By Spence | August 27, 2008

This is the first in a recurring series of articles about the NFC East. We know that Redskins fans need to keep up with what’s going on with our division rivals. Today, we tackle the New York Giants, who are facing some tough times.

Last weekend, two NFC East teams saw a starting defensive end — their team’s best pass-rusher, suffer a knee injury. For the Washington Redskins, DE Jason Taylor, who has barely broken in his burguny and gold uniform, writhed in agony on the field in North Carolina. It looked disastrous for a defense that struggled to rush the passer in 2007 and had already lost 2 defensive ends for the season on the first day of training camp. But the news turned out to be much better than expected. Taylor’s knee injury was not too serious and the team announced he would miss 10-14 days. He might even play in the season opener in the Meadowlands against the division rival and reigning Super Bowl champ New York Giants.

For the Giants, though, the news was not so good. Osi Umenyiora, who led the team with 13 sacks last season, will miss the entire year with a knee injury. He will not be available for the season opener against the division rival or, indeed, for any other game this year. New York’s best pass-rusher and best defensive player will not play a down for the Giants in any game that matters this season. Combined with the previous losses of DE Michael Strahan to retirement, as well as LB Kavika Mitchell and S Gibril Wilson to free agency, the Giants will field a very different defense from the one that dominated high-flying offenses like Dallas, Green Bay and New England during the playoffs last season. Not since the Chicago Bears of 1985 has a defense so thoroughly over-matched opponents in the playoffs. Not since then has a defense seemingly won a Super Bowl no matter what the offense was inclined to do. The New York Giants defense of 1990, which also won a Super Bowl, was arguably better than the defense from last year over the course of an entire season. But over 4 weeks of playoff games, last year’s Giants defense wrote itself into the record books as one of the greatest post-season defenses in NFL history.

And history is what it may well feel like to Giants fans when they see their defense this season. In the NFL, where domination in one season earns you exactly nothing in the next season, the New York defense will have its work cut out for it to come close to the performance from last year’s squad. The 2007 New York defense squashed offenses by completely dominating the line of scrimmage. Pass-rushers like Strahan, Umenyiora, and Justin Tuck [who would have been a starting defensive end on any other team], sent wave after wave of pressure at opposing quarterbacks, leaving All Pros like Brett Favre, Tom Brady and Tony Romo looking like chumps. The Giants were not only the best pass-rushing team in the NFL, they were the best by a country mile. The NFL is a passing league and if you can control the opposing quarterback, you will usually win the game. [That's why the Minnesota Adrian Petersons Vikings didn't make the playoffs.]

Concerned about losing not only Strahan [a loss they expected], but Umenyiora, as well, the Giants had some conversations with Michael Strahan about coming out of retirement. It’s not clear how serious those discussions were, considering Strahan had loudly and repeatedly made it clear how much he has been enjoying retirement. [Not to mention that Strahan probably wouldn't have gotten off his couch for less than $10 million for one year. Also not to mention that there is no way of knowing how long it would take Strahan to get into shape or whether he'd be able to stay healthy after essentially taking the offseason off.]

As it turned out, Strahan wisely decided to stay retired and earn a nice living — without the accompanying aches and pains — talking about football instead of playing it. That leaves the Giants pass rush with the aforementioned Justin Tuck — one of the most underrated players of 2008 — and Mathias Kiwanuka, a 265-pound defensive end who was moved to outside linebacker last year. Kiwanuka has a lot of potential and can really move quickly after the passer, particularly off the edge, but he lacks the experience of the other players and his technique is definitely a work in progress. Kiwanuka had 4.5 sacks in 10 games last year before a fractured fibula ended his season, so he can get to the quarterback. The problem is that Kiwanuka got all those sacks while Strahan and Umenyiora [and sometimes Tuck] were on the field. With offenses understandably obsessed with blocking Umenyiora and Strahan, Kiwanuka drew far less attention. That will no longer be the case; every offense will be keying on him and Justin Tuck. Kiwanuka will still get his sacks because he’s a good athlete. However, at 265 pounds, teams are likely to challenge him by running over his position repeatedly to see if he can take the pounding.

The Giants still have some cards to play on defense. They have MLB Antonio Pierce, one of the smartest defenders in the NFL. If Pierce, who is the brains of the defense, is smallish and struggles when blockers get their mitts on him, he is almost never out of position, is a sure tackler, and plays well from sideline to sideline. DT Barry Cofield is a true run-stuffer who can occupy space, but also has the speed to make plays outside the tackles. Cofield is another up-and-comer who hasn’t gotten the attention he deserves because he has played next to bigger names. But as good as he is [and could be], Cofield is not a pass-rusher. Nor is Pierce.

So the Giants will have trouble rushing the passer this season? Well, maybe. It’s unlikely they will match last year’s achievement of 53 sacks, tops in the NFL and 6 more than the Patriots, who finished in second place in sacks and in the Super Bowl. New York may have to shift to more of a bend-but-don’t-break defense that depends less on the big play of a sack and more on just getting offenses off the field after a couple of converted first downs. No team can lose its top two pass-rushers without feeling the effects. The Giants were unlikely to match last year’s sack totals without Strahan. Without Umenyiora, too, it becomes virtually impossibe.

New York still has talented defenders and a defensive coordinator, Steve Spagnuolo, who has correctly been lavished with praise for the work he did with the defense last season. And don’t under-estimate Head Coach Tom Coughlin, who knows how to take adversity such as this and use it to inspire his players. The Giants made the playoffs last year because of their defense and they won the Super Bowl because of their defense. [Yes, I know Eli Manning won the Super Bowl MVP, but let's not forget this is the same guy who threw 5 interceptions against the Minnesota Vikings on the Sunday after Thanksgiving.] Coughlin and Spagnuolo will not let their players use the Umenyiora injury as an excuse; they’ll demand they play harder and better to compensate for the loss. Antonio Pierce will rally the players, as well, and try to get his teammates to play smarter.

The Giants are not as good a team now as they were at the end of last season. Without Strahan and Umenyiora, they couldn’t be. It’s possible the defense will come back to Earth in a big way, but it would be a mistake to count them out, as some fans of other NFC East teams are now doing. [Yes, Cowboys fans, I'm looking at you.] The Giants learned how to win last year. Just as importantly, they learned how to win at the right time. The Giants were not a great team in 2007. They lost 6 games in the regular season, including a 24-point blowout defeat at the hands of the very average Minnesota Vikings. But in the first month or so of 2008, they were the best team in the NFL. An experience such as that must have taught them something.

The Giants are down right now, but they’re not out.

—————————————-

Check out the DC Pro Sports Report NFL Mock Draft Database — the biggest in the world!

Discuss this in Redskins Park and The Gridiron with fellow DC sports fans!