Patriots vs. Giants: New England's Defense Will Struggle Against Eli Manning

New York Giants quarterback Eli Manning has certainly done his part in living up to his bold claim to being an elite quarterback prior to the start of the season. 

Manning has posted a solid 102.1 quarterback rating thus far, which ranks as third best in the league. He has thrown for 2,127 yards, 13 touchdowns and only five interceptions, completing a stellar 64.7 percent of his passes—which Manning ranks seventh best of great in each of those stats. 

There is no question that Manning is playing at an elite level in 2011. 

Entering Sunday's matchup against the Giants, the New England Patriots pass defense has been anything but elite. They have been flat out non-elite. In fact, they have been the NFL's worst. The Patriots come into the weekend giving up an average of 323.1 yards per game—34.2 more yards than the 31st-ranked Green Bay Packers. 

With the Patriots having the worst pass defense in the league, and Manning and the Giants having the league's fourth-best passing attack, this matchup could mean huge problems for Bill Belichick and the Patriots. 

However, while New England's pass defense appears to be terrible on paper, their overall team defense isn't as bad. They're allowing an average of 22.9 points per game, which is 17th best in the NFL.

The lone strength to New England's rather mediocre defense is their bendability; their ability to prevent touchdowns while allowing only field goals.

The team's defense has certainly been good enough this season as the Patriots sit at 5-2. However, their bend-but-don't-break philosophy was the death of them last week against the Pittsburgh Steelers.

Mike Tomlin's team ran up and down the field on the Patriots and kept Tom Brady and his offense off the field. Ultimately, that was the reason why New England left Pittsburgh with a loss. The Steelers accumulated 427 yards, controlled the entire game and held onto the ball for an incredible 39 minutes and 22 seconds. 

New England's defense did a quality job of forcing Pittsburgh to attempt four field goals. However, by doing so, they allowed the Steelers to control the entire tempo and pace of the game. 

If the Patriots are going to be able to beat the Giants, they're simply going to have to improve their third-down defense. What they need to do is get off the field so Brady and the NFL's third-best offense can do what they do best. That is, score points. 

For more articles like this, check out PatriotsPlus.net.