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New York Giants: Perhaps We’ve Been Overestimating Them All Along

Published: January 5, 2010

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Ok, so it’s a little shocking that after a 5-0 start to the season, the Giants proceeded to lose five of their next six games.

And it’s nothing short of astonishing how the Giants were out-scored 85-16 over the past two weeks. College basketball teams give up fewer points in two games than the Giants defense managed to allow.

Fellow Giants fans, we never saw this one coming…but we probably should have.

The Giants are just two years removed from their miraculous 2007 Super Bowl run. However, their 2007 run was just that, a miraculous one-month run to the Super Bowl.

Needless to say, winning a Super Bowl is no easy task. However, winning a Super Bowl often has a lot to do with a team getting hot at precisely the right time of the year, which is exactly what happened for the Giants back in 2007.

But miraculous four week Super Bowl run aside, what have the Giants really accomplished since 2006?

They have given us nothing more than two .500 seasons (in 06’ and 09’) and a first round playoff exit (in 08’).

In essence, we have more or less been dealing with nothing more than an above average football team over the past four years…an above average team that managed to catch fire during one four week stretch in January of 2008.

That 2007 Super Bowl run was so gratifying to all of us Giant fans that we completely overlooked the fact that the Giants have gone 38-26 over the past four years.

Good, but by no means spectacular.

Had we not still had our heads buried in the 2007 Super Bowl run we might have seen the writing displayed on the wall as clear as day, and it would have read “a slightly above average football team” in letters the size of the new Dallas Cowboys’ video screen.

Sheridan has been shown the door.

Coughlin is now on the hot seat and Kevin “Old Predictable” Gilbride is sitting on a large pile of red hot coal.

The defense was a disaster in 2009.

We are lacking a legitimate all-purpose running back.

The offensive line was tossed around like rag-dolls for most of the season.

And Eli is, well, either Dr.Jekyll or Mr. Hyde depending upon which way the wind is blowing on any given day.

What happened with the Giants in 2009 was that a slightly above average football team had a few injuries and got into a slump.

It’s as simple as that.

Why?

Because we were never dealing with a great football team to begin with.

Read more NFL news on BleacherReport.com

There’s Only One Way To Get the New York Giants’ Offense Moving

Published: December 6, 2009

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The key to beating the New York Giants is simple—concentrate all of your resources on stopping the passing game.

If you are successful in doing that, you can more or less paralyze the Giants’ entire offensive unit.

While most NFL teams have the luxury of handing the ball off to horses, if not a galloping thoroughbreds, the Giants are stuck with two lame dogs.

Brandon Jacobs has yet to rush for more than 100 yards in a single game this season and Bradshaw has done it just once.

During the Thanksgiving Day massacre in Denver, Jacobs rushed for only 27 yards on 11 carries. To save you reaching for your calculators, that’s an average of 2.4 yards per carry…real explosive stuff.

Now, the offensive line is partially to blame.

Brandon Jacobs would have a better chance of spotting a mythical unicorn galloping down the New Jersey Turnpike than he would seeing a real life hole to run through on the football field.

Not even a 6’4″, 264 pound running back can be expected to create his own hole every time he touches the football.

Eli Manning is a solid quarterback, but he cannot, and should not, be expected to carry an entire offense upon his back.

As we have seen time and time again this season, Manning will eventually make bad decisions and throw into traffic, which can be partly blamed on the fact that he is left with no other choice.

How often can Eli take a sack, throw the ball away, or attempt short screen passes?

He has no one to hand the ball off to, the pocket is already collapsing by the time he’s taken a three-step drop, and defenses are concentrating all of their resources on smother the passing game.

Eventually Eli is left with no choice but to attempt the impossible and try to literally throw the ball through defenders. Needless to say, that is a virtual impossibility in the National Football League.

The play calling has been questionable as well as Eli’s decision making.

However, there’s really only one way to get the Giants’ offensive unit moving, and that’s to kick Brandon Jacobs in the behind…right after you kick the behinds of every member of the offensive line.

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For Giants Fans, There’s No Need To Wait Until Monday Morning

Published: November 8, 2009

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It’s easy to be a Monday mourning quarterback.

The ancient Roman’s were undoubtedly questioning the decisions made by their favorite Gladiators in 476 A.D.

Thousands of years later we’re still doing the same and we’ll continue it as long as there are games being played.

That being said, no one at Giants Stadium needed to wait until Monday morning to begin second guessing Kevin Gilbride’s fourth quarter play calling.

The second Eli Manning turned to hand the ball off to Brandon Jacobs on third and goal on the nine yard line with just over two minutes left in the game, hands flew in the air and baffled looks could be seen on the faces of virtually all 78,741 Giants fans who, up until that point, had been enjoying an unseasonable warm November evening in New Jersey.

This was one of those rare occasions where even if Jacobs had thundered his way into the end zone, most would have still questioned Gilbride’s call; or at least taken a deep breath knowing full well that the Giants just escaped a potentially disastrous situation.

The reason for Eli Manning’s massive bank account is the Giants’ belief in his ability to perform in situations exactly like the one they faced this evening.

Not turning to Eli on third and goal with the game on the line was the equivalent of Joe Girardi leaving Mariano Rivera in the bullpen in the ninth inning of a World Series game with the Yankees leading by one run.

With more than two minutes left in the game and the Giants leading by just three, it was almost as if Gilbride decided to settle for a field goal and hope that the defense came up with yet another big play.

Lawrence Tyne’s kick successfully spilt the uprights, the Giants extended their lead to six, and 78,741 fans apprehensively clapped their hands while trying to ignore that nauseous feeling in their stomachs.

Philip Rivers had more than two minutes left to drive the Chargers down the field, get the ball into the end zone and escape from the Meadowlands with a one point victory—and the Giants inconsistent secondary was all that stood in his way.

Game, set, match.

Rivers capped off an 80-yard drive with a touchdown pass to Vincent Jackson with just 21 seconds left in the game.

A few incomplete passes and an Eli Manning sack later and the Giants had officially extended their loosing streak to four games heading into the bye week.

It may be too late to go back on the Eli Manning/Philip Rivers trade that was made on draft day in 2004. But, is it possible to trade offensive coordinators?

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Time For The Giants To Change The Blueprint

Published: November 2, 2009

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We’ve all seen the Giants lose football games before.

Some losses have been tougher than others, with yesterday’s loss to the Eagles certainly falling in the “tougher” category.

However, losing a game and being unprepared for a game are two separate matters.

And yesterday afternoon, the Giants were unprepared.

During the Fox Pre-Game Show, Jimmy Johnson discussed how the New Orleans Saints had created a blueprint on how to pick apart the Giants’ defense. The Cardinals followed that same blueprint, he said, and the Eagles would do the same.

Well, he was exactly right.

The New Orleans Saints exposed a vulnerability within the Giants’ defense: the secondary.

And like a pack of hungry wolves looking to prey on the weak, the Cardinals and the Eagles mercilessly attacked the Giants’ secondary.

The blue print on how to beat the Giants?

Run mid-range crossing patterns and out routes.

The Giants’ secondary have yet to demonstrate an ability to defend against passes thrown in front of them.

Furthermore, they have yet to show much of an ability to make a decent tackle once a pass has been completed.

The offensive side wasn’t much better for the Giants yesterday afternoon.

The Eagles appeared to know where Eli Manning was going to throw the football before Manning even knew.

When Manning was intercepted by Asante Samuel during the Giants first procession of the game, Samuel’s move was timed so perfectly that it appeared as if he and Manning had been out on the field practicing the play prior to the start of the game.

If only the Giants’ young receivers could time their routes as perfectly as Samuel.

And the running game?

Perhaps the Eagles offensive line found a way to electronically intercept the Giant’s play calling, because everywhere Brandon Jacobs and Ahmad Bradshaw turned, they were met by a sea of green jerseys.

Tom Coughlin should have probably done a playbook inspection immediately following the game, just to ensure that some young locker room assistant didn’t snatch someone’s playbook and hand it over to Eagle’s defensive coordinator Sean McDermott.

The blueprint is out on how to defeat the Giants.

The Saints created it, and other NFL coaches have since looked like the second coming of Vince Lombardi as a result of their ability to simply watch a few game tapes and realize that the Giants secondary is weak to say the least.

How do the Giants prepare for next week’s game against San Diego?

Well, they change the blueprint.

Of course, that’s a lot easier said than done. The players are still the ones that need to execute on the field. But, that’s another article for another day.

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New York Giants: No Need To Reach For The Panic Button Just Yet

Published: October 28, 2009

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There’s no need to send an angry mob out after Eli Manning.

Ripping your brand new, $125 Brandon Jacobs jersey to threads would be a waste of time, energy and money.

And we’re still at least two weeks away from calling for Tom Coughlin’s head. Even though Coughlin led the team to a Super Bowl victory less than two years ago, this is New York, the impatient sports-fan capital of the world.

But before we begin searching for our pitchforks, let’s all just take a deep breath and relax.

The Giants are 5-2; are still leading the NFC East; and are only seven games into a 16-game season.

Are the last two weeks cause for concern?

Of course.

Three weeks ago, the Giants were considered by many to be the best team in the NFC. Now, they’re one loss away from sharing the NFC East lead with the Eagles.

However, this is the NFL. This is not college football, where one loss can literally end your season.

Last year the Cardinals made it to the Super Bowl with a 9-7 regular season record.

Two years ago, the Giants went 10-6 during the regular season before going on to defeat the undefeated Patriots in Super Bowl XLII.

The most concerning issue facing the Giants right now is their young, inexperienced receiving core.

Even though Eli may earn more money than his older, more accomplished brother, he will never be Peyton.

Eli cannot, and should not, be depended upon to single-handedly carry a football team.

You can slap the number “84” on the back of a Colts offensive lineman and Peyton will still find a way to get him the football.

This is simply not something Eli can do.

Eli is a very good NFL quarterback. He’s just not one of those rare, once-in-a-generation quarterbacks that can toss a mediocre offense upon their back and carry them to the Super Bowl.

Before we go any further, let’s identify the elephant in the room here – Plaxico Burress.

Two years ago, Manning could toss the ball up anywhere in the vicinity of Burress and have at least some degree of confidence that the 6-foot-6 Burress would come down with it.

He also had Amani Toomer as a second option, which isn’t to shabby considering that Toomer was one of the Giants’ all-time best possession receivers.

This year?

Well, Manning has to let the ball fly while having no idea whether or not his young receivers will even run the correct routes.

On two consecutive downs during the second quarter of last week’s game against the Cardinals, Manning threw the football in one direction while Mario Manningham ran in a completely different one.

Whether it was quarterback or receiver that ran the wrong play is completely irrelevant. The fact is that there was a complete breakdown in communication on two consecutive plays.

This is not something you’d expect to see from a high-school football team, let alone from a team that many are still expecting to make a run at the Super Bowl.

Plain and simple, the Giants young receivers are learning on the fly and we’d be naive to expect them to miraculously develop into veterans between last Sunday’s loss to Arizona and this week’s divisional game against Philadelphia.

In the meantime, the Giants still have those two running backs that used to carry their fair share of the offensive load…what are their names again?

Oh yeah, Brandon Jacobs and Ahmad Bradshaw.

Highest-paid quarterback in the league or not, perhaps it’s time to transfer at least some of the weight over to the running game.

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For The New York Giants, It’s Time To Sink Or Swim

Published: October 25, 2009

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Last week, the Giants were tossed from their cozy little boat named Victory .

In the three weeks prior to their horrific loss in New Orleans, Eli Manning and the Giants steamrolled their way through Tampa Bay, Kansas City and Oakland.

Big deal.

Tim Tebow and the University of Florida could have probably steamrolled their way through Tampa Bay, Kansas City and Oakland.

The Giants’ first true test since they took the field at the new $1.3 billion Cowboys Stadium in Week 2 came last week in New Orleans; and they failed miserably.

Manning threw for just 178 yards, Jacobs and Bradshaw combined to rush for just 81 yards, and Drew Brees mopped up the end zones with the Giants secondary.

It’s now time for the Giants to sink or swim.

Prior to the New Orleans debacle, the Giants were considered by many to be the best team in the NFC.

That’s no longer the case.

But, as we all know, the NFL season is a long and grueling test. This isn’t college football, where one loss can end your entire season.

However, the way the Giants bounce back this evening against a good Arizona Cardinals team will say a lot about what we can expect from the team for the remainder of the season.

In recent years, the Giants could be considered a streaky football team.

Last season, the Giants were 11-1 when they lost to the Eagles at home in Week 14.

That single loss changed the entire complexion of the season.

They lost the next week to Dallas, then barely snuck by Carolina in overtime in Week 16 before finishing off the regular season with 20-19 loss in Minnesota to the Vikings.

In stark contrast to their 2007 Super Bowl run, the Giants limped into the 2008 playoffs and were handily defeated by the Eagles 23-11 in the divisional round.

Up until last week, the Giants had been virtually untested. The next five games will be one long test.

After taking on Arizona this evening, they will face off against Philadelphia, San Diego, Atlanta and Denver over the next five weeks (with a bye mixed in). These are all very good teams.

It’s only October. But the Giants are already at a crossroads, and the way they come out and perform this evening against the Cardinals could be a defining moment of the 2009 season.