I have been polite this preseason. Out of respect for the players, front office, & coaches, I have urged patience and time to let 2014 play itself out. But along the way a few more developments have occurred that are noteworthy:
1) We have not seen any QB pressure from the first string Defensive Line. In particular, JPP has been mostly silent, offering ephemeral half-bursts. Unless he is playing possum (which we will know as soon as the DET game next Monday), you have to take it at face value.
2) The injury to Geoff Schwartz, while not as bad as it could have been, still hurts the Giants. They need him to anchor, at the very least, the left side of the line. By being out 2-3(?) games and not getting the chemistry with his linemates as soon as possible, it delays the opportunity for improvement here in 2014.
3) The Giants roster chose 10 OLmen, not the typical 8. Schwartz, Pugh, Mosley, Beatty, Jerry, Richburg, Brewer, Reynolds, Walton, Brown. Woof. There is only 1 lineman on opening day (Pugh) that I have any confidence in, and he got beat by NYJ Garrett McIntyre, who didn’t even make his team’s roster today.
4) Eli Manning is a very capable franchise QB who can of take the Giants to another Super Bowl title. Yet with that said, he has been slow to learn the new offensive schemes of Ben McAdoo. In time, he will be fine, but here at the start of the 2014 preseason he is a “work in progress.” That’s code for> He is not ready.
5) Ralph Vacchiano spelled it out for the first string offense in so many words.
“If they wanted to play more,” Coughlin said, “they should’ve made some first downs.”
That pretty much sums up the miserable preseason for the Giants’ starting offense, which through five games couldn’t get anything going at all.
6) One thing jumps out re the roster cuts. The Giants generally keep 2 TEs on the roster. This year, they have 3. Somehow, Robinson was kept ahead of Kellen Davis. Jordan Raanan of the Star Ledger infers favoritism toward the Reese Round 4 draft pick from three drafts ago. If Robinson was a Round 7 draft pick or UFA, do you really think he’d still be on the roster in his 3rd year? We wanted Eric Ebron in Round 1. When he was taken before the Giants selected, we wanted Jace Amaro in Round 2. Instead we get a weak committee.
So what does all of this mean? It means we have to take the gloves off and spell it out as bluntly as we can. We do not believe the Giants will win 8 games this season. 8 games is the Las Vegas consensus. Without a consistent pass rush from the Defense, without a competent OL, without a QB who is comfortable with the system, and without a Tight End, we cannot expect the playoffs.
We will leave ourselves with the same out we outlined back in July on the eve of preseason starting… if JPP/Moore can deliver a pass rush and if the Giants offense can improve as the season moves on, then there is still a small hope that the Giants can deliver this season. Hey, that’s why they play the game! So we will root for big giant things. But that is a longshot. Expect the season to be one of rebuilding and no playoffs. Given that Reese brought in lots of free agents with 1 year deals and a win-now urgency, we can infer that many people in the mainstream will not be happy if the Giants miss the playoffs in 2014. While we will not be happy, we are realistic and do not expect it to happen. We will be rooting for Eli, JPP, Moore, and the OL to push through and get the GMen to vie for a title. We just do not see the evidence here as the season commences to believe it will happen. Some people will call that negative. We call it objective. When Tom Coughlin bluntly tells us his offense is not yet ready, we have to respect that. The Giants have a lot of work to do this season.
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