FanHouse Aaron Rouse

It's not that the Giants' three-game losing streak has gone unnoticed. It's just that, with all the excitement over everything the Yankees have been up to, New York sports fans have had other things on their minds. Yes, they're aware, vaguely, that the Giants' defense hasn't been able to stop the Saints, Cardinals or Eagles the past three weeks. And they have seen a headline or two about Eli Manning suddenly looking much more mortal than his contract and his championship pedigree say he should. But the panic meter hasn't moved too much over all of this, because New York is still one of the few American towns in which football can take a backseat to baseball. And for the past few weeks, for very good reason, New York has been a baseball town.

That all changes this weekend. The San Diego Chargers hit town -- another dynamic offense surely licking its chops over a chance to take its turn at the Giants' battered ego and secondary. If the Giants lose again, they're looking at a 5-4 record heading into their bye week, which would mean two solid weeks of tabloid and talk show debate on the issue of "What's Wrong With the Giants?"

Kenny Phillips had a sensational game Sunday night, picking off two Tony Romo passes -- one an amazing pick on a ball that ricocheted off Jason Witten's heel -- as the Giants notched a huge win in Dallas. New York's going to have to find a new defensive playmaker going forward, though.

The Giants placed Phillips on injured reserve Thursday, according to Pat Hanlon, the team's VP of Communications, ending Phillips' season. Phillips had been dealing with a knee injury all season, and Pro Football Talk first reported that the safety was trying to decide whether or not to have surgery to correct a cartilage issue.

This announcement indicates that he will go through with the procedure.

GREEN BAY, Wisc. -- For Green Bay Packers wide receivers Donald Driver and Greg Jennings, there is little left to prove. They've already established themselves as top receivers, and easily the best on this Packers team. They've developed an impressive rapport with second-year starting quarterback Aaron Rodgers.

However, there are seven other wide receivers at training camp who aren't so lucky. With no more than four of them set to make the 53-man roster, they're all working hard to secure a spot.

Quick: Who had "Packers by 20" for this one?

Yeah, me neither.

In fact, "Colts by 20" seemed like a much more likely option.

But I guess the Packers may have heard a few too many lines this week about their status as a home dog, or their two straight losses at Lambeau Field. Head coach Mike McCarthy has really emphasized winning at home since he got the job, and the results have been pretty good to this point. It made sense that a prideful bunch would step up their game in what was close to a national spotlight, with a large part of the country getting Sunday's game on CBS.

Or maybe the Packers are just pissed about the latest Favre story.

No matter the reason, the Packers played an inspired game today. The offensive game plan was pretty obvious. Green Bay wanted to control the ball and keep Peyton Manning from attacking the Packers' banged-up defense.

As we would find out, the ball-control thing worked well, but the Green Bay defense was the story of the day.

The Green Bay Packers signed third-round draft pick Aaron Rouse (Safety - Virginia Tech) to a four-year deal yesterday. He becomes the second Packers rookie to sign so far this offseason; the first being fifth-round pick David Clowney, also out of Virginia Tech.

Rouse, a 6'4", 223-pound former college linebacker, has been impressive so far this offseason and many believe he could actually beat out Marquand Manuel for the starting job.

A pre-draft scouting report indicates that Rouse is extremely quick for his size, has a great burst and plays with a non-stop motor. He's also considered to be very tenacious out on the field and could translate into a huge hitter. Sounds like a good guy to lock up for a few years.

No additional financial details were disclosed.

So sayeth this guy.

An analysis of the NFL performance of three particular groups of college players suggests these groups are vastly overrated in the NFL draft and unlikely to succeed in the NFL. Those groups are Michigan skill position players, Virginia Tech defenders and Jeff Tedford coached quarterbacks.

The draft is light in such players this year, but just the same the evidence bodes poorly for guys like Michigan receiver Steve Breaston, Virginia Tech safety Aaron Rouse and combustible Cal quarterback Joe Ayoob.

Why is this so?

Call it the scheme/system factor. Sometimes there's a tradeoff for college success as a player who otherwise dominates on the college level in a particular system may not develop certain skills necessary for the NFL. This most affects the Virginia Tech defenders.

Beamer's secret isn't getting top talent and building the defense around the talent, Beamer and his coordinator have a scheme and go after the talent to fit that scheme. What is interesting is the constant of what kinds of players Beamer gets, and its usually undersized or oversized players for the NFL eyes, undersized DLmen (Engleberger and Adibi seems to be the only one close to the standard NFL size for a DE, but guys like Chamblee, Tapp and Jonathan Lewis seem to be the norm), over-sized Safeties (Rouse, Jimmy Williams and Willie Pile, but the CBs tend to be normal sized-but slow) and undersized Lbs (Moore, C. brown, Ken Brown).

As for the Michigan guys, their solid offensive line play over the years has apparently cursed everyone else involved in the Wolverine offense.

if a QB knows that he has that extra couple seconds to make his progressions, he gets used to it and when he hits the NFL, the speed of the pass rush caused him the most problems. The same problem in the passing game also applies to the WRs and TEs. If a receiver (either TE or WR) doesn't have to improvise as much (for example: knows that he can run his assigned route most of the time) and doesn't have to run hot routes as much, then the receiver doesn't develop the skills that they need in the NFL.

The Michigan line has also been the (NFL) bane of many a memorable Wolverine tailback.

with such a dependable Oline, the RBs did not develop needed skill sets because they had a great oline in front of them year after year. It might be as subtle as not having to learn to wait for the blocks to develop, or learning how to make use of the crease that is there

I wonder if Mike Hart can break the trend next year?