The G-Men are very similar to divisional rival Washington in more ways than one with regard to both teams having head coaches on the proverbial "hot seat", both teams possessing middle of the road offenses, and both teams needing to show marked improvement with their defensive units if they want to compete green bay packers jerseys, the only saving grace for each club is the fact that each has a not-so-hard non divisional schedule to navigate. Last season the G-Men staggered to a 2-6 straight up mark to close out the regular season but in head shaking fashion somehow someway managed to make the wildcard round of the playoffs with an 8-8 record only to lose to the Eagles on a last second FG.
The Giants allowed 26 QB take downs last year for an average of 1.53 sacks allowed per game which was the 6th best tally in the league, however, that number figures to rise this year for two reasons, first of all RB Tiki Barber has retired and in his place steps 6 foot 4 264 pound RB Brandon Jacobs who has been on the G-Men's roster for the past few seasons. Jacobs should do a decent job but he simply does not have the all round versatility of Barber to keep opposing defenses honest which of course is needed to make the play action game work and keep the QB upright. Secondly, the Giants released LT's Luke Petitgout and Bob Whitfield, to replace Petitgout as the starter the G-Men have moved LG David Diehl over and will use Rich Seubert as the LG, off the bench the Giants will use Guy Whimper to back up both positions. If this unit does not gel, or they experience a cluster of injuries, then QB Eli Manning can expect to be on his backside more often than not.
Defensively, the G-Men have taken a hard line stance with all star Michael Strahan who is still holding out and is being fined to the tune of $14000 per day, the thought process here is that he will indeed return to the team. To help the Giants ailing 25th ranked defense LB Kawika Mitchell was signed away from the Chiefs, DT Marcus Bell was signed away from Detroit and former Texas Longhorn CB Aaron Ross was drafted in the first round. In the big picture the G-men simply have way too many question marks on their roster to expect anything other than another mediocre season and if that's the case we may very well see Bill Cowher or Marty Schottenheimer replace Tom Coughlin at the man in charge. Projected record: 8-8
**Look to play AGAINST these G-Men on September 30th when they host the visiting Eagles, the chinks in the G-Men's armor probably will not have shown themselves as of yet while the Eagles will have started to gel entering this 4th game of the new season, the Birds were +5.5 and +7 point doggies in their past two visits to the Meadowlands and at this early stage of the season will in all likelihood be installed as doggies again which suits us just fine because a peek at the past history of these teams reveals that Philly has won outright and covered the posted spread in three of their past four visits to New Jersey Packers pro shop.
No comments:
Post a Comment