New York Giants Week 2 Storylines

It's onward and upward for the New York Giants, who, after being completely dismantled by the Dallas Cowboys on Sunday night, will look to get back on track against the Arizona Cardinals this week.

Sunday marks the 129th meeting between the clubs, the Giants holding an 80-46-2 record vs. the Cardinals, including 33-23-2 on the road. The last Giants win was a 31-27 decision in State Farm Stadium on October 2, 2011.

Since then, the Giants have lost four in a row to the Cardinals, three of those four games being by two or more scores, including a 23-0 shutout the last time the Giants were in town.

Let's look at some of the major storylines expected to unfold for the Giants this week ahead of the game.

How will the Giants bounce back from Sunday's disaster?

How the Giants respond to Sunday's defeat by the Cowboys will tell us a lot about this team's maturity. Do they come out swinging against the Cardinals? Are they passive? Do they clean up the mistakes that littered the game? Or do they continue to be sloppy?

The players and coaches will probably say it's back to work, keep chopping wood, etc.--that's all they can say at this point. But action speaks louder than words, so it will be interesting to see how the Giants parlay the anger and embarrassment of Sunday night into their preparation and performance against a Cardinals team that, at this point, really has nothing to lose as it rebuilds under its new leadership.

What is Andrew Thomas's injury status?

The very early word is that Thomas's hamstring injury isn't thought to be serious enough to warrant a spot on IR. It's also good news that during their weekly free-agent workouts, the Giants only hosted receivers instead of tackles, suggesting that Thomas probably isn't that bad off.

Don't be surprised if Thomas doesn't practice or is limited this week. And don't be surprised if the team, out of an abundance of caution, holds him out of Sunday's game against the Cardinals so he can be ready to face the more difficult 49ers defense four days later.

How will they fix the offensive line?

Short of making a trade for a stud guard or tackle--and that's not happening--the Giants might just have to roll with what they have and hope they can coach them up.

But if this unit struggles again--and figure it probably will at some point against some of the defenses that are on the schedule in the weeks ahead--there are some things the coaches can do to help the unit if need be.

The most obvious is keeping an extra blocker in to help fortify whatever side needs. Sure, that means taking away an option in the passing game, but what good is flooding the passing lanes if quarterback Daniel Jones is going to be running for his life all night?

How can the Giants get off to a faster start?

Three words: Run the ball. Last week, the Giants had an impressive opening drive in which they ran the ball with either Saquon Barkley or Matt Breida on five of the ten plays before the drive ended in the blocked field goal.

The mix of the run and pass got them from their 25-yard line to the Cowboys' 8 before the wheels fell off the wagon, and they started going backward thanks to a penalty against Andrew Thomas and an aborted snap by center John Michael Schmitz.

Despite those two blips, that was probably the Giants' best-looking drive of the night. And if they can replicate that without the mistakes that send them in the wrong direction, they can get off to a much-needed fast start to set the game's tone.

Any other injury concerns?

In addition to Thomas, kicker Graham Gano suffered an injury when he was cleated in his calf on the blocked field goal for a touchdown. Gano went for X-rays and told reporters that he would be fine. Meanwhile, the Giants haven't made any moves as of Tuesday night to add another kicker, so it sounds like they dodged a bullet with Gano.

The only other injury of note to keep an eye on is backup tackle Matt Peart, who is believed to have suffered an arm injury in Sunday's game. If Thomas is limited or can't go, the Giants would probably want to plug Peart in at left tackle and leave Evan Neal on the right side.

But if Prart can't go, then what? The Giants played Joshua Ezeudu, a college tackle, at left tackle after Prart had to leave the game. The good news is that Ezeudu seemed lighter on his feet at the position, played his angles well, showed balance, and used his hands well enough to where he could be an acceptable option if Thomas is held out of Sunday's game and Peart can't go.

Where Ezeudu falls a little short in his game is against the physicality. But with few options to go with should both Thomas and Peart be sidelined, the Giants might not have any choice but to roll with this youngster at that spot.

The only other "injury" to note is receiver Wan'Dale Robinson, who isn't injured but is working his way back from the PUP list after completing his rehab from a torn ACL suffered last season. Robinson wasn't ready last week, and with two games within four days of each other coming up, it will be interesting to see if he's ready for Sunday or if they hold him until Thursday.

Fixing Special Teams

Maybe it's just me, but every week going back to the preseason games, there's been something that has gone wrong on specialty teams, be it a punt in which the coverage was outkicked, a breakdown in the coverage, or a blunder such as what we saw against Dallas.

Simply put, this has to stop. I realize that special teams coordinator Thomas McGaughey likes to say that special teams is like making gumbo--you just work with whatever you have.

But every gumbo recipe has consistent core ingredients no matter what you put into it, and the one thing the Giants haven't had of late on special teams is consistency, which needs to change before this unit starts costing this team more games.

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