Back Where We Started, Here We Go Round Again--Do It Again

I wouldn't say I'm a huge Kinks fan, though I certainly respect their role in music history. However, the Give The People What They Want album always brings me back to elementary school. In case you're wondering, FAITHFUL READER, "Destroyer" is my favorite. However, this song came to mind when thinking about tomorrow's game. Here we go round again.

Last week's game was amazing, as evidenced by the fact that I included tons of the team's photos in this week's post. When someone asked Daniel Popper what were the chances of the Bolts starting 3-0 after facing the entire division to begin the season, he said "anything is possible." That was hardly a vote of confidence, but I can't blame him for the response. Especially after Slater went down for the year, there wasn't much reason to believe that they could take all three AFC West opponents down to start the year.

It's crazy that Derwin James had never won Defensive Player of the Week before. I remeber the first time I saw him play live in 2018. It was also Josh Allen's first start. I guess I will be seeing another rookie debut tomorrow. The one thing I don't think the Chargers will do is be complacent. It's great that we are 3-0 for the first time since 2002. But already know that team went 6-1 and finished 8-8. 4-0 would really mean something since I don't think we've done that since 4-0.

Gadsen was really something on Sunday, huh? That grab he had on the sidelines was really amazing. He'll get more reps this week for sure. It sucks that Becton was concussed last week and won't play tomorrow. Sayler was pretty bad and Pipkins continues to play through injuries.

One thing we have to admit about Harbaugh and Hortiz is that they can evaluate talent. When a guy like DJ Chark doesn't see the field and we all (including Popper) wonder aloud why this is we have seen time and time again that they know what they are doing.

Sayler was a mid-round pick from Georgia for a reason. He filled in nicely in 2022 as a rookie when was lost for the year. He lost all that weight and we all wanted him to usurp Zion. Clearly, Jamaree still has work to do. He'll be out there now, since we've got no other choice.

I wouldn't call this a trap game. I know there is no way to win every week and if they did I would assume they would be that much more likely to lose in the postseason. In one of the many ways that Giants fans have had it better than us, they took down the undefeated Patriots after we almost did. Philip Rivers is a legend for playing through a secret ACL surgery, but he couldn't push off on any of his throws. It's one of the main reasons he threw 3 interceptions that day. After Eli Manning upset them in the Super Bowl, my good friend Money's dad assured me that we had "loosened them up." He wasn't being patronizing. The late Dick Caplan was as hard core a Giant fan as there ever was. He was at the Super Bowl along, with his son. Of course, I didn't want Eli to win a ring. After he won a second one, our failure to ever do so became even more painfully evident.

What if a healthy Billy Volek had started that AFC Championship game? We'll never know. I could have gone to Foxboro for that one, but decided to watch it at home. Last December's playoff clincher was the first time I had been back since the 2005 41-7 win, from another year we missed the playoffs.

That was actually the last time I went to three regular season games. I was in DC for LT's OT TD and then was in San Diego when the season officially imploded against Miami. 1994 was the year I saw two regular season games and then two postseason ones. Actually, here's the list of games I have gone to since getting on the bus.

At NYG 9/14/86, L 20-7

At NYJ 12/3/89. L 20-17

At NYJ 10/14/90, W 39-3

At CLE 11/15/92, W 14-13

At NE 11/20/94, L 23-17

At NYJ, 12/18/94, W 21-6

At PIT, 1/15/95, W 17-13

SB XXIX, 1/29/95, L 49-26

At PHI, 9/17/95, W 27-21

At NYG 12/23/95, W 27-17

Vs DET 11/11/96, W 27-21

At NE 8/31/97, L 41-7

Vs BUF 9/6/18, W 16-14

At WAS 12/6/98, L 24-20

At DET 10/10/99, W 20-10

Vs CLE 12/5/99, W 23-10

At BUF 10/15/00, W 27-24

At BAL 12/10/00, L 24-3

At NE 1014/01, L 29-26

At PHI 12/9/01, L 24-14

Vs SEA 12/30/01, L 25-22

At BUF 12/15/02, L 20-13

At CLE 12/19/04, W 21-0

At NE, 10/02/05, W 41-17

At WAS 11/27/05, W 23-17 (OT)

Vs MIA 12/11/05, L 23-21

At MIA, 10/5/08, L 17-10

At NYG 11/8/09. W 21-20

At NYJ 12/23/12, W 27-17

At WAS, 11/3/13, L 30-24 (OT)

At BUF 9/21/14, W 22-10

At NYJ,12/24/17, W 14-7

At BUF 9/16/18, W 30-21

At MIA 9/29/19, W 30-10

At WAS 9/12/21, W 20-16

Vs CLE 10/10/21, W 47-42

At GB 11/19/23, L 23-20

At NE 12/28/24, W 40-7

22 Wins, 15 Losses

The first one was with my dad against the Giants. By the way, I have officially apologized to Quentin Johnston and Cameron Dicker on Twitter. I was happy to be wrong that Johnston would never come back from the playoff loss.

Speaking of Comeback. I was at this show also. Obviously, the season is still so young but Johnston has exceeded my expectations, which were zero. As for Dicker, my issue was that he had never kicked a game-winner in the clutch. Obviously, that's no longer the case.

I expect the Giants will come out fired up and looking to save their season. The Bolts know this and need to weather the storm, or be the storm as Harbaugh says. Dart will be amped up. Brian Daboll is looking to save his job with this move and I'm surprised it took this long.

I know Greg Roman said they need to keep Herbert from taking the hits he did last week, but that will tough with Becton out. I guess he was out for the majority of last week and the Giants line is good, but maybe not at Denver's level yet. With Harris gone for the year, Hampton could really help keep the heat off Herbo.

The best shot of Keenan's touchdown is the Bronco fans sitting at field level who had to sit there and watch it. The throw will go down as another masterpiece, not unlike the one the last time we played the Giants.

But wins are the only thing that matters. For all of Giants fans' suffering of late, they have four Lombardi Trophies. I expect I will be reminded of that numerous times tomorrow. Growing up in New York in the '70s, they were worse than the Jets. I don't feel bad for them. We need to stack as many wins as we can. KC went in there last week and didn't win pretty, but won.

It appears Molden and Hart will be back, so that's good. I won't be Tweeting very much even though Met Life Stadium has decent WiFi. The Chargers know they have a lot to prove tomorrow. They had huge wins in East Rutherford in '94, '95, and '09. They also saw their season slip away and let Plaxico Burress catch three touchdowns in 2011. I didn't go that one, fortunately. They led 24-10 at the half. I did see the meaningless game the following December where Kendall Reyes lit up Greg McElroy. The Jets had just been elimated from playoff contention and I remember stopping at the Vince Lombardi rest area right before we hit the stadium. A Jet fan saw my jersey and told me he wanted us to beat the shit out of them that day. I assume it was for draft position and not some weird kink. It wasn't that kind of rest area.

That was the last game my dad and I saw together. It was freezing and we were also officially not making the playoffs. Tomorrow, I'm taking my son to his second game. Let's hope it's a good one and that we continue to fuck shit up.

I was watching a CBS mini-doc on legalized sports gambling and noticed this. I don't care about fantasy teams or knockout pools but my antenna went up anyway. To quote Robert Hunter, it's time to matter. Incidentally, the Justice is Coming House Band lip-synced through this performance. Hefner knew they wanted to dose his Coca-Cola so he kept a sharp eye out.

This was from an episode of Dynasty in 1981. Denver's Blake Carrington owns a football team, but clearly Claudia Blazedale's daughter is a secret Bolthead. That's gotta mean something, right?