Hump Day. The Giants currently are complete laughingstocks and fodder for fans of other fans to get their digs in. “Eli this, Eli that. Eli’s overrated, Eli is getting his karmic justice, yadda, yadda, yadda…” All the while, conveniently ignoring the fact that no quarterback–from Gabbert to Peyton–would’ve survived the sieve-like “effort” that the Giants offensive line put in on Sunday. Point being, it’s a disaster right now. As the Giants go into Kansas City, at least they have good barbeque to chow on. Because it’ll be hard to convince anyone outside of License Plate Guy, Joe Ruback, that things are going to turn around against a hot, rested and unbeaten Chiefs team.
Hakeem Nicks is Cranky: Contract years are a pain for every one involved. The players want the biggest output possible to point to for the biggest payday possible. They want every target, every play, everything offensively to run through them in order to gain every last penny. Surely, he and his agent knows the exact terms that guys like Mike Wallace and Victor Cruz got. And being that wide receivers are temperamental by nature, I guess it’s no surprise that he sounded off after being shut out on Sunday.
“I can’t throw it to myself,” Nicks said. Well, yeah, you can’t. But never mind the fact that Eli could barely throw it to anybody on Sunday. Nick should just be happy that Eli made it out alive. If he didn’t, you’d get stuck with the somehow immortal Curtis Painter making a complete mockery of the quarterback position and the game of football as a whole. Nicks is probably better served just keeping quiet, because it wasn’t like he was being ignored. Nothing went right on this day, and his over-emphasis on his personal production was ill-timed and petty.
Not to mention, his injury history may be a hindrance in getting the super-duper bucks. Put in a full season’s work, first.
If You’re Into That Sorta Thing: The Giants are holders of the number two overall selection right now. I know, I know… It’s a long way to go until that little bit of information becomes actually pertinent, but with how awful things have gone…
Chris Snee is old. David Baas has been a major disappointment from the moment he arrived. Kevin Boothe is whatever. Will Beatty got paid and it looks now like he’s coasting. (His incredibly awful day did nothing to assuage the notion.) Jeremy Pugh is a rookie who is in over his head at the moment and is seemingly better suited as a guard than as a tackle.
Defensively:
Justin Tuck is old. Jason Pierre-Paul is still hurt. There are no linebackers of any remote consequence. (And it’s easy to wonder if former Giant Chase Blackburn spilled on some secrets.) Antrel Rolle talks too much and doesn’t back it up anymore. Terrell Thomas is back after two ACL surgeries and can’t run anymore, and landed on the injury-report with, you guessed it, a sore knee. Cullen Jenkins and Shaun Rogers aren’t the players they used to be.
Thank goodness for Lival Joseph and Prince Amukamara, or they’d have no one who can make a play even occasionally.
So maybe it’s a good time to bottom out, as painful as it is for a fanbase that has grown accustomed to championship pedigree. But it’s clear that there are more than one problem area going on here, and maybe it’s just time to retool.
Who knows what that means for Tom Coughlin. No one disputes his acumen. No one believes that “the game has passed him by.”
But it may just be time for a new voice. It seems to have worked for the Chiefs.
Final Word: If there’s any hope for the Giants to save their season, it must start Sunday. Unfortunately, the prospects don’t look good at all. The Giants have shocked the world many times in the past, and could potentially do it again, but it’s tough to find any reason to believe they will, despite JPP’s something of a flimsy guarantee. With a revitalized Chiefs team firing on all cylinders, and a head Chief in Andy Reid who knows the Giants inside out, the Giants won’t be shut out this week.
But they won’t win, either. 24-10 fore the Chiefs.
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