Week 3: Giants at Panthers

What a disaster of a game. I mean it’s the Hindenburg, Titanic, and Here Comes Honey Boo Boo all rolled into one flaming, sinking, butter smothered ball. I didn’t think it could get much worse for the Giants after the beat down they got from Denver, but I was wrong. Oh so wrong.

"Ohh the humanity!"

I’m not going to bother with a game recap. It’ll only make me upset and annoyed. Here are some thoughts: The Giants were outplayed in every way by the Panthers. The Panthers came out firing on all cylinders, and the Giants came out flat. The Giants made stupid mistakes and committed stupid penalties. The Panthers played smart and tough. Basically, the Panthers played like they wanted to win more.

This was one of the worst beatings that Eli has taken in his career. If I remember correctly, he got sacked forty-eight times in the first half. Well, at least that’s what it seemed like.

David Wilson and company couldn’t get anything started either. The only time the running game did something, it was taken away by a penalty.

To make matters worse, Giants’ fullback Henry Hynoski, the Hynocerous, has fractured shoulder and is going to miss the rest of the season. However, the addition of fullback John “The Terminator” Connor should be helpful to the team.

The offensive line got destroyed on Sunday. The Panthers front seven ripped through them just like Hulk Hogan ripped through all of those Hulkamania shirts before a match. There was no time for Eli to make plays, and there were no holes created for the running game.

Whatcha gonna do, brother, when the defensive line runs wild on you!?

The defense held on for as long as they could. But, eventually, the levees broke and the Panthers offense, led by Cam Newton, started pouring it on.

So what have I learned?

Blowouts are pretty common between these two teams. In 2006, the Panthers beat the Giants 23-0. In 2009, the Panthers beat the Giants 41-9. Last year the Giants beat the Panthers 36-7. And we all saw how this game panned out.

Okay, this is way worse than getting sacked every play.

It was tough seeing Eli looking so dejected. He’s usually got the bumpkin country face going for him, but on the sidelines he looked like a kid who was sent to his room without ice cream. Can’t say I blame him. Standing behind center for this game must have felt the same as standing in the landing crafts that were about to storm the beaches of Normandy.

Maybe Coughlin should be on the chopping block. The teams always seems to band together when there are rumblings of Coughlin getting canned. Honestly, with the way this season’s going, he might be.

Jerry Reese should shoulder some of the blame for the lack of success by the Giants. Being the GM, he hasn’t done a good job with making the defense stronger, and he hasn’t done much to help rebuild an aging offensive line. I understand it’s a tough task to achieve this with Giants constantly struggling to be under the salary cap. But defensively they’ve only added underachieving or injury prone players, and the only good addition to the o-line is the drafting of Justin Pugh.

"Yeaaah, I'm gonna need you to turn your season around ASAP. Mmmkay?"

We might have to accept the fact the Giants just might not be that good. They need to turn things around quickly, but truthfully, the problems might be so deep that they can’t turn it around.

Their next game against Kansas City isn’t necessarily a must win because it’s only September, so it’s more of a “Bill Lumbergh” game. In other words, it’s a “hey, if you could go ahead and win on Sunday, that would be great” game. Once you go 0-4 it’s a tough road back to relevance. But
remember, it’s still a close division, and it will be for the season. Anything can happen, but why chance it?