There are many players and factors that are being talked about in this NFC Championship today, but in my opinion the biggest factor will be the combination of Alex Smith to Michael Crabtree. We know a couple of things already, Eli Manning will get his completions to his trio of receivers and the 49ers will stop the Giant run game. That much I am fairly certain will be the majority of yards for the Giant offense. I think, much like Ben Roethlisberger being thrown into Brady status last year on his run to the Super Bowl, the idea that Eli is better than his brother Peyton is ludicrous, especially after watching the Colts play without him this year. I felt Eli was underrated, much like Big Ben before last year's run, now I feel like he is being overrated much like Big Ben once he made it to the Super Bowl. Eli is a very good quarterback, but let us not forget that the Giants only made it to the playoffs because of the Eagles misery. Vick missed 4 games this past season and I am pretty sure he would have won one of those games that they lost, which would have been enough to keep Eli and company at home. I won't even get into Tom Coughlin as I feel he is overrated as well and is a slightly above average coach that would have been fired had they not made it to the playoffs. Much like the Cowboys and Chargers, the Giants have a ton of talent so this is where they should be and anything else is a direct link to bad coaching, enough said.
Back to the point of this blog, which is the Smith to Crabtree combo. The 49ers are thought of as a run team, but the real weakness for the Giants are their cornerbacks as I have a hard time saying the defensive backfield as I think they have one of the best safety tandems in the league in Antrel Rolle and Kenny Phillips. Antrel Rolle, who is as good as a cover safety as it gets will do a good job of holding down Vernon Davis along with some linebacker help. This will leave Phillips to keep an eye on the run, but more important, the Giants are going to ask their cornerbacks to go man up against the receivers. That will be my key to the game as if the Smith and Crabtree combo can exploit this, it will be a long day for the Giants. Eli is known to throw some picks when he gets hit a lot as he tries to make some crazy throws, so I expect at least 2 of those today. If Alex Smith can protect the ball and get it into his receivers hands and Vernon Davis can pull down 5 or 6 catches for about 80 yards, with Frank Gore getting about 100 all purpose yards, this is a game that will definitely go to the 49ers today. I like Eli and I am glad that he is getting more credit than he was at the beginning of the season, but I am rooting for the 49ers as I think they deserve it more now that the Packers blew their chance to repeat by their own stupid mistakes. I also think if they can beat the Giant cornerbacks, it will be a win for this 49er team.
No comments:
Post a Comment