Giants Down Redskins, Face Rams on the Road

You couldn't ask for a much better beginning to the 2008 season. Sure, the Giants left some points on the board. They didn't score in the second half. They only recorded one sack, that coming on Washington's very first offensive play from scrimmage. But make no mistake about it - the Giants dominated this game from beginning to end. Granted, the domination wasn't complete in the sense that they didn't finish off their opponent when they should have. But they still dominated in every sense of the word - on both sides of the ball.

For the first game of the season, it is difficult to be critical of such a dominating performance. The offensive line was strong. Brandon Jacobs, who truly is "the beast", continues to make "statement plays" that set the tone for the entire team. Manning was very sharp in the early going and he has a great group of receivers who are going to present match up problems for every team in the league.

But it was the defense that truly dominated the game, just as it did in the playoff run last year. In particular it was the run defense - where championship defense starts and ends - that was so encouraging. Robbins and Cofield were fantastic. Tuck's run defense has always been strong. And Kiwi was a monster coming down the line chasing plays away from him. And, perhaps in what may be a real harbinger of things to come, Kehl and Phillips saw lots of playing time and both made plays when getting their turn on the field.

And old man Carney may deserve a longer look - as in an all season long type of look. He nailed his kickoffs inside the 5 and hit three field goals with a sense of confidence that only comes from such long tenure in the league.

When this team plays angry - plays with an attitude - they can beat anyone. If they can maintain that attitude - a combination of confidence, arrogance, and plain old angry need to punch someone in the mouth - they will go a long, long way in 2008 with a legitimate chance to repeat. They remind me of a riled up hornet's nest, a swarming attack that can totally overwhelm an offense.

All four teams in NFC East were a top 10 defense last year. This year, after the first week, Dallas, Philly and the Giants were all in the top 5 of most power rankings. You can safely bet, however, that at least one of the three will drop from that position by mid season, but which one?

The Giants have a favorable schedule - the "easier" part portion being the first half with a much tougher second half - including a 7 week stretch in which they play 5 of their 6 divisional games. That allows the Giants to gather strength and, in particular, time for their rookies and younger players to gain some valuable experience heading into the second half. And it would appear that Tom Coughlin is already focused on exactly that. Brian Kehl was on the field a large portion of game one, as was Kenny Phillips (much less a surprise there). I think you will see Coughlin and the Giants take advantage of the weaker first half to give as much playing time to the younger players as possible.

Today is a big test for this Giant's team. They play a team that should stand no chance against them. In fact, they didn't face such an "easy" game all of last year. They are presented with a challenge to test their intensity for the first time since 2006. If they can stay focused and play angry today, they will dominate and that domination will show up on the scoreboard. That factor, more than any other, will be a huge indicator of whether this team has the makeup mentally to repeat.