Kritik und Anregungen » He had three sacks against t

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. -- New York Giants safety and human fire emoji Landon Collins has dyed his hair blue. He wears it in neat braids atop his head, with the sides cut short, in sharp contrast to his unruly black beard. But the biggest differences between Collins 2015 rookie season and this one are the look in his eye and the number (four) in the interception column. All four of those interceptions have come in the past three games, all of which the Giants have won.Im being very accountable, Collins said after helping lead the Giants to a 21-20 victory over the Cincinnati Bengals on Monday Night Football. Last year, I had a bad season, and Im making up for it.He could be speaking for the entire Giants defense, which is the biggest reason the team has already won as many games (six) as it did in each of the previous two seasons. So much of the early-season focus was on Odell Beckham Jr. and Ben McAdoo, the new head coach, who was the young, hotshot offensive coordinator. But while the Giants offense has struggled to find its footing so far, the defense has been making sure they turn fourth-quarter leads into wins instead of heartbreaking 2015-style losses.Were 6-3. I havent been 6-3 since Ive been here, Beckham, the third-year superstar, said after the game. Its a good feeling.Last season?was a parade of bad feelings for the Giants, who blew five fourth-quarter leads in Tom Coughlins forgettable final season as coach. This season, the close games are breaking their way. They have won four games in a row with an average margin of victory of 4.3 points. They have the third-best record in the NFC even though theyve allowed more points than theyve scored.Why? Because theyre not giving up points when points would hurt the most. Only eight defenses in the league are allowing fewer points, on average, in the fourth quarter than the Giants 5.33. Last year, they averaged 8.75 points allowed in the fourth quarter -- tied for worst in the league with the Saints.Now, you know the Giants spent big to improve that defense, signing top-of-the-market free agents Olivier Vernon, Damon Harrison and Janoris Jenkins and bringing back Jason Pierre-Paul. Watching Monday night, you could see the payoff: Jenkins holding Bengals star A.J. Green to a pedestrian 68 yards on seven catches; Harrison anchoring a run defense that allowed only 78 yards; Vernon muscling his way past the Bengals line and meeting Pierre-Paul and Friends at the quarterback. The Giants have just 14 sacks this season -- more than only two other NFL teams. But two of them came on the final two offensive possessions the Bengals had on Monday, and they basically sealed a one-point win.Our job as a defensive line is to stop the run and get to the quarterback, Vernon said. I think we did a pretty good job of that tonight.The broader effect of the defensive infusion, though, is that it allows coordinator Steve Spagnuolo to maximize the players he has and put the combinations on the field that he prefers. Rookie Eli Apple has clearly usurped former starting cornerback Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie, who frustrated the Giants coaching staff the past two years with inconsistency and by asking in and out of games. Vernon is a versatile enough player that Spagnuolo can run sub packages where his pass-rushers move inside, the way he used to do it with Michael Strahan and Justin Tuck in his 2007 glory year.But theres no greater difference than whats showing up in the play of Collins, who was NFC Defensive Player of the Week each of the past two weeks and kept the train rolling with a fourth-quarter interception of Andy Dalton on Monday. Cincinnati was driving inside Giants territory with a one-point lead and 11 minutes, 35 seconds left in the game when Collins made his weekly huge play. And if his teammates were surprised it was only because it had taken that long.Hes amazing right now, Pierre-Paul said. Not a different guy, but a better player. Smart.Collins agrees that hes a better player than he was a year ago. The Giants moved up to draft him at the top of the second round in 2015, and coming out of Alabama he was used to success. But his rookie year was a rough one. Without a true free safety on the roster, the Giants too often forced Collins out of his comfort zone and into coverage, which is not a strength of his game. The improved depth of talent on the defensive side of the ball this season?allows Collins to do more of what hes good at -- play closer to the line, deliver big hits and take advantage of his playmaking ability -- while the overall coverage forces a quarterback into mistakes.Monday night, Collins said, Dalton was staring down his tight end and Collins didnt have coverage responsibility on the play. He recognized the routes the receivers were running, saw that everyone was covered and moved the ball where Dalton was telegraphing it. Interception No. 4.No big deal, really, because Collins believes he owes all of this. Last year sticks with him. It haunts him and drives him.Just not being accountable, he said of what went wrong in his rookie year. Not making the right calls, not being in the right position, being out-leveraged. I knew the defense by the end of the year, but its night and day now as far as knowing the defense, being sound, being in the right position. Its so much better now.The Giants defense this year is allowing 359.3 yards per game, good for just 16th-best in the league. But those figures last year were 420.3 and 32nd-best. The stats put them in the middle of the road, but its possible no single unit in the NFL is more improved over last season than the Giants defense. Personified by its red-hot, blue-haired second-year star safety, it is -- as he described it -- so much better now. And the difference is right there in the standings.James Patrick Rangers Jersey . Hazard cut in from the left and scored with a swerving right-footed shot for ninth goal of the season, which proved to be enough for the victory despite Chelseas forwards again lacking a cutting edge up front. Tie Domi Rangers Jersey .Y. -- Jayna Hefford scored the winning goal Friday as Canada survived a scare with a 4-3 win over Sweden at the Four Nations womens hockey tournament. http://www.rangershockeyonlineshop.com/glenn-anderson-hockey-jersey/ . -- Damian Lillard and LaMarcus Alrdridge were again the go-to duo for the Trail Blazers against the Kings. Jeff Beukeboom Jersey . Gerald Green and Miles Plumlee? Green had bounced around the NBA when he wasnt playing overseas. The Pacers gave up on Plumlee after just one season. Now Green and Plumlee are key cogs in the Suns surprising breakout season. Brendan Smith Jersey . -- Yogi Ferrell orchestrates pretty much everything in Indianas offence.SEATTLE -- In hindsight, Washington needed the scare that it received two weeks ago in the desert.Otherwise, Friday nights beat down of Stanford may not have taken place.We actually needed that Arizona game to make sure we knew how to handle what happened, how to handle that pressure, how to handle getting punched in the mouth, Washington defensive lineman Elijah Qualls said.Washingtons 44-6 rout of Stanford vaulted the Huskies five spots to No. 5 in this weeks AP Top 25. Its the highest ranking for Washington since the end of the 2000 season when the Huskies finished No. 3 in the final poll following a Rose Bowl victory over Purdue.The last time Washington was ranked this high in October was 1992, when the Huskies spent five weeks at No. 1 before losing to Arizona.Given the national spotlight as the only Power Five game on Friday night, the Huskies didnt disappoint. What was supposed to be a stage for Stanford star and Heisman Trophy hopeful Christian McCaffrey to shine instead became a Cardinal nightmare, engulfed by purple.It was Washingtons largest margin of victory ever over a team ranked in the AP Top 10 and clearly impressed the voters that were left questioning the Huskies validity a week earlier when they needed overtime to win at Arizona. But in the moments after Washingtons most convincing victory over a top opponent in more than a decade, its players freely admitted they needed the challenge provided by the Wildcats to get them ready for Stanford.People were saying we were overrated after the Arizona game and people dont understand Arizona is a hell of a team and that was the best competition we had faced at that point, Qualls said. We kind of got overhyped. I came out jacked because it was Pac-12 play and we kind of got out of our place. We didnt adjust as quickly as we do. We came out overly aggressive and wee got out of our minds.ddddddddddddWashington was far better at sticking to its assignments defensively against Stanford and most impressively controlled the line of scrimmage on both sides of the ball. Washingtons 214 yards rushing was just the 11th time in 85 games since the start of the 2010 season the Cardinal allowed 200 or more yards rushing by an opponent.Washingtons defensive line also overwhelmed the Stanford front without the need for exotic blitzes. The Huskies recorded eight sacks of Stanford quarterbacks, with all of them coming from players along the defensive front. Psalm Wooching is listed as a linebacker but in Washingtons defensive alignment plays on the line. He had three sacks against the Cardinal.Sacking those guys that many times, no, I wouldnt have thought that, Washington coach Chris Petersen said. I think one thing that really helped that, too, was we kind of got them out of their game plan where they had to throw it probably more than they wanted to throw it and then our guys could pin their ears back. By our offense clicking early and being pretty efficient, I think thats not necessarily where they want to be in terms of their style.The win over Stanford and the attention Washington gained because of the victory will only be validated if the Huskies can go to Eugene this week and snap a 12-game losing streak to Oregon.You sleep on anybody or you start feeling like `We got it, we got if figured out, I know what comes next, Petersen said. These kids have been fun to coach because theyve been really, really business-like and they practice hard. If we keep doing that, I like our chances because theyll compete hard.---APs college football website: www.collegefootball.ap.org ' ' '