NFC East Power Rankings: Week 1

Our favorite Eagles blog here at FanSided – Inside The Iggles – has a very appropriate NFC East Power Rankings post up that will not shock anyone looking at the bEast right now.

Very appropriately, the Giants are in last place at #4. Check out the commentary:

A picture is worth a thousand words.

"4. New York Giants — The Giants struggled to convert in critical short yardage situations, which was probably the biggest fault in a game in which they showed several. Eli Manning looked less comfortable as the game wore on. After Michael Boley recovered a Rex Grossman fumble and returned it to the Washington 27, it appeared the Giants were going to seize momentum. That didn’t happen. Instead, the Giants went three and out, highlighted by Ahmad Bradshaw’s two-yard loss on a critical third-and-one carry from the Washington 18-yard line. Lawrence Tynes’ ensuing 38-yard field goal attempt was stuffed by Brian Orakpo, and that was it. Even one of the few bright spots for the Giants, wide receiver Hakeem Nicks, suffered a bone bruise on his knee and is uncertain to play this week. New York catches a bit of a break when a banged up St. Louis team visits on Sunday, but if the Giants lose that one—look out."

The Giants going 0-2 to start the season wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world — if anything it will surely bring back memories clinging to former Giants glory years of 2007-2008 when week 3 they defeated the division rival Redskins on a last second fourth down goal line stop to win the game. From that moment on, it was a 6 game winning streak and the Giants hit their stride defeating Buffalo in the snow/ice/hail/rain and making the playoffs after everyone said they had no shot. Of course, all Giants fans remember 2007…. the problem is that was 4 years ago and this Giants team is nothing like that one. We don’t have veterans like Michael Strahan, Sam Madison, Antonio Pierce, Plax, Toomer, etc, etc, etc. The Giants have a bunch of youngsters all around the team that have no idea what it takes to get to and win a Superbowl.

If the Giants want to reminisce about anything from the NFL past — it should be looking at the Green Bay Packers last year starting the season horribly riddled with injuries and then getting hot at the end of the season with both offense and defense on the same page. In fact, let’s take it a step further and say the Giants basically need to copy everything the Packers did with their offense last year if they want to be successful. 3 step drops to avoid pressure, quick passes for slants and shallow crosses, skinny posts, wheel routes, staying with the running game no matter how bad it is, staying deceptive by handing the ball off to their fullbacks, utilizing play action fakes, and basically make the defense play their ass off to beat them.

The Giants may think the best offense is a good defense, but when your defense is as snake bitten as Big Blue’s is right now you need to switch that up. The best defense needs to be a good offense — and the Giants had better get all on that page before week 2 or it could be too late.