N.Y. Giants: Eli Manning Poised To Play In Narrative Defining Game

From the desk of:  DO IT FOR THE DUKE

Dave Gettleman Banking on Eli Manning's 

Ability to Turn Back the Clock

SUNDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL

New York Giants

vs.

Dallas Cowboys

FROM

The House That Jerry Built

New York Football Giants: Dallas Cowboys Will Do Far Better Job Exploiting Absence of Olivier Vernon; I'm Concerned With Extra Load Being Placed on Snacks Harrison.

The Giants will play once again minus the services of their top pass rusher, linebacker Olivier Vernon, who will miss a second straight week with a high ankle sprain.  The Giants say he'll be ready by next week.  But history says this injury is notorious for slow healing, and sometimes responsible for hampering entire seasons.

Without him, the defense last week generated little in the way of quarterback pressure, registering one sack, and just three other QB hits.  On the ground, Leonard Fournette was having his way until sidelined by a strained hamstring.  Otherwise the Jaguars go on to rush for 137 total yards.

Sunday night the Giants face Dak Prescott, Ezekiel Elliott, and a superior Dallas Cowboys offensive line.  If Week One is any indication, the Giants will have difficulty generating much, if any pressure against Dak Prescott.  But there are reasons why the Cowboys only scored eight points last week against Carolina.  Without Dez Bryant, they have no legitimate high threat receivers to speak of.  It just renders their offense more predictable.., that's all.

But it also creates a great case study into new defensive coordinator James Bettcher's creativity.  His unit allowed the Jaguars only thirteen offensive points last week.  Bettcher should be daring Dak Prescott to beat them.  If Eli Apple, Janoris Jenkins, and Curtis Riley capably handle their respective assignments, Landon Collins can then potentially help stack the box against Ezekiel Elliott, and thus allow Bettcher to sneak in an occasional blitz.

On a somewhat different note, it appeared to me last week that playing minus Olivier Vernon at some point began taking its toll on Snacks Harrison.  In that regard, I envision this week unfolding similarly.  Keep an eye on Snacks, Coach, because he's the one player I feel the defense can least afford to lose.

THIS IS EXACTLY THE TYPE OF GAME DAVE GETTLEMAN IS TRUSTING ELI MANNING TO CARRY THE TEAM, AND WIN.

Point directly at Big Blue's offensive shortcomings for Week One's loss against the Jaguars.  Much was, and is still being made of Ereck Flowers poor performance.  When truth be told, the entire line played a flawed and inept brand of football.  Nate Solder was the first to admit that.  All told, the Giants rush 23 times for 114 total yards, but subtract Saquon Barkley's 68-yard romp, and the Giants rush 22 times for just 46 yards.  And if we're pointing fingers, the left side of the line (not the right) proved least effective.  The unit as a whole allowed two sacks and six more QB hits.

It seems Saquon Barkley's role is yet to be defined.  Last week he rushed 18 times with only two receptions, which is contrary to what many anticipated.  I would argue this week calls for 25 rushes of smash mouth type football.  After which I'm sure he'll be making many more receptions out of the backfield in the weeks to come.  In the meantime, Dallas is sure to test his abilities at reacting to an NFL blitz.

However, most problematic of all was last week's disconnect between Eli Manning and his receivers.
Eli's naysayers say elite quarterbacks find ways of carrying entire teams to victory regardless of the talent level surrounding them.  This week, that couldn't ring more true.  Getting open against Jacksonville was not necessarily a problem for Odell Beckham, Sterling Sherpard, or Evan Engram.  But timing and accuracy were.  I might be an Eli apologist without realizing it.  But even I'll admit this is Eli's game to either win or lose all by himself.  If he and his receivers clean up their act, the Giants should get out of Dallas with hard fought, well earned victory, and allow fans to breathe a little sigh of relief.

Or not ...