Examining the rest of the New York Giants’ season

By Ryan Disdier | Oct 31, 2014

Last year at this time, the New York Giants were a putrid 1-6 and fresh off of a victory over the even worse Minnesota Vikings. That team was broken, amateurish and comical. Despite starting 0-6 New York managed to finish 7-9.

This year’s team is at a bit of a crossroads at the midway point.

Sitting at 3-3 the Giants are not a good team, but they are also not a necessarily bad team either. The Giants four losses (at Detroit, vs. Arizona, at Philadelphia and Dallas) came against good teams, arguably the NFC’s best, and the loss to Arizona is the only home loss the Giants have this year. However, therein lies the problem with the New York Giants. They have proven they cannot beat the good teams in the NFC.

Okay, the dismantling of the Houston Texans and Washington Redskins were confidence boosters for the Giants, as was the comeback victory against Atlanta, but the very next week the team was shutout 27-0 in Philly.

What is wrong with this team?

Well, it is not one big issue, but rather a plethora of little issues that perpetually plague the Giants. First, let’s look at the offensive line.

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There is no doubt that the offensive line was a main catalyst for last year’s demise, and they have been somewhat inconsistent as of late. After an awful season opener, the unit began to gel and they were playing some good football. Against the Eagles, the unit let up eight, yes eight, sacks. In the subsequent week, the offensive line kept Eli Manning clean, but surrendered too many penalties.

Will Beatty has once again failed to live up to his salary, and the unit’s inconsistency has been tough to overcome in certain situations.

An issue in New York that is not coachable is how many injuries Big Blue has suffered.

Victor Cruz, Walter Thurmond III, Trumain McBride, Mario Manningham, Trindon Holiday, Jerrel Jernigan and most recently Jon Beason have all been placed on season ending IR. While Holiday and Manningham were injured in the preseason and released before week one, the other players all made significant contributions to the team.

Season’s injury is a big one, but not impossible to overcome. Here’s a crazy stat; if you count the preseason, the Giants are 8-0 this year with Beason out of the lineup. The secondary has also been inconsistent, despite preseason hype. Although the unit ranks second in interceptions with 11, they also rank as the league’s 25th best pass defense, according to NFL.com.

The loss of Victor Cruz will obviously be the hardest player for the Giants to replace, as he was an emotional leader as well as a phenomenal wide receiver.

Lingering injuries have also been detrimental, as running back Rashad Jennings has been injured since week five against the Falcons, and cornerback Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie has dealt with injuries all year. Andre Williams is not ready to be the lead back (as I told many), and the offense simply lacks an X-factor since Cruz’s injury. Preston Parker is playing predominantly in the slot, and while he has some talent, he simply pales in comparison to Cruz.

Odell Beckham Jr. has been a bright spot, but he has yet to display any gamebreakinig ability. Even when Beckham starts playing to his full potential the loss of Cruz will be incredibly difficult to overcome.

Throw in the fact that the Giants have just a brutal five game stretch coming up, and it is hard to envision this team making it to January. The Giants have a Monday night game against the Indianapolis Colts (I will have a preview up sometime before the game), then they travel to Seattle to play the Seahawks. Following the West Coast trip the Giants will host the San Francisco 49ers and the Dallas Cowboys in back to back weeks.

Yikes.

There is good news, though. After that dreadful four game stretch, the Giants play at Jacksonville and Tennessee, then they’re home against Washington before traveling to Tennessee. The Giants end their season at home against the Philadelphia Eagles.

I think it is realistic to give the Giants a win in their next four games. I also think it’s realistic to give them four wins in their last five. However, divisional games are always a toss up, so it’s really hard to project. If you want an example of this, the Redskins led by Colt McCoy just beat the Cowboys in Dallas.

In my estimation, the best-case scenario for the Giants is 10-6, but that is a stretch. For that to happen the Giants will have to beat Indianapolis or San Francisco as well as beat the Cowboys at home. Then they would have to win out. Not likely, but possible.

Realistically, the Giants are likely to finish either 7-9 or 8-8. It’s hard to imagine them losing to Jacksonville, Tennessee and St. Louis, although all of those are road games.

The worst-case scenario is 5-11.

This team will likely go as far as Eli Manning can take them, and we have seen him take them far before, especially in 2011. With the run game practically non-existant, Manning will need to continue his no interception crusade to give his team a chance.

Even though both the Eagles and the Cowboys lost in week 8, this is still their division and they remain as the teams to beat. With teams like the 49ers, Seahawks, and Packers in the NFC, it’s very hard to envision the NFC East producing three playoff teams.

If I’ve learned one thing from watching the Giants, it’s to never count them out until they’re mathematically eliminated from playoff contention. We’ve seen Eli do it before, but the odds are certainly stacked against the New York Giants.

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