2009 Slipping Away?

The Giants lost to AZ last night and while it would be easy to "blame" Eli Manning for the interceptions and some bad throws and his "kids" for some drops or failing to get open, that wouldn't be very fair.

First of all, the defense gave up 24 points and this is the NFL folks where teams that score 24 points win more often than not. The defense this season has been very soft against the run as demonstrated once again last night. The pass rush, while better last night than the week before, has been anemic and certainly wasn't terrorizing Warner yesterday. The run offense has been horrendous. Very soft. Not physical. Not dominating the line of scrimmage. Epitomized when Jacobs, on his long run last night, decided to dance with the defensive back, juking left then going right and leading, once again, to an easy ankle tackle. The Jacobs of 2007-2008 would have gone head hunting - zeroing in on the defender's chest - and making the defender close his eyes and scream to his mama in fear. But not in 2009 and, as I have said repeatedly, that change appears to have rippled down to the entire team. They are simply not physically dominating anyone.

Here's the rest of the season and, based upon how they have played to date (i.e. assuming the run defense, pass rush, and running game all stay the same), the likely outcome:

@ Phil: L
San Diego: W (I'll be generous - I AM a fan after all)
Atlanta: L
@ Denver: L
Dallas: L
Phil: L
@Wash: W
Carolina: W
@ Minn: L

That's 8-8 with no playoffs. The big point is that losing to NO and AZ shouldn't be shocking anyone who is a hard core fan that actually watches/studies every Giants' game . The strength of the Giants over the first five games - and unit responsible for those first five wins - was Eli and his kid receivers. While that was certainly exciting to see, anyone who wasn't concerned about what that said about the run defense, lack of pass rush, and anemic run offense was simply playing ostrich.

Can they turn things around? Heck yea. They have talent. But - based upon the way they have played thus far - and again I am not talking now about the last two games - I am talking about the first five games - the Giants would be very lucky to end the season at 8-8. The most puzzling aspect of this is that it isn't clear why they should be having such difficulty defending the run, or with their pass rush, or why they aren't as physically dominating in their run offense. For the most part the players are all the same. Very puzzling. And disturbing.