It's Too Early To Sack Giants' Super Shot

It's Too Early To Sack Giants' Super Shot
0 Comment December 18 New York Post columnist Jay Greenberg
" THE Giants lost two of their three best offensive players and, duh, the points dried up. So did the praise for their renowned depth, which now looks as ordinary as the team did against Philadelphia and Dallas.

None of the Giants receivers ever will get open again. The same offensive line that won a Super Bowl is now proving to have been overrated all along, and the team clearly is overmatched by the one coming to town Sunday night to steal away the home-field advantage and NFC berth in the Super Bowl.

Never mind that such home-field advantage meant nothing last January, not even in minus-20 wind chills. Never mind the fact that the Panthers have yet to beat a winning team on the road. Go ahead and panic in the streets, Giants fans, because the more you fret, the more motivated your team will become.

Write this down: Now that it has become trendy to write the Giants off, assuming Brandon Jacobs plays, they are going to win this game, largely because they have become sick and tired of being considered sick and tired.

Now, that won't guarantee the Giants will go back to the Super Bowl, because the Cowboys and Eagles haven't gone away, and the Panthers won't either.

"In the Olympics, getting in lane 4 and 5 doesn't mean you are going to win the gold medal," Carolina coach John Fox said yesterday.

More important, probably, is the fact that a third straight December loss has never in the history of the NFL become the route of champions. Particularly at a point of the season, where contenders come on and pretenders die, one week's mess often becomes the next week's inspiration.

"There's not as big a difference between teams as you think," Fox said. And because humans are humans and not chess pieces, it becomes too easy to assume that what succeeded against a good team one game will work the following one.

Granted, Antonio Pierce, the defensive leader trying to get the Giants to, pardon the expression, cowboy up, hasn't played worth a damn since he got all lawyered up. Granted, the removal of the burden of doubling Plaxico Burress changes things.

But even with him in the lineup, the Cowboys successfully pressed coverage (119 Manning passing yards) in the Giants' 35-14 win at Giants Stadium, an indication that while the loss of Burress surely hurts, the absence of Jacobs has been the real killer."
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