Ugh.

This is going to be a long year. Our offensive line is the worst Giants offensive line I have ever seen. It might be the worst in the league, I haven’t been keeping up with other O-lines. And I feel like it’s the root cause of all our problems. Kevin Gilbride? Sure, Kevin “Killdrive” still uses antiquated schemes and plays, still doesn’t make proper adjustments, and should be fired, but I can’t lay the blame all on him. When our offensive line does its job, the Giants are okay. Look at the first half of last year: we gave up almost no pressures and Eli led the league in passing for 6 weeks. Then Diehl came back and it all went to hell. Gilbride’s time is up and we need a new coordinator who actually makes adjustments, but he’s not the root cause. Neither is Coughlin, who still has bad habits but still gets a pass because holy hell my team won two superbowls with him. It’s the O-line.

The Giants have neglected to address the O-line for years, and it’s finally biting them back. We had the best O-line in the league in 2008. Then those players got old and got released (Shaun O’Hara, Kareem McKenzie, Rich Seubert) or stayed with the team and eventually became liabilities (David Diehl, Chris Snee is well past his prime) and to fix this, we didn’t draft any O-lineman (except for Justin “My last name sounds like what I say when hit in the Solar Plexus” Pugh) but picked up average to bad free agents to fill the gaps (Baas, Locklear, Beatty). Now we suck at the footballs.

We cannot run the ball because our O-line cannot get penetration.

We cannot pass the ball because our O-line cannot protect Eli. Eli snaps the ball and defenders are on him in a flash. I’ve seen him panic way more than usual. Normally he’s unflappable, but he’s clearly nervous. He’s being forced into bad decisions and bad throws because he has no time. So the O-line is the cause of our offensive issues, which in turn are the cause of our defensive issues.

The defense, despite giving up as many points as they have, have actually kept up in games for a while. At least at first. Around halftime/3rd quarter though, they’ve been on the field so long due to our offense sucking that they get tired and give up.

If we lose this week to the Eagles, who are also bad, this season is pretty much lost. This team does not deserve the playoffs, so even in our crap division I don’t want us doing anything. I will sacrifice my liver to the beer gods and jump on the Browns bandwagon because I hate happiness. But hey, my Browns comics are good for Cleveland, because they seem to win whenever I make one.

Edit: A few people pointed out Beatty was a draft pick in 09. I must have blended him and Sean Locklear together in my brain, because I was convinced we got him off waivers or something. So we have addressed the O-line, but not well. Beatty is probably the best lineman we have at the moment anyway, but he seems inconsistent.

I don’t know why we haven’t re-signed Locklear yet. He should be healthy by now and he’s better than David Diehl.