New York Giants: Analyzing the Giants D Without Osi Umenyiora

While the New York Giants defense took a big hit last night with the season-ending injury to starting cornerback Terrell Thomas, it was another player's absence that was more notable.

The Giants' tumultuous offseason with disgruntled defensive end Osi Umenyiora appears to have cost himself his starting place with the team. However last night's performance against the Chicago Bears may have encouraged them a bit more to try to please the injured edge rusher.

Despite the fact that the Chicago Bears gave up 52 sacks last season, and nine in one half against the Giants, the supposedly stacked Giants pass rush only registered one sack.

That sack came from linebacker Jonathan Goff.

Neither starting defensive ends Justin Tuck or Jason Pierre-Paul managed to get their hands on Jay Cutler in the backfield.

Pierre-Paul was facing off against J'Marcus Webb predominantly and failed to register a single tackle. He made very little impact on the game after starring against the much more reputable Jordan Gross in the first week of the preseason.

Tuck had three tackles but he also had a favorable matchup with rookie Gabe Carimi. There isn't any real reason to worry about Tuck as he is a six-year veteran and it was a preseason game. Carimi would have been much hungrier than him during last night's game.

However if Pierre-Paul is to replace Umenyiora's impact he needs to be proving that he can at every opportunity. There was no excuse for Pierre-Paul not to make a greater impact in last night's game.

Of course every player can have a bad game, Umenyiora certainly had a few, but it is worrying that the second-year player didn't take advantage of the better matchup with Webb. Pierre-Paul has the potential to be an all around better player than Umenyiora but with the injuries mounting up in the team's secondary, the Giants will need the best available pass rush.

With Terrell Thomas and Prince Amukamara suddenly sidelined simultaneously, the Giants must turn to Aaron Ross to start across from Corey Webster. Ross is a former starter but at best has been inconsistent so far this year.

The Giants have the other option of going back to starting three safeties but realistically that would hurt the team.

In order to cover these frailties on the back end the Giants will need to get a more consistent pass rush from their defensive ends or cave in to Osi Umenyiora with a new deal.

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