GIANTS Power Rankings: Unfamiliar Territory

Credit: Andrew Mills/THE STAR-LEDGER via USA TODAY Sports

After the New York Giants first two losses of the season there were plenty of excuses being made for the losses.

Against the Cowboys despite all the turnovers they still had a chance to win a division road game.

Against the Broncos they were facing possibly the best team in all of football.

However, there is no such excuse for what happened to the Giants this past Sunday against the formerly 0-2 Carolina Panthers.

The Giants were embarrassed at all facets of the game during the 38-0 whooping in Carolina.

The offense was non-existent, the defense was putrid, and even the kicking game missed the one field goal attempt they did have.

The loss dropped the Giants to 0-3 for the first time since 1996. The loss also saw the Giants plummet further in the power rankings across the web.

ESPN.com rank: 29 (20)

The voters over at ESPN.com have been holding strong with the highest rank of the Giants all season. But not anymore. The Giants were the biggest dropper this week. While turnovers have been devastating to the Giants this season, the poor play of the Giants offensive line was glaring Sunday. Eli Manning was sacked five times in the first quarter and seven times total. It will be a very long season if Eli isn’t protected better and he doesn’t always make the best decisions while being rushed repeatedly.

What were they thinking: I’m not going to make my normal arguments in this section on the team that was wrongfully placed in front of the Giants in the rankings because frankly the argument can be made that the Giants have been the worst team in the NFL through three games.

Instead I’ll just discuss a decision the voters made that I disagreed with in general. In this instance, the Baltimore Ravens did not move a spot this week. They just beat the Houston Texans who were ranked fourth last week. The Texans dropped nine spots but the Ravens don’t even move up one spot? The Kansas City Chiefs, Indianapolis Colts, and Miami Dolphins all jumped the Ravens this week.

Foxsports.com: 29 (24)

I’ve been pretty hard on Brian Billick and his rankings of the Giants this season. But so far he has been proven to be correct. The Giants only drop five spots in his ranking because he wasn’t as high on them to begin with. He points out that this is the worst loss in the Tom Coughlin era and being a former coach himself he had to feel for Coughlin as Sunday was just an ugly event to watch.

What were they thinking: Not often do you see a team lose a prime time game to go 0-3 on the season and move UP two spots in the rankings. Yet that is exactly what the Pittsburg Steelers accomplished.

Kudos to Big Ben for throwing over 400 yards but the Steelers look like a wreck and haven’t shown any sign deserving of an upwards rank. At the very least Billick could have rewarded the Browns on their victory by moving them one spot higher and in front of the Steelers in the rankings like they are in the actual standings.

CBSSports.com: 29 (22)

Pete Prisco is asking the questions everyone is thinking. What indeed did happen to this team and can they save their season in Kansas City?  The Giants don’t seem to be playing with any fire and they just seem off. Players are speaking out negatively about the team. They don’t have the swagger they have had the past seasons. A spark needs to be fired and I believe Coughlin is going to be able to do it.

They have had excellent success against the dink-and-dunking Alex Smith. so I wouldn’t be surprised if the Giants were to pull the upset on Sunday. KC is not an easy place to play and their defense has been formidable. The Giants can not afford to go 0-4.

What were they thinking: Prisco has a pretty good thinking rankings list. He seems to have the teams in the right spots up and down the list. The only thing that kind of made me think was the jumping of the Chiefs over the Chicago Bears. They both are 3-0 and both are coming off nice wins on Sunday. The Bears only move up two spots while the Chiefs move five spots and one spot ahead of the Bears. Doesn’t make a ton of sense but maybe he is just anticipating a big win for the Chiefs this Sunday. Let’s hope for Giants’ fans sake that isn’t the case.