Time Of Concern, Not Panic For Big Blue

Turns out the Giants miss Plaxico Burress more than they care to admit. Add an ailing Brandon Jacobs to the mix, and you have a big reason why the Cowboys thumped the Giants 20-8 last night.

Granted, the offensive line was hideous: Allowing eight sacks in a Pop Warner game, never mind the NFL, is unacceptable. McKenzie was banged up and Seibert was dehydrated due to the flu. Wait, down goes Eli again. Anyway, that's basically 2 weeks the Giants have now gone without an offensive touchdown-minus the garbage time score against the Eagles in a loss two weeks ago.

We now know a few things about the Giants:

The team misses Plaxico, not so much because he is a terrific player, Rather, Burress is constantly double teamed allowing Hixon (if I see him drop another pass I will shoot MYSELF in the foot) Toomer and Smith time to get open. We now know that without Burress, the Giants don't have a #1 receiver, no one that scares the crap out of the opposition. The Arizona Cardinals are one thing, the physical Cowboys are something else.

Ward and Bradshaw are good backs, but Jacobs is clearly THE GUY. Let him soften up the defense, and Ward and Bradshaw are more effective.

He may say otherwise, but Antonio Pierce has been affected by the Burress mess. Don't you just want to be a fly on the wall as "AP" has to continually explain to wife Jocelyn what he was doing at a strip club prior to Burress' accident? Makes for great reality TV.

Now, the good news: Beat the Panthers at home Sunday night and clinch the top spot in the NFC. That gives you 2 plus weeks to ready the ship. Coach Coughlin can play hard against the Vikings and still protect his team. BUT: lose to Carolina, and suddenly that last week against the Vikings means not only the #2 seed, but also the chance that Big Blue could fall to the #3 seed and not even get a week off. A lot of the bloom comes back on the rose if Big Blue wraps things up Sunday.

QB Eli Manning Had This To Say:

You KNOW Coach Coughlin's not Happy

Check out Bob Glauber's Newsday column