Giants and Saints

The displaced Saints were in town last night and I figured this was sort of a unique event so I decided to go. The game didn't sell out; there were blocks of empty seats in the upper deck, but I would say there were at least 65,000. A number of folks felt that it wasn't fair to move the game to Giants Stadium and, to be honest, they were right, it wasn't fair. The fiction of a Saints home opener, with "Saints" in one endzone, Saints banners on the walls, the Saints cheerleaders and the Saints in home uniforms, went out the window with the opening kick. It's not fair when what is supposed to be a home game forces you to face 65,000 foaming at the mouth hostile fans.

They did raise some $237,000 from the game which represented the total profit. The NJSEA presented a check at the start of the 4th quarter. Besides that, the Giant's players donated $141,000 and they passed a Red Cross "bucket" around in the stands and the Giants were to match what was collected. I don't know how much that netted but last week they collected $46,000 which the Giants matched to make it $92,000.

It was a more than typical Monday night crowd. Much younger and much drunker with a large proportion of non-regulars so things got a little rowdy in the stands from time to time. Like about every 5 minutes. The best quote came from a slightly tipsy guy off to my left during the "Saints" halftime, "Did you ever think you'd hear country music in Giant's stadium?"

Oh yeah, the Giants won 27-10.

Now for the grades.

Special Teams: Very Good
Granted they gave up a bonehead fumble near the end of the first half and allowed a healthy kick return near the end of the second, but they did recover the opening kick fumble which lead to a TD, Feely was 2 for 2, Feagles pinned the Saints a couple of times and generally the play was pretty solid over all. Either that or I'm so relieved they're not absolutely awful as they've been the last few years that I'm easily pleased.

Offense: Good
They didn't give up any turnovers, scored 27 points and generally played a solid game. Still they had a number of opportunities they couldn't cash in on and there were way too many penalties.

Defense: Good
I can't give anything higher to a squad that gives up over 400 yards in total offense, but they did manage to force a whole bunch of turnovers. This team showed a little of this in the pre-season too. Bend, bend, TURNOVER. Talk about living on the edge. This isn't going to work out with the better teams that don't make that many mistakes.