The Battle For The Meadowlands: New York Giants Look To Bounce Back

The New York Giants are looking to wash the bad taste of the preseason game in Chicago last week. A game that saw countless three and outs, embarrassing offensive line play, and a defense that didn't look as dominant as they should.

Jay Cutler drove up and down the field in that game, leading two scoring drives and another that ended in a field goal.

I wouldn't put much stock in the game, seeing as how nearly half the defense and the starting two offensive guards participated in the action as much as you and I did.

This week is always the most important game in terms of evaluating the first string players.

For each organization, it will also be a memorial for the last time these two will play in Giants stadium against each other, as they have for the last 40 years in the pre-season.

For the Giants and for fans watching, we will more than likely be privy to who is going to occupy the starting wide reciever positions.

The wide receivers have been blowing up at camp, but they haven't really translated that into much success on the field. The first drive in the Carolina game went well, but it was mostly on the shoulders of Brandon Jacobs and Ahmad Bradshaw. After that, the starters left the game.

If the guys vying for jobs want to make any sort of progress, the third preseason game is the venue to do it.

Eli Manning is excited about the prospect of playing against the Jets' pressure defense:

"The Jets are going to have a complex blitz package," Manning said. "We are going to have to watch film and probably have some more game preparation than we have these last few weeks for this preseason game. A lot of times we just kind of go into our base plays and you have to adjust. This week we'll do a little bit more preparing for the Jets and their schemes. So we hope to go out there and play well because we know as the first group this will be kind of our last game preparation. In the last preseason game we only play about a series."

Another interesting aspect of this game is that some of the players who have been sitting out will get an opportunity to stretch their game legs finally.

Coach Tom Coughlin said that all the big men in the middle—defensive tackles Rocky Bernard and Fred Robbins, and offensive guards Chris Snee and Rich Seubert—will play tonight.

Kenny Philips will be back, but Aaron Ross and Antonio Pierce will sit this one out. The Giants will probably struggle on defense without their captain, but look at it this way, it's a chance for Chase Blackburn to shine in the middle.

We may finally get a chance to see the defensive package with Osi Umenyiora, Justin Tuck, and Mathias Kiwanuka on the field at the same time; a package that worked so well in 2007 with Michael Strahan. I feel sorry for Mark Sanchez.

So while I made all these points as to why the third game is so important, I still contend that I will not be worried if the team struggles again. Hopefully it won't get to that point.