Hosted by Bill Donohue. Guests included Green Bay Packer great from Super Bowls I and II Jerry Kramer, followed by Pittsburgh Steelers “Steel Curtain” line coach and former Jets’ line coach and author of Bad Rad Football Nomad, Dan Radakovich.

No team is riding high like the New York football Giants are right now.  This team has all the confidence and motivation in the world.  They beat the Jets to stay alive in the playoff race.  They beat the Cowboys to win the NFC East and host a playoff home game.  They crushed the Falcons in the playoffs with their defense not giving up a point.  If that was not enough, they went into the frozen tundra in Green Bay Sunday and defeated the 15-1 Packers, who had one of the best regular seasons in the history of the NFL.

The Gmen are playing the best defense we have seen them play all year and they are doing it at the perfect time.  The offense is playing tremendous as Eli Manning continues to show the world that he is indeed an elite NFL quarterback.  Manning went out and beat Aaron Rodgers, the Super Bowl MVP and arguably the best quarterback this season.  Many thought it would be a close game, but the Giants had a dominant performance never trailing.  They went into the half with a 20-10 lead thanks to an unbelievable last second hail mary to the endzone from Manning to Hakeem Nicks for 37 yards.  The play helped send the Giants to the locker room with all the motivation they needed to get to San Francisco. They pulled away in the fourth quarter scoring two touchdowns and putting the game out of reach for the defending Super Bowl Champion Packers.

The Giants will now travel to San Francisco in the NFC Championship to play a 49ers team that has been surprising everyone with their defense, which has been one of the best in the league.  Alex Smith made a name for himself in the victory over the Saints leading not one, but two fourth quarter drives for touchdowns that helped the 49ers top Drew Brees and the Saints.  Coming into the year, all the talk was how Alex Smith has been a major bust and would never be a good quarterback.  All that talk has been put aside as Smith had a solid season and an unbelievable playoff performance.  The Giants lost earlier in the season at San Francisco in a very close game, 27-20 and looks for revenge Sunday night.  The last time the Giants played the 49ers in the playoffs, it was a game that all Giants fans want to forget.  The Giants blew a 38-14 lead in that game in the playoffs in 2003 and lost 39-38. It was one of the biggest collapses in football history.

This run that the Giants are on right now brings back the memories of the 2007-2008 Giants team.  Big Blue came into the playoffs with all the momentum they needed and went out and beat the Buccaneers, Cowboys, and Packers all on the road to get to the Super Bowl.  Giants fans are feeling nostalgic as one cannot help but look back at that team and their magical run ending with a Super Bowl win over the previously undefeated New England Patriots.  There is a chance we might just see Brady face off against Manning again come February.  If the Giants can contain Frank Gore and the 49ers rushing attack and play the defense we have seen in this playoff run so far, Tom Coughlin and the Giants might just be headed to Indianapolis to fight for another Vince Lombardi Trophy.

Hosted by Brandon Contes. Topics on the show included the weekend’s NFL playoff games, and in particular the Giants big win over the Green Bay Packers.

The Giants have all the confidence in the world right now.  They went out and beat the Cowboys at home to get into the playoffs.  Then they went out and crushed the Falcons, 24-2 with the defense shutting out Matt Ryan and the Falcons offense.  Now, they travel to Green Bay to face the defending champion Packers at the frozen tundra.  In early December, the Giants played their hearts out nearly defeating the undefeated Packers at the time.  They came back to tie the game with just 58 seconds left, but MVP Aaron Rodgers would lead the Packers down the field for a game winning field goal.  In the Packers 15 wins this season, the Giants gave them the closest game all season.  The Packers are very well rested as they essentially have had nearly two weeks off as their starters did not play all of week 17 against the Lions.  If the Giants defense can play the way they did against the Falcons, next Sunday at Lambeau Field is sure to be a colossal matchup.

The key to this game will be the pressure the Giants can put on Rodgers.  The Packers have had tons of success all season throwing the football and that Giants defensive line needs to attack Rodgers and give him no time to throw.  The Giants have that ability as we saw their defense completely dominate the Falcons in every fashion on Sunday.  That defensive line led by Jason Pierre-Paul, Justin Tuck, and Osi Umenyiora are going to need to come after the superstar Packers quarterback.  Also, the Giants need to use running backs Brandon Jacobs and Ahmad Bradshaw the way we saw against the Falcons.  When playing well, the running backs complement each other as one of the best pairs in the league.  The Giants rushing game was dominant running for a combined 172 yards.  We have seen how clutch Eli Manning can be in the clutch, but the key is for the Giants to be able to be effective on the ground allowing Manning to hit one of his many targets in Manningham, Cruz, Nicks, and Ballard.

The Giants confidence is high right now and Sunday we will find out if the Giants can have a repeat of last time they came to Green Bay in the playoffs.  I think all Giants fans remember what happened on that night four years ago….

Hosted by Mike Carver. Topics on the show included the Jets win over the Redskins, the Giants to the loss Packers as well as some discussion about Peyton Manning and the Colts. The Marlins signing of Jose Reyes was also discussed, before closing out the show with some NHL talk with Tony Stabile from Hockey This Week and Kevin DeLury from the NY Rangers Blog.

The NFL season is upon us, and while there are a handful favorites to win the Super Bowl this season, more than a few seem capable of winning it all. Here are the Sports Radio NY staff picks for the 2011 Super Bowl. Who will have bragging rights at the conclusion of the season? We’ll be sure to check back and see!

Here are the picks:

Mike Carver
Chargers over Saints

Brandon Contes
Patriots over Cowboys

Kevin Cunningham
Jets over Falcons

Adam Kern
Jets over Falcons

Rob Kowal
Rams over Texans

Brad Kurtzberg
Packers over Patriots

Aaron Lloyd
Packers over Jets

Greg Locke
Bears over Chargers

Frank Maniscalco
Jets over Eagles

Eric Mirlis
Jets over Falcons

Mike Silva
Packers over Jets

Derek Wasiak
Jets over Packers

Justin Zucker
Jets over Eagles

The Jets are a popular pick to at least make it to the Super Bowl among the members of the staff. Will Rex and the Jets get it done this season? We shall see!

Sports Radio NY regular Rob from Ronkonkoma, NY calls in to SPORTSTALK1240 on Super Bowl Sunday. The show was hosted by Kevin Cunningham and Justin Zucker. Also in the studio were special guest co-hosts Joe Balarezo and former Washington Redskin WR Keiron Bigby.

Hosted by Mike Carver, along with Paul Revelant. The started things off talking a little baseball, before getting into the Jets loss in the AFC Championship game and the rest of the NFL playoffs, as well as their Super Bowl predictions. The NHL locals and the NHL All-Star game were also discussed.

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Video from the first show of 2011 as SPORTSTALK1240 hosts Kevin Cunningham and Justin Zucker talk some Jets football with engineer Adam Kern and caller Elwood from Indy.

It is only now that the game against the Eagles really upsets me. That sure was a tough loss at home. But knowing that there was still a win, and in scenario at Green Bay made the collapse not matter as much.

But here we are on the night of January 2, 2011 and the Giants have missed the playoffs. They had that game against the Eagles and it was at home no less. The incentive to go all out in Green Bay was there. All they had to do was win, and the game against the Redskins would mean nothing.

But it all came down to week 17. The Giants needed to win AND needed some help.

The first order of business is to thank the Bears. The Chicago Bears had the number two seed and a first round bye no matter what happened today in Green Bay. But how could the Bears let a division rival just walk into the playoffs? How can you let that happen? Lovie Smith and his crew decided to start the regulars and play them the entire game. And although I had the Giants game on my TV, I had the Bears on my computer. The Bears went all out. They played as though they were as desperate as the Giants. The defense was incredible. Unfortunately (for Giants fans) the Packers prevailed, and the Giants are here with you and me, on their couches.

So where should the Giants go from here? Well, before we start kicking Coughlin out of town, lets look at a few other components to the Giants season.

The biggest one? Turnovers. When you look at turnovers, attention turns to quarterback Eli Manning who led the league in the category this season. He threw 25. But remember early on in the season the story of those interceptions? Tipped passes by the receivers. People seem to forget about that. Now everyone all of a sudden is just looking at the numbers. But the amount of interceptions that should have been caught by receivers is probably pretty high even though I don’t have an exact number. And the interception today against the Redskins, again, should have been caught by Manningham. It went right off his hands.

Fumbles are the most mind boggling thing to me and here’s why. Remember another Giants running back who had a fumble problem named Tiki Barber? And do you remember a coach who came in, and told Barber to hold the ball a different way which in turn fixed his fumble problem? Do you remember that coaches name? His name is Tom Coughlin. I don’t understand why Coughlin did not have ALL his players this year, hold the ball the “Barber way.” He fixed fumble problems in the past, why can’t he do it again? But don’t take this as a knock on Coughlin. In general, I don’t feel like turnovers are a coach’s fault. What is he supposed to do? Players need to hold on to the football. The head coach of the team for the most part is not relevant to that situation. There is not much he can do.

Another problem for the Giants was their injuries. The offensive line was being shuffled around all year. Steve Smith got hurt. Hakeem Nicks was hurt. If you want to blame a coach, blame a strength and conditioning coach. Again, not the head coach’s fault. Corey Webster was also out for the contest against the Redskins.

But the ultimate question is this. Should Tom Coughlin be fired? My answer is no. Yes, I am aware the Giants have missed the playoffs two years in a row. Yes I am aware the Giants seem to struggle later in the season. I don’t know why that happens. But if anything, it’s fatigue. Does it look like the Giants don’t WANT to play under Coughlin? It doesn’t look that way to me. And if fatigue is the issue, I again look at the conditioning coaches.

How many games have you watched this year and afterwards felt, “wow, that was a poorly coached football game.” I certainly didn’t feel that way very often. Did you ever feel like the Giants were “outcoached?” I didn’t see it.

Tom Coughlin is the same coach who coached a Super Bowl winning Giants team past an undefeated Patriots team in one of the best Super Bowls ever. Nothing has changed.

I am not a believer in firing coaches just for the sake of firing coaches. The Giants defense was one of the best in the league this year leading the charge in many key categories. Defensive coordinator Perry Fewell deserves a lot of the credit for sure, but Coughlin needs to be included in the accolades in my opinion.

Tom Coughlin is very knowledgeable about the game, about his opponents, and I think does a great job in preparing the team for upcoming games and getting them in the right mindset.

It is also important to keep in mind that if we look at January 2 only and ignore everything else, the reason the NY Giants are not in the playoffs right now is because the Packers won. The Giants for essentially the third week in a row played in a must-win game and did they get the win? They sure did. Unfortunately the win was not enough. Had the Giants lost today, that is another story. But out of all the “must-win” games, today was the MOST “must-win” if that makes sense. When they lost against the Eagles their hopes were still alive. When they lost against the Packers their hopes were still alive. Today if they lost, there was no hope. But in today’s must-win game, they won. The Giants couldn’t control what happened over in Green Bay. And yes the game was maybe closer than it should have been but a win is a win. And the Giants went without Shaun O’Hara, Rich Seubert got hurt early, and they were also without Corey Webster, Hakeem Nicks, and Steve Smith. Despite all that, they still won.

One coach I never liked was offensive coordinator Kevin Gilbride. I think he is awful at running the offense. And how many times a season does Eli Manning need to call timeout because the play clock is winding down. It definitely happens to the Giants more than any other team. Many times that falls on the offensive coordinator not getting plays in on time. But on top of that, Gilbride’s play-calling is usually questionable and predictable. Admittedly, this year I think it was better than it was in the past. But if Gilbride was gone I would have no issue with that.

Perry Fewell should stay. His style is similar to that of Steve Spagnuolo and I like him a lot. And as I stated above, the Giants defense was superb this year.

I believe Coughlin should stay as well. I think he knows what he is doing and I don’t blame the season on him at all. Injuries and turnovers proved costly and I don’t know how much those things really fall on the head coach. Penalties were not a big problem with the Giants this year like they have been in the past. Coaching has a lot to do with that so you can credit Coughlin there.

If you want to look at getting rid of coaches, look at conditioning and look at offensive play-calling. There is no reason to fire Tom Coughlin just for the sake of firing someone. Yes, it is very frustrating to collapse in games, collapse in seasons, and miss the playoffs. Nobody likes when that happens. But you need to realistically look at the reasons why that happens and not just start calling out the head coach.

Coughlin is also one of the best, if not the best with challenges. He knows when to challenge and when not to challenge. He is very astute and in tune with the NFL rulebook. He is a very intelligent coach. I have always liked the guy.

I just would need a very legitimate list of reason as to why Coughlin should be fired. Just saying “he missed the playoffs two years in a row” is not enough. The players are playing the games. Not Coughlin.

The Giants need to stay healthy and bring in solid personnel through free agency, trades, and the draft. If Bill Cowher or anyone else were coaching this year’s Giants I just don’t see how the results would be any different.

Which games were the Giants out-coached? Which decisions by Coughlin this season sent you into a big angry rage that made you tear your hair out? It just didn’t happen. Lay off of Coughlin.

And lay off of Eli too. As I said, a lot of the interceptions weren’t his fault. And doesn’t 31 touchdown passes and a Super Bowl ring mean anything?

The current Giants roster when healthy along with the current Giants coaching staff (including Gilbride) can absolutely win a Super Bowl in my opinion. I will defend that to the death. Unfortunately there were outside issues that prevented it from happening, injuries being a big key in that.

The one major difference between this team and the Super Bowl team from a few years ago is Michael Strahan. Other than that, the personnel is pretty much the same. And even if the players aren’t there, the skill level has not decreased of those who are there now.

If Coughlin gets fired, I won’t be surprised. But if you think Coughlin’s termination is the answer to the Giants problems, you are 100% wrong.

Photo by Alexa Scordato

Eli Manning’s 2010 season has been highlighted by a lot of touchdowns (so far a personal best of 30) but also a lot of interceptions (also a career high and a league leading 24)

Doesn’t a lot of touchdowns and a lot of interceptions remind you of another player? His name is Brett Favre, and for a while, everyone loved him.

Favre’s career to this point has been much longer than that of Manning’s. Manning became a starter for the Giants in 2005. Let’s take a look at Manning’s numbers from 2005 to 2010 and we will pick a random 6 year interval for Favre. Lets choose 2000-2005. This is before everyone hated Favre’s guts.

We will start with Eli:

2005 – 24 TD, 17 INT –  (+7)

2006 – 24 TD, 18 INT –  (+6)

2007 – 23 TD, 20 INT –  (+3)

2008 – 21 TD, 10 INT –  (+11)

2009 – 27 TD, 14 INT — (+13)

2010 – 30 TD, 24 INT (with 1 game left) — (+6)

Now lets look at a 6 year span of Brett Favre:

2000 - 20 TD, 16 INT –  (+4)

2001 – 32 TD, 15 INT — (+17)

2002 – 27 TD, 16 INT –  (+11)

2003 – 32 TD, 21 INT — (+11)

2004 – 30 TD, 17 INT — (+13)

2005 – 20 TD, 29 INT — (-9)

The numbers in parenthesis just represent how many more touchdowns were thrown than interceptions. Not sure if you took the time to add those up. For Manning, it’s 46. For Favre, it’s 47. The touchdown to interception differential over the 6 year spans are very similar as clearly they are separated by only one.

But besides that, are there any other similarities between Favre and Manning? Well of late, Favre has been doing some team hopping. He wants to play here, he doesn’t want to play there. Well don’t forget that Manning was the same way. He was drafted by the Chargers with no intention of playing for them. It was known before the draft that he wanted to play in New York and Mr. Manning created a media frenzy of his own regarding what team he wanted to play for.

And for right now, the other similarity is rings. Both quarterbacks have one Super Bowl ring.

But that’s not all. Eli Manning is one tough cookie just like Favre. Don’t forget, in the Super Bowl year, Manning hurt his shoulder early on and it was thought he might miss the entire season. He didn’t miss a game and went on to win the Super Bowl. Of course Favre ended his consecutive starting streak at 297 a few weeks ago. Peyton Manning and Eli Manning are both on streaks of their own. Peyton’s is larger only because he has played more years. But Eli is now at 101 consecutive starts (the 6th longest in NFL history and the 3rd most among active QB’s).

So at this point it is time to stop comparing Eli Manning to Peyton Manning. Eli still has plenty of years left but it is unfair to compare him to his brother. But prior to the Favre retirement saga and the recent sext message debacle, Brett Favre was beloved. Not just by Packers fans, but by all NFL fans. Why can’t the same love be shared for Eli? Regardless of what happens, Manning will always be remembered for defeating an undefeated Patriots team in a Super Bowl and being involved in arguably the greatest play in Super Bowl history. The Super Bowl win for Manning came very early in his career and the win was over the Patriots. Favre’s one Super Bowl was also early in his career and it was also a victory over the Patriots.

Eli Manning is not Peyton Manning. But my question to all the readers out there is, is Eli Manning the next Brett Favre? I’m not ruling it out.