Aching Giants must put hurt on opponents

Aching Giants must put hurt on opponents
December 16
New York Daily News columnist Mike Lupica
"You can start here with the Giants, or at least what the Giants have become lately: If they lose to the Panthers at home Sunday night that makes it three losses in a row. And you know how many teams have lost three in a row in December and then gone on to win the Super Bowl? None, that's how many.

The Giants need to get their groove back now, play with the sense of "urgency" the great Justin Tuck talked about Monday. The Giants need to look like the best team in the league again on Sunday night, if they can do that without Plaxico Burress and - perhaps - without Brandon Jacobs. And maybe without their offensive right tackle, Kareem McKenzie, too. Kevin Gilbride, the offensive coordinator, got a lot of love last season. Now Gilbride needs to come up with a new plan, one that works around the team he has, not the one he used to have.

We heard that it was all right that the Giants lost to the Eagles because the Eagles were such a desperate team. And a lot of smart guys were picking the Cowboys on Sunday night because everybody knows how desperate the Cowboys are. Maybe it's time the Giants started playing with a little more desperation, so it doesn't look as if the road loss that mattered most this season was the one at the Latin Quarter.

"I think they can win without Burress," one NFL coach said Monday. "But I don't see how they can win without Jacobs."

Plaxico Burress is gone, maybe forever. They didn't have Jacobs against the Cowboys, and it isn't sure they'll have him against the Panthers. McKenzie left the Cowboys game with a back injury and the Giants won't know about him until later in the week. This is no longer the team we saw win it all in Arizona. Isn't the team we were seeing a month ago, one that was going to roll through everybody on its way to Tampa.

Tom Coughlin praised his defense when it was over Sunday night and the Cowboys had won, 20-8. But if you watched the game you know that when the Cowboys needed to run the ball at the end, they did whatever they wanted. The week before, the Giants did nothing to stop Brian Westbrook. And Eli Manning got sacked eight times at Texas Stadium. And the Giants didn't score a touchdown, one week after the only one they got on offense came against the Eagles at garbage time."
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