Giants: look ahead to the Packers

Looked at the weater forecast for the weekend for East Rutherford NJ on weather.com. Saturday is supposed to be mostly sunny and Sunday is supposed to be partly cloudy. I am not quite sure what the difference between those two forecasts are. Anyway - the reason I checked is because maybe if there were gale force winds, the Giants defense could prevent Rodgers from throwing for 500 yards. But then again, Giants would only be able to run the ball for about 2.2 yards per carry. Oh wait - Bradshaw might come back... make that 2.3 yards per carry.

I know Ballard has done well and everybody likes him, but Giants need more speed on the field. Especially with Manningham out, I would use Barden a little more. Maybe even throw Beckum his second pass of the year. Pascoe is not such a great blocker that replacing him with Beckum would cripple the Giants sparkling running game. When you are up against a superior opponent, you can not play safe. That is the time to be bold and to gamble a little bit. Cruz and Nicks on the field are great. But if Pascoe, Ballard and Hynoski are on the field with them, defense of Packers just won't be threatened. Use Beckum more and actually try throwing him the ball. Use Barden more in 3-WR looks.Maybe to get the running game going, Giants should spread the field a little with 3 and 4 WR looks and let the RB find some space. Instead, when Giants want to run, they bring in Stacey Andrews as an extra TE. Really fools them. Maybe Andrews will run a wheel route this Sunday.

Giants all but telegraphed that the defense will be gambling and blitzing on Sunday. That's fine, but maybe they shouldn't have said so in the papers and warned the Packers to prepare for it. Coughlin said on Tuesday that the Giants DL has not been getting after the QB, so they may need to pressure and blitz more. Then Fewell said both yesterday and in today's papers that he was steamed - that they're going after the QB, that if he gets away from the pressure, so be it, but they're coming after his a$$. Great. Nice strategy, but maybe they should leave something in the game plan as a surprise for Sunday.

I still say that Kiwanuka is misplaced and wasted at LB. They should use JPP and Tuck at DE with Kiwanuka in the rotation and Tollefson getting some snaps also. Herzlich is out and Boley may come back, leaving Giants short at LB, but regardless - Kiwanuka was ineffective against the Saints because of their speed and their passing game and it will be the same this week against the Packers.

Ferwell was steaming because of the perceived lack of effort by the players. If I were a player I would be peeved at the lack of any innovative game planning and trickery by the DC Fewell. Giants play cover-2  man underneath an awful lot and their zone is very vanilla. There's no deception or disguise. I am not sure how good the Giants defense is, but I am sure that everything they earn, every play that they make, they make purely because of talent and athletic ability. They never trick the other offense, confuse the QB or come up with a gift. It's all about winning the 1-on-1 battles and beating up the other guys. As I've said many times - that's the real reason the Giants fall off in the second half of season - lack of creativity by the coaching staff. Once the league catches on to what the Giants are doing, the offense and defense become completely predictable.