Cruz Rocks the Vote, Hall Doesn’t Fear the Giants, and Other Notes
Giants receiver Victor Cruz continues to lead all receivers in the Pro Bowl voting by the fans with 352,611 votes, the tenth most of any player in either conference.
“It’s funny. I just got a text message (Wednesday) from my agent saying that. I’m humbled. It’s just crazy to think, it’s crazy to even fathom the thought that just three years ago, I was a guy nobody knew, now I’m leading in votes for the Pro Bowl. Words can’t even explain how I feel about that right now. I’m just humbled by it and, hopefully, I can continue my high level of play, continue to catch the football, score some touchdowns and not let the fans down.
Cruz was asked if his viral video, which shows him catching a ball dropped from an airplane overhead, helped him out with the fan vote.
“I think it’s definitely a catalyst in getting some more people headed in the right direction to vote for me and things like that. I think it played a big part and the funny thing is, we’ve got a couple more videos that we want to put out there that should continue that trend, so we’ll see how it goes.”
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Speaking of the Pro Bowl voting, quarterback Eli Manning is fifth at his position with 211, 377; fullback Henry Hynoski is third with 44, 753 votes; guard Chris Snee is fourth with 92,975 votes; center David Baas is second with 101,245 votes; defensive end Jason Pierre-Paul is second with 192,315 votes, and kicker Lawrence Tynes is second with 60,310 votes.
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Redskins cornerback DeAngelo Hall has never been one to shy away from speaking his mind, and the NFL’s most ardent admirer of rocket scientists didn’t back down from his earlier sentiment in which he said the Giants’ 77-yard game winning touchdown against the Redskins earlier this season was more on the Redskins than it was of the Giants’ doing.
“I could’ve made that throw,” Hall insisted. “Eli’s made a lot of great throws in his career, but like I said, it didn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out the guy was wide-open. Like I said, they won the game, they won the game. Can’t take anything from them. The goal of this league is to win, and they won, they beat us. We won’t blow that again this time around, that’s for sure.”
Hall, who also insisted that the first meeting was “definitely a game that we felt we let get away from us,” hinted that Monday night’s game should be an intense one.
“We match up good against these guys,” he said. “They’re rolling right now. They’re a great football team, but we thought we match up well against them. We definitely look forward to getting out there on the field and coming out with a win.
“Personnel-wise, we feel like we know them, they know us,” he added. “We like our matchups, we like our guys vs. them; I’m sure they probably like their guys vs. us. It’s going to be a nice, dragged-out fight.
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If you’re wondering what the Redskins’ schedule was following their Thanksgiving game against Dallas, head coach Mike Shanahan laid it out as follows:
“I’ve always given the players off Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. Then, we come back Monday and have a good practice; obviously it’s geared toward the Giants, but not totally. Because you had a Monday night game, Tuesday is your day off. We had a normal Wednesday, Thursday, Friday schedule, just like you have for a Sunday game. We have a normal Friday practice on Saturday. We have two Fridays, and try to heal the body a bit, especially this late in the season.”
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Here’s an interesting stat courtesy of the Giants. According to the Elias Sports Bureau, Giants defensive end Osi Umenyiora has recorded 32 forced fumbles since his first year in the NFL back in 2003. That is the league’s fifth-highest total during that time, behind Indianapolis’ Robert Mathis (40), Chicago’s Charles Tillman (36), the Colts’ Dwight Freeney (35) and Atlanta’s John Abraham (33).
In 2010, Umenyiora had 10 forced fumbles – all strip sacks–which is believed to have tied an NFL record set by Miami’s Jason Taylor in 2006. Although the ESB doesn’t consider forced fumbles an official stat apparently no player has ever had more than 10 forced fumbles in a season.
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Defensive tackle Markus Kuhn underwent surgery on Tuesday to repair a torn ACL. Kuhn was injured in the Giants game against the Bengals and was placed on injured reserve shortly afterwards.
