After opening up the season at home, with a loss vs. Dallas the New York Giants look to rebound when Tampa Bay comes to Metlife stadium this Sunday. New York’s record isn’t the only thing that took a hit following the week one debacle. Both Washington and Philadelphia were able to win, leaving the Giants a nice sole placement in the NFC East basement. The Giants also found themselves trending downwards in just about every NFL Power Ranking. Let’s take a look at where they “fall”.
ESPN – 7(4)
"A loss to Dallas in the home opener raised the old, pre-Super Bowl questions."
You’ll hear a lot of people say “The Giants lost their opener to Washington last year, look what happened.” Now I understand this may present a level of comfort after the performance on Wednesday night, but truth be told, The Giants were disgusted after losing their first game last year as well. New York needs to shake this off and get some wins. The mentality going into the season was that 9-7, sneaking into the playoffs, wasn’t going to cut it this year. They couldn’t be more right. All in all, ESPN seems pretty appropriate dropping the G-Men 3 slots here.
CBS Sports – 13(2)
"They need to tighten up the back end of that defense or even their vaunted pass rush won’t save them."
As I’m trying to think of every way to bash Pete Prisco for this ridiculous ranking, I come up with one thing, He’s absolutely right! Ranking aside the Giants will continue to fall in every power ranking, the division, the NFC and the NFL if they’re unable to clean up their secondary. It’s clear they are decimated in the defensive backfield (what else is new?) however that excuse won’t cut it. Either they need to get healthy, and fast, or they need to figure out a way to bring in some new personnel. The fact that the Giants slipped 11 spots here is pretty foolish, however. A couple notables here; The Cowboys jumped 8 spots (and in front of the Giants). Green Bay dropped 6 spots and the Saints, who lost at home, to a rookie QB playing in his first NFL game both are ranked in front of NYG.
Pro Football Talk – 7(2)
"They’ll be sliding more than five spots per week if they can’t find four (or five) defensive backs that can cover receivers."
This is the clear-cut theme for New York, and it should be. The other issues form week one, expect the Giants to clean up (Cruz dropping balls, rookie fumbles, lack of continuity on the O-Line). The secondary though, that may be a mess not even Tom Coughlin can mop up. Where the Giants fall in these power rankings again makes sense, its tough to make an argument against the teams ranked ahead of them.
Side Note: Who saw the Philadelphia game? What a joke, first off thanks Cleveland, all you had to do was stop one drive and you couldn’t do it. With that being said, Michael Vick looked scary bad. Andy Reid continues to try and preserve, and make Vick something he’s not, a drop-back, pocket passer. His completion percentage was terrible and he threw four interceptions, and by the way they were playing Cleveland. I understand that it’s week one but this issue stems back to when Vick started going under center in Philly. He’s not that type of QB. He’s too inaccurate and too small to sit back there. When they do stray way from this, and Vick does roll out, exposing himself to yet another injury, I hope Jason Pierre-Paul is sitting, waiting, hungry.
Check back next Wednesday for Week 2 review.