A Giant Slump

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It was Sunday, October 11th, and the New York Football Giants were 5-0.  They were feeling great, as well as looking unstoppable. The defense had only given up 71 points, and the offense had scored 151 points in the first five games.

Now, fast forward to Monday November 9th, and things have completely turned around.  It has been nearly a month since the once-undefeated Giants have won a game. They are 5-4 and seemingly crumbling as a team. In the past four games, the defense has let up 133 points (nearly double of the previous five games) and the offense has only scored 81 points (almost half of the previous five games). They have gone from shoe-in division champs, to third place, in which seems over night.  Giants fans can only ask, “Why?”  Well, there are a few theories that could explain this Giant slump.

The first five games that the Giants played were against the Redskin, Cowboys, Buccaneers, Chiefs, and Raiders.  We might not have known it at the time, but four of those teams, have virtually no playoff hopes.  Aside from the Cowboys, the Giants played awful teams in the first five weeks, and this could have either given them too much confidence, or made a mediocre team look great.  The next four games have been against the 6-0 (at the time) Saints, defending NFC champion Cardinals, always tough rival Eagles, and de3fending AFC West champion Chargers, and well, we can see how those games went for Big Blue.

Another reason for this debacle could very well be injuries.  The Giants defensive backfield has been hurt all year, but now that they are playing better caliber teams, they are exposing it.  Young-stud Safety Kenny Philips is out for the season, and third year cornerback Aaron Ross has not played a game this season due to injury.  Both of these young DBs have been brought in to stiffen up a consistently poor defensive backfield for the Giants, those two being injured is not helping. For a few games the Giants were also missing defensive lineman Chris Canty, and linebacker Michael Boley.  Both of these players returned for the Chargers game, which was a very close game.  Hopefully, this is a sign of good things to come.

Whatever the reason may be for this Giant team’s inability to win for the past month, it must be fixed if they want a shot at the division title, or the wildcard spot for the playoffs.  With their bye week ahead, one can only hope that these problems will be confronted, and fixed.  There could not be a more needed bye week in the NFL right now, and they must take advantage of it.  I guess we will just have to wait and see what happens in two weeks, when the Giants host the 5-3 Falcons on November 22nd at 1 P.M.