking away second chance points. Down 9 he took Fisher's pass on the fastbreak and fed Vujacic on the perimeter for a big Three, then jumped a pass on the very next possession and slammed home a huge bucket to bring the lead down to 4. Really odd game.

*Pau Gasol: 17 PTS, 10 REBS, 4 a**
He quietly had a very efficient, but not very dynamic game. Went 8-12 from the field and did well under the basket whenever he had the ball. The problem with Gasol, was that he was never really counted on to give the Lakers the lift when they needed him. Seemed like he just hit his shots and did his job instead of really bailing out his team when they needed him. He was clearly feeling good from the field, but all of his scores seemed to be at relatively insignificant times. Defensively he played very soft. The 10 rebounds are misleading. He only had 2 going into the 4th quarter, when they really needed him to be grabbing those boards and eliminate Boston possessions.

*Trevor Ariza: 2 REBS
Went in for Radmanovic early when the former got in foul trouble. Exited the game after the first quarter and didn't come back

*Luke Walton: 2 PTS, 1 REB
Didn't do much. Played a fair number of minutes but did little offensively. Defensively he was in there guarding Leon Powe in his first stint on dominance in the second quarter.

*Sacha Vujacic: 8 PTS, 1 AST
Hit some big shots. Had all of his shots in the last 13 minutes of the game. Hit a Three with 5 minutes left to cut the lead to 14 and another with a buck thirty left to slim the lead to 6. Then got the chance to hit the big shot (for some reason) with 14 seconds left but had an off-balance look and got blocked by Paul Pierce.

*Jordan Farmar: 9 PTS
Played well. All 9 points came from beyond the arc. He shot 3- from deep. Two came in the fourth quarter. Played PG for a good stretch during the comeback.

*Ronny Turiaf: 4 PTS
Flushed down two Kobe Bryant-fed alley-oops and absorbed two fouls on defense.


In general, while the team came out firing and jumped out to an early lead, the defense was really the problem here. Paul Pierce had open looks for all the shots he hit. Ray Allen got the best of Kobe defensively and the Laker Big Men played soft, allowing Powe and Garnett to do a lot of damage. The play i which Leon Powe took the ball coast-to-coast was the worst "defensive" possession I've seen in the past few weeks. That was horrendously bad. Gasol and Radmanovic made essentially no attempt to stop Powe from going right to the basket. I credit Phil Jackson a lot for the 4th quarter comeback. I think he chose really good times to call timeouts and the team always seemed to come out of the timeouts better than before. Also, just looking at Doc Rivers' and Paul Pierce's faces when they were up big, you could tell they were enjoying the lead. The Lakers never gave up, or, more importantly, panic when down big and almost made a historic comeback. This also leaves them with a lot more confidence going back home. Had they lost in a blowout, it would have been hard to see this game even go 6 games. The Lakers showed very much that they can be better than this team. L.A. will be very interesting.

Now I'll look at the Celtics:

*Rajon Rondo: 4 PTS, 16 a**, 6 REBS, 2 STLS
Really scrappy, strong game. Rondo looked like a mix of Steve Nash and Leandro Barbosa out there. He was the fastest player on the court and really was very much a part of the big, decisive 3rd quarter run, as well as Leon Powe's career game. Rondo had some beautiful feeds down low and let Powe clean up the trash. He got to the rim really easily and did magic to feed the bigs down low. He pushed the tempo really well when L.A. had one of their slower lineups in and got his team a lot of easy fast break points. On defense he had a great play where he blocked 6'10 Vlad Radmanovic, rushed down the court and took Garnett's overhead pass to the hole. Biggest concern, that unfortunately I think will always keep him from ever really being a great PG, is his shooting. He can't shoot to save his life. 2-6 from the Line is putrid for a Guard.

*Ray Allen: 17 PTS, 2 a**
Allen had a typical "Celtics Allen" game. He clearly was the third option on offense and didn't get looks unless wide open. He's looking a lot like Wally Szczerbiak these days isn't he? Anyway, he hit big shots from deep and rolled nicely to the corner on every one of Rondo's drives to set up easy, wide open shots for him and his teammates. Defensively, he guarded Kobe Bryant and only once was ever badly beaten. (This was on the Spin Move drive which resulted in an up-and-under followed by a technical foul for Kobe.) Good job. I knew it was going to be a weird game when he missed the first FT of the game. The chances of Allen missing a FT are about equivalent to the Vegas odds of the Bears winning the Super Bowl.

*Paul Pierce: 28 PTS, 8 a**, REBS
Boy those Celtics fans really love this guy don't they? I think it's safe to say that the knee was barely hurt to begin with, considering there wasn't a limp to be seen out of Pierce. Also, if the knee was really a concern, Doc Rivers would have taken him out when up 24. Anyway, he had a great first half. He hit three big triples, including one from the top about 2 feet behind the stripe. He hit all 4 of his Threes for the game and every shot he drops gets the crowd involved. He also did a very good job distributing, illustrated by his 8 assists. He almost blew it for Boston, however. Fisher stole the ball off of him with 1:30 which ended up cutting the lead to 6. Then on the very next play he tossed an ill-advised pass to the sideline that Radmanovic picked off and flushed home. Then he completely redeems himself by hitting two very clutch FTs (he stalled his motion for a good 3 seconds on the 2nd shot). Following that up, he had the huge block on Vujacic's three that would have given the Lakers a one-point deficit with 14 seconds left had it gone down. I hope this game ends all this knee nonsense.

*Kevin Garnett: 17 PTS, 14 REBS
Kinda funny to call a 17 and 14 night a run-at-the-mill game, but that's the player Garnett has become. He struggled a bit with his jumpshot, but really dominated Gasol on the boards and seemed to gobble up every defensive rebound in stretches. He really had a pretty quiet game. I don't really recall much out of the ordinary for KG.

*Kendrick Perkins: 7 PTS, 3 REBS
Saw the least amount of minutes of any Celtics player who saw the court tonight not named Sam Cassell despite starting. Was relatively powerful down low and got to the line twice. Still managed two turnovers. His biggest issue was foul trouble, most of which weren't even in typical defensive situations but, rather, moving screens and off-ball aggressions. Not the smartest fouls in the world.

*P.J. Brown: 6 PTS, 3 REBS
I love the P.J. Brown pickup for the Celtics, but I never thought it would work out this nicely for them. P.J. essentially is the split starter with Perkins and delivered again tonight, exemplified by the crowd's reaction when he got subbed back out of the game. When he's needed that little 10-foot jump shot, Brown has proven to be a dependable option. Good game again for Brown. He's a guy I'd like to see get a ring.

*James Posey: 8 PTS, 3 REBS
Good game. Posey played just 20 minutes, but played every minute of the final stretch while subbed in for Perkins. Hit two Threes, including one with 3:38 to go that brought the lead back up to 16 and should have killed Laker momentum, really. Had the last 2 points of the game on two game sealing FTs.

*Leon Powe: 21 PTS, 2 REBS
Where do I start. Career Game. In the first half he came in, dominated down low against Walton and Turiaf and had 8 FT attempts in his 7 first half minutes. Announcers were impressed by 8 points in that span. The Celtics faithful were chanting his name during his second stint of action. Highlights of that included numerous Rondo-fed flushed, a coast-to-coast throwdown that Mark Jackson compared to a a Julius Erving play. (who Jeff Van Gundy subsequently mocked, although somewhat uncalled for, Doesn't Van Gundy seem like the most awkward person ever) Anyway, I think his most impressive play was a play in which he made a Duncan-esque move from left of the shoulder, seperating himself from the defender and finally hooking the ball over him into the basket. Had a phenomenal game, was the key cog to the Celtics' Third Quarter run and was awarded the player of the game. Great game.

*Sam Cassell: 1 AST, 1 STL
Didn't play much. Did manage to jack up two ugly shots, one of which was blocked by Theo Ratliff lookalike Jordan Farmar. However, after that very miss he hustled and got the steal seconds later which led eventually to a couple of FTs for Boston. All in all Rondo was having too good of a game to take him out of the game for very long.


The key the Celtics winning was pretty clear. They played exceptional team basketball. 31 of Boston's 36 FGs were assisted. A lot had to do with Rondo, who really was the unsung hero of this game. He drove magnificently to the basket the whole game, and the perimeter shots were open and went down for them. (9-for-14) Brown and, especially, Powe were great contributers off the bench. Powe had a life story piece on him broadcasters during half time and during the 3rd quarter run it became obvious that this was Powe's night. Pierce hit big shots early and got the team's momentum up in the first half that carried over past halftime. Allen and Garnett simply went out and did what they usually do. No significant Celtics player really had a bad game. However, their fourth quarter near-meltdown is a legit concern to the discipline of this team. That was a bad case of complacency that only really got resolved by the game clock. Doc Rivers I'm sure had some words about that. Finally, and this seems to be what the media has focused on, is that there was a big disparity in the number of times L.A. went to the line compared to Boston. (38 FTAs to 10) Boston won't have this luxury on the road these next three games.


What made this game great were a number of things:
*The teams shot a combined 19-for-35 from deep
*51 of the teams' 77 combined FGs were assisted. Boston, in particular did a great job of this.
*Unsuspected players stepped up big. Powe had 21 points. Rondo had 16 assists. Radmanovic and Vujacic made some big plays.
*Finally, the game started off sloppy, and there were a lot of early turnover. It had the makings of a really scrappy game. Both teams got it out of their systems quick and displayed very good ball security after the initial jitters wore off.


Los Angeles now has the really tough task of swinging this series, which will require them to essentially win the next three games, and follow that by winning another on enemy turf. It's going to be tough. They're going to really have to build a lot of momentum back home.

Dallas Cowboys 2008 Preview - Homer View vs. Hater View

The Facts:

2007 Record: 13-3
Season End: Divisional Playoffs
Offensive Rank: 3rd
Defensive Rank: 9th
Key Additions: CB Adam Jones, LB Zach Thomas
Key Losses: LB Akin Ayodele, NT Jason Ferguson, RB Julius Jones
Day One Draft Choices: RB Felix Jones, CB Mike Jenkins, TE Martellus Bennett
Marquee wins: vs. Packers, vs. Reskins, @ Giants, vs. Giants


Homer View:

This team lost only one starter in Akin Ayodele but more than made up for that in Zach Thomas. There were 13 pro bowlers on this roster and they all return with an extra year in the system. Tony Romo will be entering his third year as a starter and is entering his prime. Marion Barber's bruising running style will wear down opposing defenses while Felix Jones appears to be a perfect outside compliment to him. T.O. got a new contract and is clearly happy, and Owens is a guy you wish wasn't on the opposing team when he's in a situation he likes. Jason Witten had a breakout year and caught for over 1,100 yards last year. The offensive line still has three Pro Bowlers with Leonard Davis entering his second year in Wade Phillips' system. Meanwhile on defense star OLB DeMarcus Ware is still only 25 and getting better each game. There is exceptional depth at LB with former first - and second round picks Bobby Carpenter, Kevin Burnett and Anthony Spencer backing up starters. The CB position is more talented and deeper than ever with new additions Pacman Jones and Mike Jenkins coming in. The one area of the team that wasn't exceptional last year will get a major boost when Pacman Jones and his 4 career TDs comes in to return kicks.
Prediction: 14-2

Hater View:

Tank Johnson, Terrell Owens, Terry Glenn, Pacman Jones. Those are some big personalities to keep all under one roof. I picture that locker room like that scene from the Waterboy where Coach Kline leaves Farmer Fran in charge of the team for a while. But these guys aren't the only problem. Ken Hamlin wants a new contract, Greg Ellis feels like he's being phased out. Roy Williams has become distant from his teammates, doesn't have any confidence in Phillips' defensive scheme and has been rumored to possibly be released by the team. That's just what Tony Romo needs, distractions. We all know how well Romo does with distractions. If Dallas struggles, T.O.'s smile will be wiped off his face faster than a flying Pacman Jones bullet. Romo faded unbelievably towards the end of last year, just like he had his first year as the starter. He needs a clear head if he wants to shake his late season struggles and his hollywood persona seems to conflict with that. Also, aside from T.O., there is no impact WR on this team and this could be a legit concern if Terry Glenn doesn't return 100% or Owens gets hurt. Finally, if Pacman isn't reinstated by the NFL, there is no real impact return man on the roster.
Prediction: 7-9

Realistic Projection:

The offense should be great again, at least for the first 14 weeks of the year. The Line is there. The RBs are there. There's a playmaking WR and a top 3 TE. If Romo can put it together at the end of the year, watch out. On defense, I would expect the same thing as last year. Roy Williams is the biggest question mark there. Off the field and in the locker room is where the problems could be. If all the possible land mines go off, things could get out of hand and we could see a mediocre team. However, this team is very deep and has the ability to overcome this adversity. The real issue is Tony Romo and his fragile, yet big, head.
Prediction: 11-5 with a tougher schedule this year