Vincent Carchietta-USA TODAY Sports
Giants on the Rise in the MMQB's Power Rankings
The Giants were supposed to be done with moral victories, but their losing effort to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Monday was at least good enough for some respect.
The Giants didn't play Tom Brady and the Buccaneers hard enough to pull out a win, as they fell 25-23 for their seventh loss of the season.
But they did play hard enough for the folks at the MMQB to acknowledge the progress the team is making, earning their highest spot since Week 2 in the MMQB's latest power rankings.
The Giants took a two-point jump, moving up from No. 29, where they had been for the last three weeks, to No. 27. And that ranking might have even been higher, writes the MMQB crew:
The Giants delivered their best performance of the season against one of the top teams in their conference. But QB Daniel Jones still hasn’t shaken the turnover bug, throwing two INTs on plays where he could have easily thrown the ball away.
Despite winning just one game in the first half of the season, the Giants might just be the best of the teams in the NFL with a poor record this year given that the defense has been solid and the offense, while shaky, has had its moments.
For the Giants, it's usually come down to a play here, a play there being the difference, and that was no different against the Bucs as they were a 2-point conversion away from tying the game and sending it to overtime.
That the Giants have mostly held their own against some elite competition certainly has the MMQB team's attention as they moved the Giants ahead of the Cowboys, who sit at No. 30, and the Washington Football Team, ranked at No. 28. (The Eagles' 23r ranking is the best of the division.)
The Giants may very well be the best 1-7 team the NFL has to offer, but as Bill Parcells once said, "You are what your record says you are," and the Giants right now are a team that is headed toward a top-5 slot in next year's draft.
