Wednesday Miscellany

General Wednesday chatter:

If you don't think this is a QB driven league, consider the following. You can argue about exactly who is an elite QB and among the top 5 or 6, who is better than whom, but if you made a list of who the top 5 or 6 QBs in the NFL have been over the last 10 years or so, there's little argument that the list would be: Manning, Manning, Brees, Brady, Rodgers, Roethlisberger. There's also little doubt that Rivers has dropped off the list and that some newcomers knocking on the door, Ryan and Flacco are not quite there yet. So if you stick with that list of 6 top QBs, you might notice that 10 of the last 11 Super Bowls, from 2001 through 2011, have been won by one of these QBs. Enough said.

Kenny Phillips injured his knee again and that is really discouraging to me, considering how careful the Giants were in bringing him back. He was predicted to be out 4 weeks with the original injury, then was kept out 2 weeks extra so he could include the bye week in his rest and rehab. Then he injures the same knee in his first game back? Not good.

I am still bummed out about Andre Brown. I always liked him and thought he had real upside, even back in 2009 when he was first drafted by the Giants in the 4th round. I have talked about my lukewarm feelings for Bradshaw and how I like Brown's style of play better. Bradshaw is a somewhat unconventional RB; he will play hard, twist and turn his body and fight for every yard. His style will let him find yards where there's nothing there. But he will also give up yards when something is there. Brown is bigger and runs harder.

Last year, Antrel Rolle was forced into playing CB over the slot receivers because the Giants were woefully short at CB with all the injuries they suffered. This year, they tried it in the last game because they have an abundance of talent at S when Phillips came back and they like the 3-S alignment. It turns out that Rolle is a very good cover guy on those slot receivers, where their size and speed doesn't overwhelm him, like playing the outside WRs might. If Phillips is out again, they might not be able to play Rolle as the slot cover CB. But he did such a good job, that iif Phillips can't go, I would consider giving Will Hill some snaps at S (not Sash, I just think he's not athletic enough) to release Rolle to play the slot.

Giants still need Nicks to get a little healthier if the passing game is really going to get in gear and if the Giants offense is to progress to reach its potential. He's better, but not all the way back yet.

I have been beating up Diehl on this blog for a while now, but I have to give credit where it's due: he played well against the Packers Sunday night. Maybe he was injured, like the coaches said and he will play a little better the rest of the way through. Unclear how he will handle this injury. We'll see.

In the 4th quarter, I noticed Boothe taking some snaps at C and Cordle moving into his spot and LG. I didn't hear anyone say anything about an injury to Baas, so maybe, with a 4 TD lead,  they were just giving him some rest (he was on the injury report coming into the week with bad elbow).

Late update: to fill the roster shallowness (is that a word?) at RB, Giants signed two RBs: Lumpkin and Torain. Torain used to play for the Redskins, so they may pick his brain a little bit before this upcoming game. I doubt it will help much, because Redskins offense is totally different this year with RGIII at QB than it was last few years. Lumpkin is a bigger body and if he can learn the offense, can be a help in some short yardage plays. Giants short yardage has been poor this year, as it has been last few years; they missed on two 3rd and 1s against the Packers. With Andre Brown out, Giants should spread out the offense and let one of the RBs find a hole instead of trying to blast through with an old school power dive into the line in short yardage.