There was clearly nothing to do for the Dallas Cowboys which played the defending champs New York Giants in week 9 at Giants stadium.
After losing their superstar quarterback Tony Romo, the Cowboys offered a complete disaster with both substitute quarterbacks, Brad Johnson and Brooks Bollinger. The first threw 2 interceptions and completed 5 of 11 passes for 71 yards meanwhile, the second, who played the entire second half due to Johnson's awful performance, threw 1 interception but 1 touchdown and completed 9 of his 16 passes for a total gain of 63 yards.
The reason of those bad performances, the huge pressure brought by both Giants' defensive linemen, Mathias Kiwanuka (1 sack) and Justin Tuck (Considered by Micheal Strahan as his successor, photos below #91), 2.5 sacks.
When you think Osi Umenyiora, Giants' last season best sacker, was not there, it gives you an idea of how athletic Giants' defensive linemen are.
The pass defense was big too, Corey Wester got 2 interceptions meanwhile Giants' safety James Butler picked off once.
Inside New York's offense, things went well. Eli Manning (16 of 27 for 147 yards, 3 touchdowns and 1 interception) knows now what being a real leader is, he reached a higher level with his last Super Bowl victory.
I didn't agree with his rockstar vagaries at the Draft when he refused to play for the Chargers, but I have to recognize he's got some good abilities,
a powerful arm, a good coverage reading and a big accuracy. His favorite targets for short and medium gains are first, tight-end Kevin Boss (photo #89) who scored a touchdown in the red zone and second, Steve Smith who's got so reliable hands. I do think he's the next Giants' possession reciever
(photo below #12).
Add this offense a very competitive ground attack and you'll obtain a very strong team on both side of the ball which is well gone to succeed to its own self.
The rush offense already named earth,wind and fire led by a big Brandon Jacobs (photo #27) who compiled 117 yards in 17 carries with an unbelievable average of 6.88 yards per carry!
This guy is huge, he's got height and weight of a linebacker with a speed of a defensive back.
When he's launched, he's very difficult to stop. He's like a Caterpillar and I would pray for the rest of your soul if you are on his route.
The wind, Derrick Ward (12 carries for 63 yards and 1 touchdown) and the fire , Ahmad Bradshaw (5 carries for 20 yards) were there.
Bradshaw is, for sure, the less used of these three halfbacks due to the success brought by his two other teammates.
These three runnig backs have some very different abilities, Brandon Jacobs is so powerful capable to run between his offensive line. Derrick Ward is more versatile than Jacobs who's the prototype of a heavyweight NFL halfack. Then we've got Bradshaw who's the most elusive of this triplet.
One of the biggest rivalry in the NFL turned out to G men's advantage. Both of these teams are from the huge NFC east and if New York is a solid leader in this division with a 7-1 record, Dallas has to worry because they're now fourth and dead last with 5-4 and it seems to be on a wrong way to reach the Playoffs.
Besides just behind the Giants, we've got some surprising Redskins, with a 6-2 record, led by an amazing Clinton Portis who's already reached 1000 yards at half of the season. He could run for 2000 yards this season. The last one was Jamal Lewis with Baltimore in 2003, he ran for 2066 yards.