Playoff fever!

Two notes from the Giants versus Buccaneers game yesterday in Tampa. First quarterback Eli Manning is receiving credit for his gutsy and efficient play yesterday in completing 20 of 27 passes in leading the Giants to victory. The conditions were ripe for the G-men as they were on the road where they went 7-1 during the regular season, and the temperatures would be in the 70s, which is perfect for Eli Manning's delicate psyche. Honestly the toughness of football players versus hockey players begins and ends with Eli. There's no way a man whose tears freeze to his face when the temperatures drop below 50 would get the starting goaltending job for the Rangers. Anyway, no lesser an expert than Peter King named Eli his offensive player of the weekend, which is an interesting choice for a NFL QB who can't throw a fucking spiral. While Eli did play a great game...for Eli, he still came up small in a critical 3rd quarter series by missing a wide open receiver on third down for what should have been an easy conversion. His throws were consistently over his target's heads or down at their feet, and it's more a testament to the receiver corps that led the NFL in dropped passes stepping up big when it mattered most.

That brings me to the unsung hero of the game, backup cornerback Corey Webster. Starting cornerback Sam Madison has been lined up against the opponents' top receivers all year, a curious by the Giants' coaching staff considering Madison apparently retired at the beginning of the year. He exploited a loop hole in the system that allowed him to continue to earn a paycheck even though at no point during the season did he actually run hard enough to break a sweat.

Webster has been labeled a bust in some circles after being selected in the second round out of LSU back in 2005. Webster blanketed Tampa's top receiver, Joey Galloway for most of the game, preventing the speedster from getting open all game and coming up with two critical turnovers in the second half. He recovered the fumbled kickoff to start the second half, and picked off a Jeff Garcia pass in the end zone when the Tampa quarterback tried to force the ball in to Galloway. On the sidelines Madison was seen taking notes on Webster's technique, apparently intruiged by Webster's curious decisions to run upfield with the receiver and trying to get his hands on balls that were thrown in his direction. We will see if Madison is able to apply these radical ideas into his game plan next weekend when the Giants face the Cowboys' talented receivers.