Saturday, June 27, 2009

Giant Parallel

***

This likely is much ado about nothing, but my deviant mind loves to find little nuggets like this. The 2006 Giants finished 8-8 and basically backed into the playoffs. They lost to us in the Wildcard round. That was Tiki Barber's final game.

The 2007 Giants were missing a great player because of the retirement of Barber. They had young guys step up and take his place. The defense went from good to great due to the emergence of Justin Tuck as a special player and because of the coaching of new DC Steve Spagnuolo. They went on to win the SB.

The 2008 Eagles backed into the playoffs, just like the '06 Giants. Both teams lost late in the game and had a very bitter taste to deal with because of that. We now face the challenge of replacing a legend like Brian Dawkins, just like the Giants did with Tiki.

We have a young defensive lineman from Notre Dame that we're all waiting to see breakout. I don't think Victor Abiamiri will become as good as his fellow Domer Justin Tuck, but VA could emerge into a good player and offer significant impact for us.

We also face the prospect of having a new DC this year. Spags was a Jim Johnson disciple and clearly Sean McDermott falls into that same category.

I'm certainly not telling you to make Super Bowl plans because of the interesting comparison, but it just struck me as odd how similar the situations are in several respects.

We will win a Super Bowl sometime between this year and 5 billion years from now when the Sun runs out of fuel and dies.

I hope...
_

5 comments:

Cliff said...

I like it!

Unfortunately though, you reminded me of the fact that Coach Johnson might not be with the team this season. What are your thoughts on McDermott?

He has nowhere near the coaching resume Spags had, but a few months ago I remember reading that a couple other NFL teams were interested in interviewing McDermott for D.C. jobs. That has to say something about his reputation.

orangecrush007 said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Unknown said...

Don't be so optimistic about the timeline we have for a superbowl win Tommy, the sun may actually run out of fuel before we win the big one, we are eagles fans after all and suffering endlessly seems to be part of the gig.

If Abiamiri can manage to get pressure and toss in 8 sacks this season I'll be thrilled. If he gets anywhere near Justin Tuck I'll just be giddy about the whole situation.

Cliff said...

I'm bored at work...

Average age of the starters on OFFENSE going in to Training Camp: 27.91 (DeSean...McNabb)

Average age of the starters on DEFENSE going in to Training Camp: 26.36 (Abiamiri...Sheldon)

Tommy Lawlor said...

@ Cliff...

Interesting. I prefer older guys on offense. Experience is crucial for them. Defense is more about energy and effort than execution. Those guys being younger is fine.