Season quickly slipping away from New York Giants

By Ryan Disdier | Nov 18, 2014

After 10 games, the New York Giants are worse than they were last year. Everything continues to go wrong for the Giants, and the playoffs are a complete and utter fantasy.

Almost everyone in the organization is to blame, as nobody has really played superb football. Against the San Francisco 49ers, it wasn’t the defense that cost New York the game, this time it was the offense.

Eli Manning, who had been taking care of the ball prior to the game, threw five interceptions. Four of those interceptions were deplorable throws by Manning, while the fifth and final was a deflected pass. As I watched the game with some friends, I found myself being optimistic after every Eli interception. “Well, he only has seven on the year now,” I said after his first of the day. Following his second I said, “Well, that’s only his eighth on the year,” and so on and so forth. Manning finished the game with a horrid five interceptions.

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Dropped balls by rookie star Odell Beckham Jr. hurt the Giants, although Beckham Jr. did haul in an unbelievable catch on a crucial second-down. However, Beckham would drop a pass on a game-deciding fourth-down. Regardless, Beckham continues to be the only player on the Giants that looks capable of consistently making big plays.

The players weren’t the only ones to blame for the loss, as the offensive play calling by Ben McAdoo was subject, and at times just awful. In the fourth quarter when the Giants had a chance to take the lead, McAdoo dialed up three consecutive fade routes. The fade route has always been a staple of Tom Coughlin’s Giants, but three in a row is still perplexing.

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Yes, the Giants defense played better, but they didn’t look like the ’07 Giants, and let’s not forget they got lucky. A quagmire of a play resulted in a Frank Gore fumble, and a bad snap led to a failed impromptu fourth down conversion.

The Giants’ offensive line also compiled an underwhelming performance against the Niners.

There’s just far too much wrong with this team. As I’ve said in the past, injuries have decimated them, but injuries aren’t the only problem. The good news is that the Giants’ remaining schedule is nowhere near as daunting as their first 10 weeks. New York’s remaining games are against Dallas, at Jacksonville, at Tennessee, against Washington, at St. Louis and against Philadelphia.

Dallas should be able to beat the Giants, especially coming off of a bye. However, divisional games are always tough to predict, and it would not shock me at all to see the Giants upset the Cowboys. The team just activated guard Geoff Schwartz, and they did show some resiliency in the loss to San Francisco. I mean, how often do you still have a chance to win a game when you turn the ball over five times?

The week 17 clash with the Eagles could have serious playoff implications for Philly, and Nick Foles will likely be back under center, but once again, it’s a divisional game.

St. Louis is worrisome, as their three wins have come against good teams. They upset the 49ers and the Seahawks, and they just held Peyton Manning to 7 points. However, the games against Jacksonville, Tennessee, Washington and St. Louis are all winnable games, but it likely won’t mean much.

Even if the Giants somehow win out and finish 9-7, they probably still wouldn’t make the playoffs. With the NFC looking very strong this year, 9-7 likely wouldn’t be enough for a Wild Card berth, and certainly won’t be enough to win the division, barring an unlikely implosion by the Eagles and Cowboys.

In a previously article that was published right after the loss in Dallas, I said the best-case scenario for Big Blue was 10-6. We can all agree I was being an optimist, and we can now dismiss that as balderdash.

I would say best-case scenario for the Giants is 6-10, while 5-11 is more realistic. To those who are more optimistic than I am and are holding out hope for another Giants “back from the dead” thing, don’t count on it. In 2007 the Giants had a top-10 defense, and in 2011 the Giants had a top-10 offense.

This year the Giants have neither. So unless Eli Manning stumbles upon a Genie’s lamp and uses one of his three wishes on a playoff berth, this will be the third straight year the Giants will be golfing during the postseason.

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