A Giant Problem in The Meadowlands

It is every quarterbacks dream to have their wide receivers matched up in single man-to-man coverage. Not Eli Manning's.

The Cardinals played man coverage virtually all night, daring the Giants receivers to beat them and they just couldn't do it. Early in the first half Domenik Hixon was running a deep post with Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie playing man on his outside when Eli threw a strike down the field only to find Rodgers-Cromartie out jumping and over powering Hixon to come up with the interception.

In the fourth quarter Mario Manningham blew past his man coverage and snuck outside the safety when Eli Manning threw a perfect ball hitting Manningham between the numbers to watch him drop the ball.

On the final drive of the game Eli threw a high ball to Steve Smith and at first it looked as though he had complete possession of the ball, that is until Antrel Rolle came up from behind and pried the ball from Smith's hands for the final turnover of the game.

Now, I am not saying that the Giant's receivers are completely to blame for their loss to the Cardinals (Giving up 60 yards in penalties and having Ahmad Bradshaw fumble with 3 minutes left in the game never helps) but the Giants wide receivers simply did not come to play tonight. The only big play that a wide receiver made was when Hakeem Nicks caught a ball that was tipped by Rodgers-Cromartie and took it 62 yards to the house with two minutes left in the first half.

Up until this point in the season I thought the Giants wide recievers were looking great and no one has even mentioned the absence of Plaxico Burress. But in the past two games the Giants recievers just haven't been making plays on the ball.

If something isn't changed soon teams will continue stacking the box to slow the Giants two headed rushing attack of Brandon Jacobs and Ahmad Bradshaw and with the Giants next four games coming against the Eagles, Chargers, Falcons, and Broncos the Giants offense could be in for some tough times.