Giants vs. Bears

My friends have so associated me with my New York Giants fandom that I have received many of those “how are you doing?” questions.  It’s almost as if they believe I have lost a loved one.  I’ll tell you how I am doing.  I’m doing ok.  I have learned to be philosophical about these things and put them into their proper perspective.  It’s one year.  It’s just one year.  Between salary caps and the draft parity is high in the NFL.  Nothing is permanent.  The Giants have many pieces, and lack many others.  However, they are set up for a decent salary cap situation that can get even better if they are lucky enough to have Snee retire.

The Giants lost to the Bears on Thursday night in their first competitive game in a long time. That could speak more to the Bears, but there were positive signs. For the first time this year the Giants had a 100 yard rusher and even more impressively continually opened holes in the Bears defense.  If David Wilson (injured) had ever received those holes he would not be spoken of as a bust right now.  It’s possible that I could meet Brandon Jacobs in a 40 yard dash so for him to gain 100 yards is something.  Eli also had decent time to throw.  He did mess up again with 3 interceptions. One was clearly Randall’s fault, and the last one was inches away from a play that would have put them in scoring and winning range. 

On defense, the injuries in the secondary showed.  They need back at least one from the Webster / Hosley crew.  Ross is gone and not coming back.  The biggest problem remains the lack of a pass rush.  Any quarterback can pick apart a defense with time. The Giants over the course of a couple of years have gone from great to horrible on this front.  It seems they are heading on a path that would net them Clowney in next year’s draft, and that may be what they need.  Promising rookie Damontre Moore has been injured and presumably not healthy enough for real playing time.  It will be interesting to see what he is capable of when fully healthy.  I don’t know at this point if you can ever expect JPP to be JPP again.  On a positive note, the Giants run defense is actually very good.  For many weeks in a row good runners have not had an impact running the ball against the Giants.  Rookie second rounder Johnathan Hankins showed something.

The Giants traded for Carolina’s Beason a couple of weeks ago, and he led them in tackles this past week.  He looked impressive for a guy who was benched for the familiar and mediocre Chase Blackburn.  He was a great linebacker a few years back before injuries took their toll.

In general, despite still only being 3 games back in the division, and capable of some run, the Giants would be wise to play the young guys and figure out exactly what they have.  Coughlin has enough tenure to be able to do that without fearing ramifications of win loss effect.  The problem is he has always been trained to think only about the next game and given the current situation, it’s important for the organization to start thinking about next year.  One of the Mara’s should get involved and tell him specifically not to worry about this year’s record at this point.  It’s not in his DNA to not try his best to win each game, but that is in the organizations’ best interest. 

The Vikings should be a decent match up for the Giants.  Since the Giants have been good at stopping the run and the Vikings have not done a great job in the passing game, this could prove to be the match up the Giants need to get off the schneid. I’m expecting the Giants to actually win a game. Look for a 24-20 victory.