After the Giants pulled away late from a Falcons team that completely collapsed on the offensive side of the ball, there have been a lot of prognosticators like this one who are expecting the Giants to actually beat the Green Bay Packers. I'm not expecting anything of the sort. But I still wanted to ask Ed Valentine of Big Blue View a few questions about the upcoming game.
It looked like the Giants defensive line controlled the Falcons offensive line. Was it just Jason Pierre-Paul or did all the lineman contribute?
The entire line contributed, the best the entire group has played all year. JPP, Osi Umenyiora and Justin Tuck were all terrific on the outside. Tackles Chris Canty, Linval Joseph and Rocky Bernard were immense inside. That performance is what the Giants envisioned when they built this team.
Were the Falcons determined to take Victor Cruz out of the game? Did it open up things for Manningham and Nicks?
Maybe they were, I didn't really see it, though. Brent Grimes did not play for the Falcons and that left them really in a bind. When Manningham plays well I would argue that the Nicks-Cruz-Manningham triumvirate (and yes I put Nicks 1 and Cruz 2) is as good as any trio of receivers in the game.
Was there really some big change from the run offense, or was it just a good week? Are you expecting it to carryover to next Sunday against a Packers defense that hasn't stopped the run much this year?
The Giants run offense has been improving for the last five weeks or so. I think they are over 100 yards rushing five straight weeks now, and Sunday against Atlanta was their best of the season. The line play has been better, center David Baas and fullback Henry Hynoski are healthy, Ahmad Bradshaw is healthy and Brandon Jacobs is running with more determination than he has in a couple of years. I'd expect the Giants to do some good things running the ball.
What's something the Giants didn't do against the Packers last time that they need to fix for next Sunday?
The biggest thing was not putting enough pressure on Aaron Rodgers. Of course, at that point in time Pierre-Paul was really the only healthy defensive end. With their defensive line intact and healthy let's see if they can make him more uncomfortable.