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.