By Tom Greer
I take a few weeks off from blogging and the Giants have me coming back and checking the calendar… did I some how travel back to 2007 or 2011? Without Daniel Jones; Joe Judge and The New York Football Giants, who not long ago were staring down the barrel of a 1-7 record and another top 10 or even top 5 NFL draft pick - are now first place in the Division and have just beaten the playoff caliber / Super Bowl contender Seattle Seahawks. Yea you heard me... Joe Judge took the youngest team in Pro-Football who were missing their starting Quarterback up to the rainy and foggy Pacific North West, against arguably the second or third best Quarterback in the game… and pulled out a game that if you asked the experts they had no business winning against a perennial playoff and Super Bowl contender.
They are at the top of the NFC East which for this year is basically like calling yourself the most sparkly turd in the bowl. But this is what they and the Giants faithful fanbase hope is the statement they needed to make. Being without an impressive win all year beating the likes of Washington, the Eagles and the Bengals - they needed that elusive win against a good Football team to prove that if they do win the NFC East (Least) they won’t be a one and done, that they’ll be one of those teams that the record may not show it but will be dangerous to play come February Football. It has that 2007 feel, a second half of the season surge showing that they are not a team to be taken lightly. Sure, there’s no Eli Manning in his prime or Plaxico Burress on offence and yea Michael Strahan, Justin Tuck and Osi Umenyiora are long gone. Instead its Leonard Williams, Dexter Lawrence, and James friggin' Bradbury on defense. Daniel Jones (or this week Colt McCoy) companied with Wayne Gallman aka the Wayne Train carrying the offence. Are trying to prove maybe just maybe if they hold on and win the worst division in the history of the sport they can be a team that they aren’t a reflection of their record of the division they play in.
Look... no one is planning a ticker tape parade, or thinking about standing in the canyon of heroes (of course not we have COVID) expecting a Lombardi trophy to be heading back to the Meadowlands. But what Giants fans are planning are having more feeling like the ones they woke up with on Monday. A feeling of hope, a feeling that there is promise and better things ahead for this team. That Joe Judge, Jason Garret and most certainly one of the best coaching hires the Giants have had in years, Patrick Graham have the framework of a program laid out for long-term success, where us fans re-stressing out about where they play in the playoffs and not where they’re going to be at the top of the draft. Us Giants fans missed this, we missed the anxiety of winning, excitement for a potential home playoff game and highs of a statement win. Take it one game at a time and the rest will handle itself - that’s what coach Judge has been preaching from the beginning and I for one am here for all of it so bring on the Cardinals they are next up to be taken out by a young and newly forming BIG BLUE WRECKING CREW!