Patriots game

Nicks out. Bradshaw out. Baas out. JPP traveled up to Boston, but is listed as doubtful and will be a game time decision.

Barden has been activated off the PUP list and will probably get a lot of work tomorrow. As you all know, Giants offense is not simple and it take WRs a while to learn the reads, the options and the routes to modify on the fly in the face of the defensive configuration. Coaches always talk about giving the QB different looks and switching from a zone look to man or vice versa to confuse the signal caller. In this case, the confusion will probably be more with the WRs than with the QB. Can the QB and his new WRs (Barden and Jernigan) who have not played all year be reasonably expected to be on the same page. Bellichick surely knows this and while the Patriots defense has been weak this year and may not have a lot of talent in the back 7, he surely can switch things up, present different looks and mess up the communication between QB and WRs. We'll see how that goes.

While Boothe did a decent job when he replaced Baas earlier this year, the change tomorrow is more worrisome. That's because, while the Patriots defense has been poor this year and all but one team has passed for 300 yards against them this year, they do have one star player on defense, and he is the NT, Wilfrork. This puts a lot of pressure on Boothe to play well. A DT making penetration up the middle can really disrupt the running game as well as the passing game. It is a match up that bears watching.

All these injuries at key positions, with star players greatly compromises the Giants chances of going up to Foxborough and stealing one.