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BY SAM HITCHCOCK
NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM
COMMENTARY
This has to be a weird feeling for Lawrence Tynes.
It was five years ago at Green Bay when Tynes avoided becoming one of the biggest villains in New York football history. In the fourth quarter of the NFC Championship game, he missed a 43-yard and 36-yard field goal (the 36-yard was as regulation expired, but there was a bad snap) and nearly cemented himself as the whipping boy for the New York Post for the next eight months.
Fortunately, he made a 47-yard field goal in OT to give the underdog Giants the win, upsetting Brett Favre’s last big moment in Green Bay and avoiding a Bill Buckner legacy in New York.
Five years later, a lot has changed. Favre is seen as one of the great all-time Packers, but is not revered to the same extent as current Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers.
Plaxico Burress, the Giants’ number one receiver in 2007, plays for the cross-town rival Jets. And Eli Manning has progressed by leaps and bounds. He now leads a passing attack that, like the 2007 Giants, makes the big play when they need too, but overall is more reliable and balanced than their predecessors.
Predicting NFL games strangely reminds me of the college selection process. Choosing a college is like predicting what team you think will win a game; you weigh the positives and negatives on each side and go with your gut and hope for the best.
University Specialty: It is hard to figure out what you want to do once you grow up, let alone at 17 or 18. Some universities are more well-rounded than others; however, most schools have a department that sticks out which is considered their specialty. As far as these two teams, the Packers’ major is their pass game while the Giants’ specialty is the pass rush.
This may not come as a surprise, but Aaron Rodgers is pretty good. He led an offense that finished second in weighted offensive efficiency ratings and first in non-adjusted DVOA.
The Packers, along with the Saints, are miles ahead of the rest of the NFL when it comes to scoring percentage at home -- the Packers are 40.1 and Saints 41.6 which is almost 11 points higher than the third place Patriots -- and Aaron Rodgers has built his MVP campaign around some of his heroics at Lambeau.
Rodgers has assisted his receivers in accomplishing some of the best production in the NFL, with Jordy Nelson, Greg Jennings, and James Jones all in the top 14 in the league in DVOA (receivers with the most value per play); additionally, this trio figures in the top 18 in DYAR (wide receivers with most total value in multiple plays). Nelson is the most impressive, with a first place DVOA and second place DYAR.
The Giants’ pass rush is not nearly as easily quantified as the Packers’ explosive offense, but there are important trends. Jason Pierre-Paul has emerged as one of the league’s best, and has six sacks in the Giants’ last four regular-season games. Umenyiora is finally healthy, as is Tuck.
