Giants No Longer Control Destiny

After an emotional win against Dallas, the Giants went on to lose to Philly in a wild shootout and then destroyed Washington. In the process, however, they have lost control over their destiny and are on the outside looking in. Quite a fall from grace from Super Bowl winners in 2007 followed by a dominant performance in 2008.

There have been two constants this season. 1. Eli and the wide receivers showed up. 2. Everyone else took the year off. And that remained true these past two weeks. The Giants offense beat the Eagles but the Giants lost the game because of special teams and the defense (or lack thereof). And while the defense was better against Washington it was really the dominating play of the offense that created the scenario for the defense. In perhaps the most dominating 1st quarter of football in my lifetime, Washington had the ball for one series going three and out for minus two yards. Meanwhile the Giants put up seven points and were in the midst of their second long drive when the quarter ended. They would go on to score on that second possession and the game was over. The offense gets a huge assist - if not the dominant role - for the defensive statistics last week.

Now the Giants face the Panthers in the last game to ever be played in Giants stadium, then travel to play the Vikings in a game that suddenly matters for Minnesota. Even if the Giants win both games, they need help in the form of a Dallas or Green Bay loss. And even if they get that help and find themselves as wild card entrants into the post season, they aren't likely to go very far without any defense. So, while it is nice to have games that count this late in the season, that's all it really is... nice. But pretty meaningless. That's what has become of this team. And it is all very, very puzzling. This team has not played well from the very beginning of the season and the thing that is most bothersome is that I am not sure why - I am not sure what happened to the defense - and therefore not sure what is needed to turn things around in 2010. And I cannot recall that ever happening before - when they stunk I generally knew why they stunk. And at least that was comforting because you knew what needed to be done to turn things around. That isn't true this time around which creates a huge amount of uncertainty moving forward.