The Giants have been eager to say they are at their best when their backs are against the wall, but Antonio Pierce wants to know where their heads are at.
The former Giants linebacker-turned-ESPN analyst called out his one-time teammates for relying too much on the success they had last season when they won their final six games, ending with a victory over the Patriots in Super Bowl XLVI.
The 8-6 Giants, tied with the Redskins and Cowboys atop the NFC East, have essentially put themselves in that same must-win position following last Sunday’s 34-0 drubbing at the hands of the Falcons.
“I really do think they are a team that’s mentally drained right now,” Pierce said of the team that will look to save its season with a win in Baltimore on Sunday.
“Coach [Tom] Coughlin is preaching mental toughness, and I don’t know if they can say they have that right now. They are a team that is not as strong as in years past, as far as being mentally tough.”
Time and again, Giants players have pointed to the fact they did not play their best football last season until they absolutely had to.
“My concern with the Giants is them constantly talking about what they’ve done in the past,” said Pierce, who was on the 2007 Super Bowl team. “They are looking in the rear-view mirror, thinking they can always rely on that. Our backs are against the wall, this is the way we like it, and after [Sunday’s] performance — an embarrassing, slap-in-the-face loss — I didn’t see any players out there that played like everything really mattered at that time.”
In Pierce’s eyes, it goes beyond the mental makeup of the team. The Giants rode a ferocious defensive line last season — and in 2007 — that constantly pressured quarterbacks and made up for a mediocre secondary. The secondary remains mediocre and injury-riddled, but up front Pierce sees a scheme that has become stagnant and predictable under defensive coordinator Perry Fewell.
Last year, led by Jason Pierre-Paul’s 16 1/2 , the Giants had 48 sacks. They have 32 this season.
“Opponents studied and figured out ways to block these guys and slow them up,” Pierce said. “So, I don’t see the defensive coordinator being as creative, coming up with different designs to free them up. Because JPP, after the success he had last year, you knew he would not get single coverage. He would get double-teamed, triple-teamed.
“Honestly, [Justin] Tuck has not been Tuck for three years now. And Osi [Umenyiora] is a situational pass-rusher. He comes in on the third down and he makes plays. But, for the most part as a group, they are being asked to make plays without any more creativity.”
If that doesn’t change against the fading Ravens, who are looking to lock up the AFC North, the Giants season could go the way of 2009 and 2010 when fast starts turned into second-half collapses.
“You come off back-to-back years without being in the playoffs and then you win a Super Bowl and things change,” Pierce said. “Year in and year out, things change. Every year with coach Coughlin we had a different slogan. This year’s team has to stick to that and not regurgitate what they’ve been able to do in the past.”