BRANDON WEEDEN: A Giant target. (The Plain Dealer /Landov)
Osi Umenyiora is in his 10th season and has played alongside plenty of talent from future Hall of Famer Michael Strahan to the youthful Jason Pierre-Paul. He knows excellence and he knows mediocrity and he knows the Giants defensive line hasn’t been living up to the lofty standards it has set for itself.
“There’s no excuses,” Umenyiora said yesterday. “They pay us to do a job. They pay us to stop the run and get after the quarterback and we have to find a way of doing a better job of that.”
Umenyiora will make $6 million this year. Justin Tuck will earn $4.8 million and Jason Pierre-Paul will pocket $2.2 million. But the Giants haven’t gotten much for their money thus far in 2012.
The Giants (2-2) have eight sacks this year, which after four games doesn’t suggest the kind of impact the heralded pass rush was supposed to have this season. But as they prepare to face the winless Browns (0-4) tomorrow at MetLife Stadium, it’s time for the Giants defensive line to dominate a game that’s more critical than it might seem.
In a month that includes road games at San Francisco and at Dallas, the Giants can ill afford a letdown tomorrow, which means the defensive front must give a Giant NFL welcome to rookie quarterback Brandon Weeden. This is the game where Umenyiora, Pierre-Paul and Tuck need to reverse what has been an underwhelming start to a season in which they were proclaimed the most dominant defensive front in football. If they’re the best front it football. It’s time for them to show it. “We have to find a way to get there,” Umenyiora said.
There’s no doubt offenses have used creative protection schemes to stall the Giants pass rush this year. They’re utilizing more quick passes, more chip blocks by backs, and more slot protection from tight ends. But as Umenyiora put it: “Does that matter?” Not with this group.
You wouldn’t have suspected the defensive line might be an area that suffered from a Super Bowl hangover. But maybe that’s part of the problem. The Giants always perform best when there’s a chip on their shoulder. But all through the offseason and into this season, the Giants defensive line has been lavished with praise for their performance during the run to the Super Bowl.
Human nature suggests it’s hard to channel the same kind of desire, motivation and determination when you already have achieved the ultimate. Maybe now the Giants are tired of being average. Pierre-Paul, who has just 1.5 sacks, said he’s not having as much fun as he did last year, when he totaled 16.5 sacks. Tuck is still without a sack this season. What’s fun about that?
Sacks numbers don’t always serve as a measure for success or failure, but considering the numbers the Giants posted last year, this slow start is startling, though Umenyiora, who has two sacks, isn’t ready to point fingers.
“We’re not really getting that many opportunities to rush the quarterback,” he said. “So once we start getting those opportunities and we’re not having the impact on the game that we’re supposed to, then I’ll know that we’re not playing well.”
You would think facing a rookie quarterback on a winless team would offer a pretty good litmus test. Weeden, a first round draft pick from Oklahoma State, has been sacked nine times and has a quarterback rating of 60.4 percent. If the Giants can get a big lead early, then the pass rush may finally have an impact.
“Obviously, we have a lot of pride and lot of heart,” Umenyiora said. “We know how to focus and how to fight through adversity.”
It might seem premature to question, “What have you done for us lately,” from a unit that produced so much last year. But adversity is about to hit the fan if they don’t beat the Browns.