Giants Hope Lightning Strikes Twice

In Week 15 of the 2007 season, the New York Giants took a 22-10 beating at home from the Washington Redskins. The loss followed a pair of wins and resumed talk of the team's fallibility, talk which proved to be filled with as much foresight as Plaxico Burress' decision to bring a gun to the Latin Quarter. Twelve months is a long time, but after another embarassing Week 15 loss, Tom Coughlin told the Newark Star-Ledger that he'd reference that game to his team this week.

The only problem is that, aside from those two losses, the two teams don't have all that much in common right now. The future champions were gelling as the season came to a close, with players like Ahmad Bradshaw and Justin Tuck stepping up and jolting the team with energy and the defense figuring out that they could control games. It was a strange season as the Giants beat up on a lot of bad teams and struggled against good ones until they finally worked out all the kinks at exactly the right moment.

This hasn't been such a strange season. The Giants came in as favorites and backed up with dominating play for the majority of the season. And then, all of a sudden, the wheels have come off the bus. Burress is gone, eliminating the big play aspect from a Giant offense that's really missing it. Brandon Jacobs and Fred Robbins were always mentioned as part of larger units, but their injuries have made it clear that they make the rest of the team stronger, not vice versa. The addition of Kareem McKenzie and Rich Seubert means that the team's bedrock offensive line is wounded heading into the Carolina Panthers game this Sunday. 

Coughlin's reference to last season would seem to be focused on keeping the team confident in the face of two losses. Confidence isn't the problem, though. It may have been a year ago when no one thought the Giants were good enough to win. The problem right now is that there aren't enough hands on deck and all the confidence in the world can't overcome certain physical limitations.

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