Another escape...and heavy hitters await

Before I get started, let me mention the Star Ledger and NJ.com's Mike Garafolo and his game reviews. As a fan I feel like I'm lucky he writes for the Giants. Here's this week's, you'll see what I mean. He covers everything so thoroughly that anything I thought about saying about a game Sunday night, as maybe the one key observation that I feel no one else will have...MG will say it in his review Monday, along with about twenty other observations that are even better. Of course, the downside to reading a guy this good, is that anything I say I feel like I'm copying him because he's already covered it. So when it comes to the Giants, I like to try to stick with the "macro" view at a given time knowing Mike's got the micro locked down. To that, then...

The Giants are now 5-2. First place in the NFC East by a full two games - but as I see it, still merely "par" for the first seven games, having won when they should have won (except for the Seahawks), and lost when they should have lost (except for the Eagles).

The "playing with fire" nature of the way they've had to come roaring back after sluggish starts to beat teams like the Cardinals and Dolphins, is concerning with respect to measuring up against the elite teams coming. But the good news is, once the game is over, all that matters is the win. (Barring of course, a wacky tiebreaker scenario where it goes all the way down to point differential.) Having banked 5 wins at this point, no matter how they came about, is a great position to be in. Granted, this team has a brutal schedule coming. But on the other hand, it's a team that hasn't really peaked yet - at least compared to the past three years when they looked unbeatable at this point in the season and were generally considered the NFC Super Bowl favorite.

First up in this "murder's row" is a visit to New England Sunday. The Patriots have won 20 consecutive regular season home games. But the Giants do have a pretty good history of ending Patriots streaks.

Bye Week Breather

It's been a roller coaster ride over the first 6 weeks of the Giants season. They're terrible (losses to Redskins, Seahawks), they're great (win over Eagles), they're just okay enough to squeak by bad teams (wins over Rams, Cardinals), and finally, there's hope (win over Bills).

At this point I'll stick with how I saw it playing out so far. They're not very good, but with the exception of the brutal Seahawks loss they've won the games they needed to win in order to buy themselves some time to actually get good.

This bye week is coming at the perfect time. Tuck, Jacobs, Snee, and Amukamara were all out Sunday, but should all be ready for the Miami game in two weeks. And by then maybe they can finally start to see what they have in 6'6'' Ramses Barden, who has been on the PUP list.

I wrote two weeks ago about the apologies I owed people with relation to the Giants, and that included GM Jerry Reese. Let me further expand that by adding Plaxico Burress to the list of guys that for the most part have been non-factors with their new teams, along with Kevin Boss and Steve Smith.

Over their first 6 games, here is how these three have performed:

Burress - 14 receptions, 218 yards, 2 TD.

Smith - 5 receptions, 63 yards, 0 TD.

Boss - 7 receptions, 149 yards, 1 TD. This includes a 35 yard TD reception on a fake field goal during which he was uncovered.

Meanwhile, their replacements:

Jake Ballard - 15-273, 2 TD.

Victor Cruz - 21-398, 3 TD.

I can't really think of who the third replacement would be here, as Burress has been gone 3 years now anyway - but I don't even need one, as the Ballard/Cruz combo (36 receptions, 671 yards, 5 TD) has outperformed Smith, Boss, and Burress combined (26 receptions, 430 yards, 3 TD). And Eli Manning looks just as comfortable with Ballard and Cruz as he did with any of the guys who left. In fact, Manning has had one of the best stretches of his career over these first six games: 296.3 yards per game, 63.8%, 11 TD, 5 INT, 101.1 QB rating. These are elite numbers.

The competition gets a lot tougher after the Week 8 Miami game, but I'm looking forward to seeing what this team really is. So first, a bye week to rest up. And then...Let's go have ourselves a season.

Apology time

The season's 1st quarter is complete, with the Giants sitting at 3-1. It hasn't been easy, but it's been a pleasant surprise for many, including this blogger, who expected doom in 2011. As a result, I owe apologies to the following people after a Giants 3-1 start.

GM Jerry Reese

Losing Steve Smith and Kevin Boss hurt. And with inexperienced Victor Cruz and Jake Ballard taking their places, it appeared Reese had really dropped the ball, having failed to find suitable replacements for key players. Instead, Cruz and Ballard have been just fine, and should only get better going forward. The time to pine for lost free agents is over.

Offensive Coordinator Kevin Gilbride (often affectionately known as Kevin "Killdrive")

Gilbride had been my default whipping boy for whatever went wrong with the Giants' offense. He doesn't know what he's doing, I would say. No consistency. Doesn't play to the personnel's strengths. Sure, I'd still like to have the Redskins game back, in which Brandon Jacobs didn't touch the ball in the 2nd half. But since then, Gilbride has called good games, especially the last two. The offense has found a rhythm and come to life.

Osi Umenyiora

When a guy is injured while sulking over his contract, it's so easy to just say, "Who needs him, trade him and be rid of the headache." But Osi can still make an impact, and he was especially valuable yesterday with Justin Tuck out. What a boost a healthy Umenyiora can give the Giants over the remainder of the season.

Victor Cruz and Referee Jerome Boger

My immediate reaction was to be furious with Cruz for letting go of a seemingly live ball, after not being touched on the ground during the Giants' go-ahead drive late in the 4th quarter yesterday. But by rule, Boger made the right call. Although, Cruz should just take the ball back to the huddle with him for the rest of his career from now on, to be on the safe side. It would have been maddening to lose a game that way.


There is still a long way to go, and plenty of teams have started 3-1 or better in the NFL and not made the playoffs...but so far, so good.