TALL ORDER: Hakeem Nicks, seemingly showing little faith in the Giants defense, said the offense is going to have to be at its best if Big Blue wants to upset the Packers on Sunday. (CSM /Landov)
Given the matchup on tap for the Giants, they are advised to score early and often if they are going to have any shot at staying close to — much less entertaining any notion of knocking off — the NFL’s lone unbeaten team.
“If we’re going to have to go blow-for-blow,’’ receiver Victor Cruz said yesterday, “then that’s how it’s got to go.’’
Attempting to go blow-for-blow with the Packers is probably as smart as trading punches with a young Mike Tyson, but the Giants just might have to live dangerously. The Packers are humming along at a league-high 34.7 points a game and nothing in the Giants’ defensive DNA suggests that average is going to get reduced by even a tenth of a point. Drew Brees, with the greatest of ease, dropped 49 points on the Giants and now comes an even hotter quarterback with an even greater array of weapons at his disposal.
You like the chances Sunday afternoon at MetLife Stadium of the hole-filled Giants linebacker corps and confusion-packed secondary against the laser-like passing of Aaron Rodgers?
“They are a good team,’’ Eli Manning acknowledged, “but if we play our game to the best of our ability and potential, we feel like we can hang with anybody and figure out a way to get the win.’’
Figuring out a way to get the win no doubt starts with figuring out a way to at least 30 points, and even that might not be enough. The Giants must lean on their offense, which at this point in the season has to carry a defense that is having trouble pressuring the quarterback and covering the receivers, an unhealthy combination against anyone and potentially embarrassing against Rodgers. It sure looks as if Manning has got to loosen up his right arm, let it rip and hope the Giants can find their way through a shootout with one more point.
“We’re going to have to put up points,’’ receiver Hakeem Nicks said. “They got a high-scoring offense and they’re going to put up numbers so we got to make sure we put up numbers to stay with them. ‘’
Mario Manningham, the usual starter opposite Nicks, isn’t going to play with an ongoing knee issue. Perhaps Ahmad Bradshaw returns to add spark to the ground game. No matter who or how, the Giants are going to need points aplenty, and it is possible to score on the Packers. They’ve allowed 23 points to the Panthers, 27 to the Vikings, 38 to the Chargers and 26 to the Buccaneers, and in all those games it wasn’t the case of tag-on points at the end of a rout.
The Packers have a load of playmakers on defense, led by linebacker Clay Matthews and cornerbacks Charles Woodson and Tramon Williams. The Packers lead the league, by a wide margin, in interceptions with 22 and they’ve returned three for touchdowns.
But impenetrable they are not. The Packers are yielding 105.5 yards a game on the ground and an average of 4.9 yards per rushing attempt. They’ve allowed 19 touchdown passes — the Giants have allowed 16. The Packers are surprisingly-weak on third down, with their defense allowing conversions at a rate of 43.4 percent.
“They have given up some plays over 20 yards in the pass game, something we can all take note of,’’ Tom Coughlin said.
“In the secondary they give up a lot of big plays and we see that, ‘’ added Cruz, who is averaging 17.4 yards per catch and is just 33 yards shy of a 1,000-yard receiving season. “We got some things put in to kind of take advantage of that and hopefully it will be a good one on Sunday.’’
The Giants look as if they are coming off a resounding offensive performance in New Orleans, but in reality their best work came after the game was already decided. For all the yardage (465) and passing exploits it cannot be forgotten that Manning was able to muster only three points in the first half, continuing a recent trend of sluggish starts. The Giants haven’t scored a touchdown in the first half of the past four games.
“I think we need to come out and kind of jump on them early,’’ Cruz said. “Not wait ’till we’re down a few touchdowns to kind of start battling back because that’s going to be hard to do against them.’’