It’s rush hour now for Jason Pierre-Paul and the Giants. It is time to be feared again. It is time to impose, for Super Bowl Giants to dictate all terms to the Ravens and impose their will again. It is time to make Joe Flacco a rattled wreck. Sacco Flacco.
It is time to carry the championship banner for this franchise with Eli Manning. It is no time for excuses. It is time to defend your Super Bowl as if there is no tomorrow. Because there is no tomorrow today.
It is time for JPP to be the Monster of M&T Bank Stadium. It is time for him to ruin the game for Flacco. Pierre-Paul has gone five straight weeks without a sack, and this is incomprehensible and inexcusable for a man of his awe-inspiring gifts. No one cares whether he has to make his way through the Great Wall of China. He cannot go a sixth game without one.
Which means it is time to heed the immortal words of Lawrence Taylor: “Let’s go out there like a bunch of crazed dogs and have some fun!”
Justin Tuck was asked how critical it is for JPP to be JPP Sunday.
“It’s very critical,” Tuck said. “He’s the type of player that when he’s playing like he did most of last year, he can be a game-changer, so it’s critical for us to kind of get off to a fast start and him in particular, he can be kind of a catalyst of our defense and getting us that spark that we need.”
The mandate: Stop Ray Rice so you can pin your ears back and get Flacco. Jump out to a lead and make Flacco one-dimensional.
The Giants won two Super Bowls making life a living hell for Tom Brady, remember.
“Protection schemes we’ve seen this year have been kind of unorthodox,” Tuck said. “It’s worked against us because we haven’t been able to adjust to that. Hopefully we’ll start adjusting in some regard.”
You’re talking about adjusting during the course of a game?
“Yeah, they change it up on us a lot,” Tuck said.
So how do you combat that?
“We’re still trying to figure it out,” Tuck said. “Honestly, I think a lot of it has to do with the fact that we are conscious of that, we’re conscious of teams playing us different, so we’re out there thinking more than just saying, ‘You know what? Just go beat the guy in front of you.’ If it works for you, it works for you, if it doesn’t, I’m not gonna let them dictate to what we’re doing. And I think we’ve done that a little bit. We’ve tried to outsmart protections instead of just going out there and do what we do, and that’s rush.”
I said to Tuck: “That’s not Giants football.”
He said: “It ain’t. I think for us personally, it’s just something we got to get out our head. Everybody’s telling you you’re not getting sacks and what’s wrong?, and we’re all looking for that answer. Sometimes there just ain’t an answer. Sometimes you just got to go out there and beat the guy in front of you, and we’ll get back to doing that.”
JPP registered 16.5 sacks last season. He has 6.5 sacks this season.
“It’s one of those things that you know it’s coming … just hope it’s sooner rather than later,” Chris Canty said.
Later is too late now.
“This here last year is where we got our spark, and it’s time to get that spark again,” Linval Joseph said.
It’s time for JPP, particularly with Tuck iffy, to ignite that spark.
“Everybody likes to look at his numbers, but when you look at the tape, JPP is really playing well,” Perry Fewell said. “We’re used to him having ‘wow’ plays, and this and that, but he’s still playing very good football. Would I love him to have the numbers? No doubt about it. But I think he is playing some good football. He just doesn’t have the wild numbers.”
None of them do. Third-and-10 is immeasurably better for the pass rusher than, say, second-and-4.
“People have taken a different approach to us this year,” Fewell said. “There’s not as much five-step. That ball is coming out. We’ve been beating some people pretty clean at times. We’ve publicized our sacks so much that people have taken a different approach in how they pass protect, how they get the ball out against us.”
JPP often draws double and even triple attention. “I couldn’t put a number on it, but he gets singled every now and then,” Fewell said.
Osi Umenyiora, asked how hungry Big Blue is to sack the quarterback, said: “Starving.”
It is time to hunt and time to eat.
“I think they’re frustrated a little bit mentally because of how people have been taking their approach against them,” Fewell said. “I think that it weighs heavily on them … I do believe this about them though: They’re a proud unit … I think they will have success in the next couple of weeks. And I think you’ll see their numbers go up.”
Is JPP frustrated? “Nope. Not at all,” he said. “I’m doing my job. Very well.”
His teammates agree. But a Super Bowl defense is on the line now. Flacco has been sacked 34 times.
“Gotta get to the quarterback as fast as I can,” JPP said.
“Gotta get there.”