New York Giants: No Need To Reach For The Panic Button Just Yet

There’s no need to send an angry mob out after Eli Manning.

Ripping your brand new, $125 Brandon Jacobs jersey to threads would be a waste of time, energy and money.

And we’re still at least two weeks away from calling for Tom Coughlin’s head.  Even though Coughlin led the team to a Super Bowl victory less than two years ago, this is New York, the impatient sports-fan capital of the world.  

But before we begin searching for our pitchforks, let’s all just take a deep breath and relax.

The Giants are 5-2; are still leading the NFC East; and are only seven games into a 16-game season.  

Are the last two weeks cause for concern?

Of course.

Three weeks ago, the Giants were considered by many to be the best team in the NFC.  Now, they’re one loss away from sharing the NFC East lead with the Eagles.  

However, this is the NFL.  This is not college football, where one loss can literally end your season.

Last year the Cardinals made it to the Super Bowl with a 9-7 regular season record.   

Two years ago, the Giants went 10-6 during the regular season before going on to defeat the undefeated Patriots in Super Bowl XLII.

The most concerning issue facing the Giants right now is their young, inexperienced receiving core.

Even though Eli may earn more money than his older, more accomplished brother, he will never be Peyton.

Eli cannot, and should not, be depended upon to single-handedly carry a football team.

You can slap the number "84" on the back of a Colts offensive lineman and Peyton will still find a way to get him the football.

This is simply not something Eli can do.

Eli is a very good NFL quarterback.  He’s just not one of those rare, once-in-a-generation quarterbacks that can toss a mediocre offense upon their back and carry them to the Super Bowl.

Before we go any further, let’s identify the elephant in the room here – Plaxico Burress.

Two years ago, Manning could toss the ball up anywhere in the vicinity of Burress and have at least some degree of confidence that the 6-foot-6 Burress would come down with it. 

He also had Amani Toomer as a second option, which isn’t to shabby considering that Toomer was one of the Giants' all-time best possession receivers.  

This year?

Well, Manning has to let the ball fly while having no idea whether or not his young receivers will even run the correct routes.

On two consecutive downs during the second quarter of last week’s game against the Cardinals, Manning threw the football in one direction while Mario Manningham ran in a completely different one.

Whether it was quarterback or receiver that ran the wrong play is completely irrelevant.  The fact is that there was a complete breakdown in communication on two consecutive plays.

This is not something you’d expect to see from a high-school football team, let alone from a team that many are still expecting to make a run at the Super Bowl.  

Plain and simple, the Giants young receivers are learning on the fly and we’d be naive to expect them to miraculously develop into veterans between last Sunday’s loss to Arizona and this week’s divisional game against Philadelphia.

In the meantime, the Giants still have those two running backs that used to carry their fair share of the offensive load…what are their names again?

Oh yeah, Brandon Jacobs and Ahmad Bradshaw.

Highest-paid quarterback in the league or not, perhaps it’s time to transfer at least some of the weight over to the running game.