5 BOROUGH SPORTS

Hakeem Nicks' game-winning touchdown catch...the same spot of the field where Plaxico Burress caught his Super Bowl-winning touchdown

Apparently the Giants play their best football in the desert. Yesterday, Eli Manning led yet another fourth quarter comeback in the same stadium the Giants won the Super Bowl four years ago. And just like that game, the Giants saved the game on another radical play. On the Giants’ final drive, Victor Cruz caught a pass well into Cardinals’ territory; however, Cruz went down untouched and let go of the football. Arizona then recovered the so-called fumble and believed they sealed their victory. Instead, the referees marked Cruz down and the Giants remained possession. In the very next play, Manning threw the game-winning touchdown pass to Hakeem Nicks.

Not to sound biased, but the refs absolutely made the right call here. In the NFL rule book, once a player gives himself up on the play and has no intention of making forward progress, he is ruled down. Even if there is no contact, the play is ruled dead. The fact that Cruz let go of the ball and headed back to the line of scrimmage indicated that he wasn’t trying to gain any more yards. This morning on Sportscenter, NFL great Eric Allen said that this play should’ve been a fumble because Cruz “thought he was touched.” That is absolutely absurd. So does that mean if a player “thought” he was in-bounds on a catch but was clearly out of bounds, the refs should call him in? Cruz was down because he gave himself up. It doesn’t matter what he “thought.”

A couple of key notes from the game: I thought Osi Umenyiora played great in his first game of the season. He was a little rusty in the first half, but his sack late in the fourth quarter all but sealed the Giants victory. Dave Tollefson also did a magnificent job filling in for the injured Justin Tuck with two sacks on the day. Eli Manning had a terrible first three quarters, but made up for it with a brilliant fourth. Let’s not forget rookie tight end Jake Ballard recording his first touchdown catch. Ballard showed some true athletic ability by keeping both feet in bounds on the late fourth quarter touchdown that started the Giants’ comeback. The Giants take on Seattle next week at home.

This entry was posted on October 3, 2011 at 2:28 pm and is filed under Giants. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.