Giants: 6-6

Most of the enthused Giants fans I speak to are very positive about the prospects of the season now. Somehow it  has turned around with the effort against the Packers and they are confident that the Giants will beat the Cowboys this Sunday night. I wish I could share their confidence, and I am as much of a fan as the next guy, but let's face facts. Giants are a mediocre team. A wise old Giants coach once said you are what your record says you are, and the Giants at 6-6 define mediocrity.

Here's the thing though - there are many paths to mediocrity. You can be mediocre by having most of your team mediocre - average OL, average skill position players, average QB, average defense.... you get the idea. Overall freakin' average. But there is another way to be swallowed up into mediocrity. You can have some excellence in various parts of your team that is limited by various flaws and weaknesses that bring it down. The games you win are when the weak parts of your team are not exposed by a strength of the opponent, or the weakness steps up a notch and does not kill the team, allowing the excellence on the team to overcome the weakness. I suggest that this latter description is actually the state of affairs with the Giants. The Giants at 6-6 are mediocre, but not mediocre everywhere on this team. They have excellent WRs and a very good RB when he stays on the field. Their OL has been decent. Of course you know what I think of the QB - he is one of the best in the league. On the defensive side, they have superior talent on the DL, some good players in the back 7, but definitely some exposures and weakness back there, without much depth. You could certainly argue that many of the games the Giants won this year were because the weak parts of the team did just enough to keep the Giants in the game and the superior parts, i.e the QB and the passing game, won it at the end.

The hope for the Giants, if you're a glass-is-half-full kind of guy, is that the DB field will get a little better as Amukamara plays better. Further, you would hope that the LBs will be a little better with Boley back, with the addition of Blackburn and with the continued maturation of some of the young LBs, especially Williams. That's the hope, but the reality might bring us down and disappoint us.