Giants Seek To Answer Questions

By 4:30 on Sunday many Giants questions will have answers.

Is the four-game losing-streak an aberration? Or has Big Blue been overrated all along and beat-up on a soft early schedule?

In today's parity-loving-NFL every team goes through a rough spot at some point in the schedule. The Patriots of 2007 were beating opponents with high school-type scores during an undefeated regular season. Yet, come playoff time, the games were competitive eventually losing to the Jints in the Super Bowl.

Last season, at approximately the same time of year, the Giants and Titans were favorites to face-off in Tampa on Super Sunday. Yet, neither team won a postseason contest.

The Super Bowl-winning Colts of several years back lost four of the final seven regular season match-ups. All the incredible seasons to that point ended in disappointment, but the year the Colts struggled most turned out to be the greatest triumph.

This is not to say the Giants are on the way to another championship, but a mid-season struggle is no reason to panic and give up hope.

Did the bye-week come at just the right time for Tom Coughlin's club? Was the week off all that was needed to get healthy and get the bad football out of the system?

During the time off, everything broke right for the Giants: the three teams battling for an NFC playoff spot -- Cowboys, Eagles and Falcons -- all lost.

Once written-off as done, the Giants control their own destiny.

Each of the next four games is of monumental importance. The first is Atlanta at the Meadowland on Sunday. The Falcons are struggling and the winner of this contest will hold an important head-to-head tiebreaker.

A Thanksgiving-night game vs. the surprising Broncos will be a difficult road test, but a win would re-establish credibility across the country.

Dallas and Philadelphia visit New Jersey in the following weeks. The importance of these two divisional match-ups cannot be exaggerated.

Did the Big Blue defense simply need to get healthy to return to championship form? Will the return of cornerback Aaron Ross boost the secondary? Was Justin Tuck's shoulder-injury inhibiting his play on the field?

The Giants' secondary was hit hard with early-season injuries. Safety Kenny Phillips will not play again in 2009. Ross has yet to take the field during the current campaign. Tuck's injury had been nagging since Week 2.

Big Blue holds the script to the season now. The knockout blow has been thrown and the Giants were out for the count.

Can Coughlin scrape the team of the mat? Can the defense regain its teeth? Will the offense get back to Giants-football?

Will the team regroup and bounce back? Or stagger to the finish-line without much fight?

All these questions will be answered on the field Sunday.