We made it. The season is upon us.
Soon, at least; as of this writing (though not publishing) we're a good chunk of hours removed from the game. That said, we're real close.
Before the game, and I'll publish this a couple hours in advance, keep an eye on NFL.com preview video, although watching it for the 2nd time, it hurts me to hear them claim Justin Tuck will matchup against Jon Jansen. Nope.
Gameday thread via the Official Site.
Our injury report lists:
Kareem Moore | Doubtful | Hamstring |
Alex Buzbee | Out | Achilles Injury |
Phillip Daniels | Out | Knee Injury |
Malcolm Kelly | Out | Knee |
Khary Campbell | Probable | Thigh |
LaRon Landry | Probable | Hamstring |
Antwaan Randle El | Probable | Hand |
Shawn Springs | Probable | Calf |
Jason Taylor | Questionable | Knee |
We can live without Kareem Moore and Alex Buzbee (injured reserve). Phillip Daniels is going to be out for the season along with Buzbee, so no news there. Malcolm Kelly is not that far from injured reserve and won't be doing anything for weeks, it seems:
Malcolm Kelly, whose knee injury has been such a concern that the team has considered putting him on season-ending injured reserve...
Uhhh, good news for Devin Thomas, I suppose.
I have every confidence that Landry will play as I've heard nothing to the contrary and ironman Antwaan Randle El has assured the world he will play in spite of his hand injury. Shawn Springs is a necessary cog.
Jason Taylor probably won't play but I remain hopeful nonetheless.
Big Blue View should have any new Giants' developments up over at his site. The Giants Official Site injury report lists:
Player | Injury | 9/1 | 9/2 | 9/3 |
LB Jonathan Goff | Back | O | O | O |
CB Terrell Thomas | Hamstring | O | O | O |
WR Domenik Hixon | Back | DNP | L | Q |
K Lawrence Tynes | Knee (left) | DNP | DNP | O |
RB Ahmad Bradshaw | Calf | P |
Do with that what you want.
Line is currently something like Giants -4 though I've seen it at -4.5 so hopefully that means the fix is on, yo. Over/under is 41 though, again, that's higher than I read yesterday I believe. My prediction: Redskins 21 Giants 19.
That's different than the prediction I gave just last week or so (hat tip: Curly R) to the New York Times' Fifth Down Blog. What I said:
Will Allensworth ru[i]ns Hogs Haven, an unofficial Washington Redskins blog for Sports Blog Nation. The site launched sometime in August 2006 and has been poorly written ever since, mostly because I run it.
While there is little doubt that the Giants are a worse football team without Osi Umenyiora, the question is how much worse are they? Against the pass, much, much worse, as they’ll have to account for 13 sacks and 5 fumbles without him. Against the run, though, there’s reason to think Osi left much to be desired, at least per the work done by Football Outsiders in their Pro Football Prospectus. They had him below Justin Tuck, Michael Strahan, Fred Robbins, and Barry Cofield in run stop percentage (which is a measure of success depending on the particular down) and average rushing yards allowed. For the ‘Skins, the good news here is that I have more questions about their passing game than their running game (especially given the way their O-Line played against Carolina), and Osi was an absolute force against any quarterback. Redskins, 27-17.
Note: I don't even know if the above answer makes sense.
After much reflection and soul searching I decided testing ye Fooball Gambling Gods twice by both ripping apart their spread and destroying their over under was probably a poor decision, hence the tempered 21-19 score.
I think there will be some live blogging over at Tandler's and TORB (The Sea Salt & Vinegar Potato Chip!) though I'm not certain. UPDATE: AOL Fanhouse is a go for livebloggin with Ryan Wilson, Om Field is excited, etc. UPDATE 2 by Ben, Curly R's game preview is here. Go read the blogroll yourself.
This is where you post your own predictions for the game, hopes, dreams, aspirations, recipes, etc. Enjoy, welcome to the new season and, most importantly:
HTTR