Thursday Night Football

Due to a ludicrous schedule that has the Giants playing on a Wednesday, Sunday, and Thursday the first three games, the Giants will find themselves in Carolina tonight for a little Thursday Night Football. The Panthers and Giants are both 1-1 and this matchup could go either way. It's an interesting matchup and for the Giants, it's a pivotal game with the Eagles game coming next week.

The Panthers lost to the Bucs and the Giants beat the Bucs. But both games were completely different styles. Carolina played a tough game against the Bucs. But Tampa Bay slaughtered the Panthers running game and embarassed running back Deangelo Williams. When the Giants played the Bucs both teams defenses struggled. The Bucs capitalized on their three early takeaways, but in the fourth quarter the Giants ran away with 25 points, and the win orchestrated by the fourth quarter bandit Eli Manning.

Speaking of fourth quarters, last year the Panthers were one of the NFL's worst teams at closing out games. In fact six times the Panthers were either tied or had the lead in the fourth quarter and failed to secure a win. The Giants, as most know, were dead opposite. Finishing games was their specialty.

But lets not forget this is a banged up Giants defense. It will be a challenge for this weak secondary to step up and rise to the occasion of guarding the explosive Steve Smith. Him and Cam had a great connection last season and there's no reason to think that trend will not continue. So it's crucial that this pass rush plays their best game. It was an improvement against Tampa Bay but nowhere near the potential this front four has to get to the quarterback. Everybody knows about Cam Newton's mobility so the defensive ends have to play disciplined. Cam is right handed to if you're going to force him to run it's wiser to make him run left, therefore Cam is more inclined to run and our linebackers and secondary can anticipate laying a big hit. It's an old strategy against mobile quarterbacks that eliminates the element of surprise of whether it being a run or pass. If he attempts to pass running left pick it off. He's not talented enough to get away with that all night.

As usual the Giants offensive production is in the hands of quarterback Eli Manning. With Hakeem Nicks, Domenik Hixon, and Ahmad Bradshaw sitting out the Giants are missing some offensive weapons. Andre Brown has a serious opportunity to show what he's made of in this running game, and Eli thrived throwing the ball last week as a result of his success. But without Nicks, receiver Ramses Barden will be getting the call for more snaps. As everyone knows, (exhibit A: tackle eligible 65 last week) Eli will throw to whoever's open. It doesn't matter who's on the field. This is a team and anyone on the field can get the job done or they wouldn't be there. Cruz and Bennett are coming off big games and need to keep it going. But if the oline can give Eli time, there shouldn't be any problems throwing the ball even with a hurt Nicks. David Diehl's injury hurts our oline depth as well but the show must go on. Protect your quarterback.

This game is crucial. Get through it and the Giants have a long week of rest and practice for the Philadelphia Eagles. The Giants are more experienced then the Panthers and they know how to win. The Panthers are flashy but they do not know how to win. Their defense was not able to get clutch stops last year, and Cam Newton's skills are impressive but he has yet to show he can march down the field with the game on the line.

That's the X factor the Giants have that the Panthers don't. At least they didn't last year. It's a new year and it's still early and no one wants to be 1-2. This should be a good game given the circumstances and the matchup. Can the banged up Giants overcome an explosive Panthers offense? If this were December I'd say hands down no problem, but this is earlier in the year and you never know what can happen. In fact this year the NFL has the most 1-1 teams since 1997. So it's still tough to know who the good teams are.

The Giants have injuries but they should still win this game. They can't make excuses. They can't come out flat because of the short week. They have to get it done.

The Giants are up for the challenge, you better bELIeve it. Go Big Blue. Time to make a statement about what this pass rush is capable of.