To Plaxico, Or Not To Plaxico: That Is The Question

Okay, we all know that Plaxico Burress was an asset to the Giants and a deep threat that clearly softened up opposing defenses for our running game...Yeah, I get it.

But lets look at the facts. The Giants are/were a very solid team with out Plaxico.

I think that the statistic that continues to get blown out of proportion is that “Post Plaxico, the Giants went 2-3”. Yes it’s true, the offense became more one-dimensional, and only threw 2 touchdowns in the final four games.  But I want to dive in to the true effectiveness of the entire team without Plaxico Burress and try to point out where I see the areas of breakdown are. 

Let’s look at the games that Burress did not play to see how effective the Giants were without him.

Week 5: (no Plax) win over the 1-2 Seahawks; The Giants racked up 523 yards in total offense and limited Seattle to 187 in a 42-12 victory. Eli was 19 for 25 with 267 yards and two TDs. Carr was sent in to finish the Seahawks off and threw another TD. Hixon caught 4 passes for 102 yards and Toomer caught 4 for 64 yards. Jacobs ran 15 times for 136 yards and Brawshaw ran 11 times for 65 yards. Giants controlled the clock for 36:28. A well played game on both sides of the ball.

Week 13: (no Plax) win over the 7-4 Redskins (23-7); Eli threw 21/34 for 305 yards, and our backfield ran for a total of 108 yards. Toomer was 5/85 yards and both Ward and Hixon caught 5 for 75 and 71, respectively. Giants O was on the field for 35:44 and had 404 yards vs the Skins’ 24:16/320.

Week 14: (no Plax) loss to the Eagles (20-14); Eli was 13/27 for 123 yards, the rushing game was held to a terrible 88 yards total. The Eagles had a total of 331 yards of offense – their time of possession was 34:54 vs Giants 211/25:06.  Note: Brian Dawkins was used as an additional LB as the Free Safety was not needed due to the lack of a deep threat.

Week 15: (no Plax) loss to the Cowboys (20-8); T.O.P. was about the same (30:32 vs 29:28). Eli was 18/35 for 191 yards with two INTs. Romo was 20/30 for 244 with none. Eli was sacked 8 times. The Demarcus Ware was a beast, plain and simple. With all of this, the giants were still in the game with 2:16 to play (down by a TD) when Tashard Choice broke a 38 yard scamper in to the endzone. This was not a well played game on either side of the ball.

Week 16: (no Plax) win over the Panthers (34-28); The G