The Giants’ search for an identity is over. They are a low-scoring team with a monstrous defense and a knack for winning close games. But will that be good enough to win it all?
While it’s fun to romanticize another Giants Super Bowl run, it might not be realistic given Big Blue’s lineup of high-powered postseason opponents, especially contrasted against the Giants’ offensively challenged formula for success that requires near-perfection everywhere else to win.
No matter how good Steve Spagnuolo’s defense is, how can Ben McAdoo’s Giants (11-5) expect to win a championship averaging fewer than 20 points per game (19.4) against this competition?
“Our mindset is winning,” Pro Bowl strong safety Landon Collins said after Sunday night’s 19-10 win in the regular season finale in Washington. “We (as a defense) live for the pressure. We don’t look at it as pressure. We look for it as an opportunity to make plays and be the best we can be, and just have our defense be recognized as one of the best.”
Ben McAdoo has utmost confidence in Manning as playoffs near
The issue isn’t the Giants’ defense, though. They have been lights out. It’s just that a very real potential road to Houston for Super Bowl LI would force Big Blue to win at Green Bay in Sunday’s Wild Card round, at the Dallas Cowboys in the divisional round and at the Atlanta Falcons in the NFC Championship.
That could be followed perhaps by — dare we say it? — Giants v. Patriots III in the Big Game.
Winning the Super Bowl, therefore, would mean beating four of the NFL’s top five scoring offenses: Atlanta (33.8, 1st), New England (27.6, third), Green Bay (27, fourth) and Dallas (26.3, fifth) — excluding New Orleans (29.3, 2nd). It would require defeating the NFL’s hottest quarterback (Aaron Rodgers), second-hottest quarterback (Matt Ryan) and arguably best quarterback of all time (Tom Brady).
Eli Manning and the Giants offense would need to really step it up in order to get to and win the Super Bowl.
(Patrick Smith/Getty Images)
Impossible? No, particularly because the Giants of the past decade have specialized in the impossible. Tom Coughlin’s Giants tied the record for worst regular season record by a Super Bowl champion (10-6) in 2007 before breaking that record in 2011 at 9-7.
Giants defense, even with stars hurt, continues to be strong
Still, these teams, especially Green Bay and Atlanta, are going to score. The Giants’ season-high 161 rushing yards in Washington and Eli Manning’s late-game, 44-yard strike to Tavarres King were encouraging. But let’s not pretend the Giants offense dispelled all notions of their dysfunction.
They had a seven-drive stretch that included six punts, four-three-and-outs and a turnover on downs. And with an opportunity to run the clock out with the offense on the field, McAdoo for some reason put running back Rashad Jennings on the field instead of rookie Paul Perkins, and the offense went 3-and-out, giving Washington one last desperation shot that the defense again thwarted.
McAdoo rightfully said he was pleased with many elements of the Giants’ victory.
“We ran the ball, we stopped the run, we took care of the ball and we took the ball away,” he said.
Giants set eyes on Green Bay after beating Washington in Week 17
The problem is all of those elements will have to come together at bare minimum to win in Green Bay. And call Sunday a no-turnover outing for the offense all you want, but Manning delivered a would-be Pick-6 on the Giants’ second drive that Washington’s Josh Norman dropped on his way to the house.
JGiants linebacker Devon Kennard celebrates after sacking Kirk Cousins.
(Brad Mills/USA Today Sports)
Big Blue’s run game, too, still hasn’t been consistent, and Manning hasn’t had a good enough season to make the Giants feel comfortable with abandoning the run – as McAdoo did often in the early part of the season – and simply putting it all on Eli’s shoulders.
This can’t be stressed enough, either: Not to downplay the Giants’ effort on Sunday at all, but Jay Gruden’s Washington team was NOT ready to play at FedEx Field. They were terrible, turning in a shameful start and performance in a game they had to win to reach the playoffs.
That said, the Giants defense impressively finished second in the NFL in points allowed per game (17.8) behind only New England (15.6). Will that be good enough to offset the fact that they score only 19.4 per outing, ranking 26th in the 32-team NFL?
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“We always say defense wins championships, offense wins games,” Collins said.
Well, the defense is excellent, and Denver and Seattle are recent examples of a defense-led team winning a Super Bowl. This Giants defense, however, is going to need some help.
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nfl
new york giants
nfl playoffs
ben mcadoo
eli manning
green bay packers
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