Week 6 Woes: Injury Riddled Giants Offense Travels to Face All-Star Denver Defense

The blades of grass and artificial turf all across the nation have been ripped and trampled for five weeks with the heavy steps and digging twists of football cleats. But there are three stadiums where the grass and FieldTurf is wilted over with the sadness of 0-5 starts. The natural grass at Levi’s Stadium weeps. The Kentucky Bluegrass at FirstEnergy is teary-eyed, and FieldTurf at Giants Stadium stands in child-like, recalcitrant defiance of the two home losses and three road losses already taken.

Now, in Week 6, the G-Men have to travel to Denver, where the grass does not weep and the road test only gets tougher with injuries stacking up. The NY Post described last Sunday as “one of the most brutal days in franchise history“. Beckham has a busted ankle and Harris with a broken foot. Shepard has a bad sprain which could keep him out of Sunday’s now mismatch and it is looking like Brandon Marshall may miss multiple games. So, who are the targets? Who will Eli pass to with one of the NFL’s top-ranked secondaries lurking downfield?

This situation is so bad that Chad Ochocinco and Terrell Owens thought the Giants might give them a walk-on spot. With Von Miller and company planning on putting plenty of pressure on Manning and Chris Harris Jr. Justin Simmons and Aqib Talib swatting passes … the outlook for putting up numbers is bleak.

There is a Silver Lining

At Bookmaker they will have odds for the game, review them and find that despite all the injuries, the point-spread is still less than two touchdowns; it’s riding around 11.5-12 points. I even saw one computer model that put out an average score of 21-26. Of course, it was the Broncos with 26 but this is still a good thing. The backup receiving core gets full-game experience against some of the best that the NFL has to offer and given the situation, if the Giants are able to just stay in the game, it’s a win!

This game is going to be heavily reliant on the Giants’ D; I do think they will get the job done. On the Road, the G-Men have allowed 23.67 points. While at home the Broncos have averaged 27.33 points. It seems the secondary has been getting bombed on the road this season, allowing 249 ypg, but there might be a little respite in Denver. Siemian and company have only been averaging 179 passing YPG at home.  This means we could see some field goals instead of touchdowns.

Conversely, the Broncos defense is allowing just 16 ppg in Denver, and this is right on par with the Giants’ road scoring average of 16.67 ppg. But, if the Giants put up around 16 points, that could very well be a backdoor cover against the spread and despite the stingy Denver defense, I like the Giants chances of the covering this spread. If Sterling Shepard (Questionable) is indeed out, I believe we will be surprised by Travis Rudolph and Tavarres King, who will step in to fill the gaps. And if the OC can work in more Tight End play in (as long as the OL can give Manning a few seconds to throw) we could see these guys step it up and catch some passes. In order to do this, they’ll have to pound the ball on the ground … even if it is to no avail. the Broncos D only allows 42.67 rushing yards per game at home, but to pull those Linebackers up and open some passing lanes, the defensive gut must be punched.

It’s going to be a long season for Giants fans if we set our expectations by the number of wins. So, my expectation is a couple of touchdowns. If the G-Men can do that in the hostile, thin air of Denver … to me, that’s a win.