Will the Giants win close games without Josh Brown?

According to the bible for football statistics, Pro-Football-Reference.com, it is doubtful that the New York Giants can win close games without the reliable kicking leg of Josh Brown.

Josh Brown has not only been a reliable kicker for every team he has played on in his career. He was always a calming presence for a team that has looked shaky and unsure of itself in the last two seasons.

According to Pro-Football-Reference.com, Josh Brown has made 11 field goals and attempted 12. His efforts have allowed the Giants to defat Dallas, New Orleans and Baltimore.

As NPR contributing writer Frank Deford complains of an unfair almost automatic three points, how will the Giants’ offense be able to win games where the spread is three or less?

"OK, field goals first.  They’re too easy to make.  For some time now, in the NFL, kickers have been succeeding on more than four out of every five field goal attempts –– and, of course, extra points are pointless because they’re so seldom missed that they’re beside the point.But field goals. I don’t know exactly at what percentage it is when something in sport is so easy that it becomes too good for the good of the game, but certainly 80 percent is way too high"

Josh Brown’s FGM% is 91.7% which might be might cause Deford to go on about how much he thinks there should be a rule change by the next decade.

In all seriousness, the Giants will use a 26 year-old Randy Bullock with no experience so far this season. Worse is the fact that this second-string player must play in the most foreign conditions in a strange county where American football is as popular to Britons as inter-collegiate summer baseball.

There are the usual keys to victory the Giant can follow. You can almost visualize McAdoo standing before a whiteboard in a conference room circling repeatedly with a red dry erase marker, saying “Eli, expect the Rams’ pass rush to be stronger compared to last week! Odell: don’t expect the secondary to give up the slant route so easily this time around!”

Another way to approach the Rams is to take advantage of an option that Eli has not exercised much this season. That is the duo of Rashad Jennings and Bobby Rainey ever since Shane Vereen’s tricep injury. There is also the trio of Sterling Sheppard, who was so impressive in the first two wins of the season, along with Beckham and Cruz, who Rotowire.com has reached a consensus has not proven he has fully recovered from last season’s injury.

Defensively, Janoris Jenkins and the strong defensive line led by axon  Pierre Paul will keep the Rams in check to prevent Carson Wentz and Todd Gurley from making the Giants look as bad as Aaron Rodgers and Sam Bradford did against the Giants with their league leading? wideouts a their best.

Giants fans: hold your breath when it comes to 4th and 1s with the Giants trailing by more than a touchdown in the third or fourth quarter. This time around, extra points and field goals won’t be a given. If the Giants do manage to win against the “Dustbowl Rams” in Twickenham this year, maybe fans will be more forgiving of Josh Brown.