New York Giants: Perhaps We've Been Overestimating Them All Along

Ok, so it’s a little shocking that after a 5-0 start to the season, the Giants proceeded to lose five of their next six games.

And it’s nothing short of astonishing how the Giants were out-scored 85-16 over the past two weeks.  College basketball teams give up fewer points in two games than the Giants defense managed to allow.

Fellow Giants fans, we never saw this one coming…but we probably should have.  

The Giants are just two years removed from their miraculous 2007 Super Bowl run.  However, their 2007 run was just that, a miraculous one-month run to the Super Bowl.

Needless to say, winning a Super Bowl is no easy task.  However, winning a Super Bowl often has a lot to do with a team getting hot at precisely the right time of the year, which is exactly what happened for the Giants back in 2007.

But miraculous four-week Super Bowl run aside, what have the Giants really accomplished since 2006?

They have given us nothing more than two .500 seasons (in '06 and '09) and a first round playoff exit (in '08).

In essence, we have more or less been dealing with nothing more than an above average football team over the past four years…an above average team that managed to catch fire during one four-week stretch in January of 2008. 

That 2007 Super Bowl run was so gratifying to all of us Giant fans that we completely overlooked the fact that the Giants have gone 38-26 over the past four years.

Good, but by no means spectacular.

Had we not still had our heads buried in the 2007 Super Bowl run we might have seen the writing displayed on the wall as clear as day, and it would have read “a slightly above average football team” in letters the size of the new Dallas Cowboys’ video screen.

Sheridan has been shown the door.

Coughlin is now on the hot seat and Kevin “Old Predictable” Gilbride is sitting on a large pile of red hot coal.

The defense was a disaster in 2009.

We are lacking a legitimate all-purpose running back.

The offensive line was tossed around like rag dolls for most of the season.

And Eli is, well, either Dr. Jekyll or Mr. Hyde depending upon which way the wind is blowing on any given day.

What happened with the Giants in 2009 was that a slightly above average football team had a few injuries and got into a slump.

It’s as simple as that.

Why?

Because we were never dealing with a great football team to begin with.