It is almost impossible to come away from Monday night's 49-24 beat-down by the New Orleans Saints with the belief that the New York Giants are a playoff team.
I am sure we will hear all sorts of brave talk this week about how the Giants still have destiny in their hands because they have two games with the NFC East-leading Dallas Cowboys. We will hear about how they need to play with greater effort. We will hear about how they need to play with more discipline. We will hear about how they need to play with more emotion. We will hear about how they still believe they are a great team, and how they need to figure this out.
Breaking Down The NFC Playoff Picture
Thing is, we have heard all this talk before. We heard it all of last week after the Giants were embarrassed by the under-achieving Philadelphia Eagles. We heard it the final few weeks of last season while the Giants were melting down and missing the playoffs. We heard it the season before when they lost eight of their last 11 games to miss the playoffs after starting 5-0.
What should make us believe any of this inevitable talk now? The Giants have talked too much for too long, and done too little to back up their bravado.
Be honest, did the Giants look like a playoff team Monday night? Hardly. They looked like a defense-less, emotion-less team that wasn't physical enough or talented enough to play consistently with the best teams in the league.
You know what they really looked like? They looked like a team about to get their head coach fired.
Does anyone honestly believe the Giants won't get humiliated by Aaron Rodgers and the undefeated Green Bay Packers on Sunday? Rodgers was probably laughing if he watched the Giants try to play defense Monday. If he did not watch the game, he will be laughing when he sees the film of Giants players crashing into each other while trying to line up, having their backs to the ball when it was snapped, getting blown off the line of scrimmage at the line and being completely unable to cover any New Orleans wide receivers.
Off what we have seen this season -- not just Monday night but for the entire year -- do you really believe this is a team that can play eight solid quarters of football and beat the Cowboys twice? They might be able to do it once, but twice? Sorry, I can't see it.
Even if they can do that, the Giants likely have to win four of their last five to have any chance of getting past the Cowboys.
The Giants will talk bravely about being able to do just that. The time for talk, though, is long past.