NYP: Eagles Attack Eli's Mann-hood

[PhillyPhreak54]

EAGLES ATTACK ELI'S MANN-HOOD
By PAUL SCHWARTZ

January 3, 2007 -- Extra, extra, read all about it. Eagles defensive end Trent Cole says Giants quarterback Eli Manning can and will be rattled Sunday in the NFC playoff game pitting two longstanding and fierce rivals.

"You get him rattled and his game starts going downhill," Cole said.

Surely, the Giants have read the comments.

Or perhaps not.

"I don't read garbage," right tackle Kareem McKenzie said yesterday.

What about left tackle David Diehl, who in his new role gets to line up against Cole play after play?

"Let's just say it's going to be a great challenge," Diehl said, chuckling. "It's not about talking; they're doing enough of it. We know what it's going to be like, we know what they're going to try doing. That's fine, let 'em do all the talking, we're just gonna play football."

One day gone, and the chatty Giants have held their tongues, which qualifies as some sort of self-restraint record for this team this season. As fervently as they publicly stand behind Manning, the Giants know they can't rely on the offense revolving around the 234-yard rushing outburst by running back Tiki Barber that saved them last weekend in Washington. The Eagles are going to fill the box with run-stoppers, including safety Brian Dawkins, and dare Manning to beat them with his arm. It's a simple strategy and also completely appropriate, given Manning's inability to make a defense pay.

"Eli's a young kid still," Barber said. "People are expecting him to play like a 28 year old. He's 25 years old [turns 26 today], he's in his third season in the NFL, everything doesn't happen quickly. I didn't get it until five years. You give him time, you support him and you build around him as it goes.

"Eli can handle anything. It's just a matter of us protecting him and keeping him confident so he's not getting hit, not feeling pressure and forcing himself into mistakes."

Manning, per usual, is not getting involved in any of this. Asked what his mindset is with the Eagles vowing to rattle him, he said, "It's fine. If teams want to blitz, it puts our receivers one-on-one and we feel that we've got the best matchup."

The Eagles have seen the best and worst of Manning. He fueled a furious second-half rally from a 24-7 deficit, throwing for a career-high 371 yards along with three touchdowns in a 30-24 overtime victory in Philadelphia on Sept. 17. Manning wasn't terrible in the Dec. 3 rematch, but a horrific decision and pass in the closing minutes was intercepted by Cole, who high-stepped into the end zone on a 19-yard return to allow the Eagles to leave Giants Stadium with a 36-22 triumph.

Maybe that's why Cole was feeling frisky enough to predict doom for Manning.

"Every quarterback who's ever played in the NFL has been rattled," fullback Jim Finn said. "Our goal is going to be not to let Eli get rattled. I trust he's going to get the job done every time he gets out there, so does everyone else on the offense, probably the whole team."

That confidence sure gets tested. In the past two games, Manning completed 21 of 51 passes for 174 yards and the Giants had 59 and 94 net passing yards, the first time they've had back-to-back games with less than 100 passing yards since December 1992.

Now Cole said he's ready to rattle and roll. He played a huge role in the Eagles' demise in the first game with the Giants, putting Jay Feely in position for a game-tying 35-yard field goal with 10 seconds left in regulation. Cole in the final minute was called for a 15-yard unsportsmanlike conduct penalty for kicking McKenzie in the groin.

Asked about Cole, who leads the Eagles with eight sacks, McKenzie said, "He's a player. If he's their spokesman, kudos to him. I pay it no attention."

As for Coles' boasts, McKenzie said, "It has no value, no merit. We have a quarterback who's gotten us to 8-8 and got us into the playoffs. Right now our record is 0-0 and we have a chance to advance."

paul.schwartz@nypost.com

Birds gotta get in his head early. Get that "who farted" look on the poor chaps face and he's done. The shoulders slump, he throws off his back foot because he will not step up into the pocket and get hit, the little head shake and Eli's done for the day, folks. Rattle him. They have to do that.

We know JJ will be blitzing because that's what he does. Let's just hope they get there and smack this cat in the mouth and couple of time.

[ice grillin you]

killa = gawd

[PhillyPhreak54]

(these articles I got from a poster on Philaphans)

PHILLED WITH EMOTION
By STEVE SERBY

January 3, 2007 -- THIS one's personal. There isn't one enemy the Giants would rather bury, there isn't one town the Giants would rather pillage, plunder and silence for 2007 than this one, The City of Brotherly Love in name only.

Standing in the parking lot outside Giants Stadium, not quite far enough north on the Turnpike to truly feel safe from the brutalization that awaits him from Jeremiah Trotter in the modern-day version of Sam Huff versus Jim Brown or Jim Taylor, Tiki Barber smiles a masochistic smile as he imagines the imminent bloodbath when the Second Season begins Sunday at 4:30 p.m. at the Linc.

"There's no other team that we can be as excited to play as the Eagles, specifically because they are such an intense rival for us," Barber said. "It's weird, because the relationship with the players ... it's a contradiction, because some of those guys are good, close friends. But then we're on the field and we both want to take our heads off. I think we're all driven and we're all excited when we win over this team."

Barber is asked, "This is a team you love to hate?"

He answered, "That's exactly how you can put it: We both love to hate each other, and it makes for great games."

Violent, vicious games, especially now, with the stakes so high. Stand on the sidelines at your own peril.

"You would hear helmets cracking, shoulder pads, you would hear people jawing at each other ... you would see guys putting it all out there trying to win the game," Brandon Short said.

The venom is fueled by a fan base that has no Super Bowl champion to call its own. The proud people of Philadelphia can boast of "Rocky," of Smokin' Joe Frazier, of their cheesesteaks, but let's not kid ourselves: They are afflicted with the same inferiority complex every other city in the country has with New York, and that isn't provincial poppy****. It's probably magnified by the proximity. Every rabid Giants fan is Steve Mara and every Eagles fan is the guy who taunted him in the workplace and paid for it.

"It's the closest to Ohio State-Michigan, or Penn State-Pitt, that you can get in the NFL with the Philadelphia Eagles and New York Giants," Short said, " 'cause they're right down the road, the towns don't like each other, the players don't like each other, and it's a pride factor that's involved when you play the Eagles when you're a New York Giant."

Short is asked, "Why don't the players like each other?"

He chuckled. "Because they're Eagles and we're Giants," he said.

He is asked what the atmosphere will be like Sunday.

"En fuego," Short said, and laughed. "En fuego."

Be specific.

"It's gonna be one of the most hostile sporting environments imaginable when you go into Philadelphia," Short said, "just because the type of people they are; they're a blue-collar crowd ... I mean, they'll probably be swearing, throwing beer, heckling ... doing anything they can to give their team an advantage. And that's not anything less than I would expect from New York Giants fans if they were coming up here."

The word from the Giants: Bring it on!

"It brings the team together when it's more of an us-against-the-world mentality; whenever you have everybody against you, you rise up," Short said. "It feels like you can overcome anything."

The Giants were treated to the sight of Eagles fans mooning the arriving bus back in September.

"That's the type of thing you could expect from them ... that's classless, classless mooning the bus," Short said. "But they're fans, and they're entitled to do whatever they can do to help their team win."

The town will try to drive Barber out of the NFL.

"They get as rowdy and as loud as they come, especially when we come to town," Barber said. "I think a lot of it's the rivalry of the cities as well."

The team there will paint a bull's-eye on No. 21 and try to send him into retirement.

"They have very physical players, they always have been, because of the way [coordinator] Jim Johnson plays defense, and it makes for a collision-filled game, especially for me," Barber said. "You gotta love that if you're a football player."

Where there's a will, there's a way. We'll see how much will these Giants have now.

Someone give Brandon Short a full moon. And a bottle of whine.

[PoopyfaceMcGee]

Swagger.  Now there's a concept.

[bobbyinlondon]

The thing is, as usual, the NY paper misquoted Cole. Cole didn't say the Eagles would rattle him, he merely stated "if you get him rattled...."--and besides that, what did he say that this season hasn't proved?

[Eaglez]

They just need some fodder to stir up a controversy to create "locker room material". Everyone knows the Eagles collectively as a team don't talk trash. That article is a piss poor attempt to try and create something out of nothing.

[ice grillin you]

Everyone knows the Eagles collectively as a team don't talk trash

killa does...or at least as much as the mormon religion allows

killa has screw loose

nut kicking maniac yo

[Susquehanna Birder]

Everybody (including the Giants) knows that Eli has a target on his back. Big whoop.

[Eaglez]

Yeah, but what killa said pretty much just stated the obvious. If they want to construe that as trash talk the Post seems like they are stretching.

Doesn't really matter, though. I doubt that will motivate anyone in the Giants locker room.

[PhillyPhreak54]

Too much is made out of the bulletin board stuff by fans and media, IMO. It's fun to read and listen to but like Runyan said yesterday...if a guy needs any extra motivation, especially trash talk, he shouldn't be playing the game.

[rjs246]

In other words, who cares. Lock.

[Rome]

Talk's cheap.

[mussa]

I love it. I love Cole. I think he's an uncaged beast.  I don't mind the penalties, as long as they don't come on a game winning drive, Killa can rip anyones head off for all I care. The intimidation factor from this guy is something the defense needs to help rattle the QB.  fargin kill Eli sunday

[phattymatty]

"I don't read " right tackle Kareem McKenzie said yesterday.

[ice grillin you]