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A healthy Osi Umenyiora could be the key to Sunday's Giants-Packers rematch
by Jared Smola, DraftSharks.com
The Packers lost just once this season. That slip-up didn’t come against the Giants. Green Bay left New York with a 38-35 victory back in Week 13. Aaron Rodgers was Aaron Rodgers, tossing for 369 yards and 4 scores. Greg Jennings, Jordy Nelson, and Jermichael Finley all finished with 87+ yards. The Packers’ defense even chipped in with a score from LB Clay Mathews on a 38-yard INT return.
Despite all that, the Giants had that game knotted up at 35 with less than a minute to go. That’s when Rodgers calmly led a 4-play, 68-yard drive to set up Mason Crosby’s game-winning 31-yard FG as time expired.
I don’t believe in “moral victories,” but the Giants certainly walked off the field that day with some added confidence. They know they can hang with this Packers team. And in the 5 games since, they’ve racked up 4 wins while outscoring opponents 131 to 87.
More importantly, they’ve gotten healthy. And that could be the difference when the G-Men head to Lambeau for this Sunday’s Divisional Round game.
WR Mario Manningham, C David Baas, and DE Osi Umenyiora missed that Week 13 game with injuries. They’ll all be in the lineup this weekend.
Manningham has been hobbled by a bum knee most of this season. But when healthy, he provides QB Eli Manning with another field-stretching weapon. And with WRs Hakeem Nicks and Victor Cruz demanding most of the defense’s attention, Manningham is seeing consistent single-coverage. He took advantage this past Sunday, hauling in 4 balls for 68 yards and a score. Looking as healthy as he has in a while, Manningham will allow the Giants to spread out a porous Packers secondary that finished dead-last in pass defense.
Baas has been one of the most underrated Cs in the game for a few years now. He’s been rock-solid in his first season in The Big Apple, allowing just 2 sacks and 6 QB pressures all year. The G-Men will need him at the top of his game against mammoth Packers NT B.J. Raji, who pressured Manning 3 times back in Week 13.
But it’s Umenyiora who might be the key to Sunday’s rematch. Despite missing 7 games this season with knee and ankle injuries, Umenyiora racked up 9 sacks. He added another against the Falcons this past weekend. Along with Justin Tuck and Jason Pierre-Paul, Osi gives the Giants arguably the best trio of pass-rushers in the game.
If there’s a weakness with Green Bay’s passing game, it’s protection. They’ve given up 41 sacks this year – 11th-most in the NFL. To slow down the Packers’ offense, you need to be able to get pressure with a 4-man rush. With Umenyiora, Tuck, and Pierre-Paul, the Giants are capable of doing just that.
Of course, the biggest factor working against New York this weekend is location. Green Bay has been untouchable at home, outscoring opponents by an average of 19 points per game. Aaron Rodgers sports a ridiculous 24:4 TD-to-INT ratio and 128.5 QB rating at Lambeau this season.
But the Giants are actually built for outdoor January weather more so than the Packers. Their running game was abysmal most of the year, finishing dead-last in yards per game. But they got it rolling a bit down the stretch, averaging 4.2 yards per carry. And it was full steam ahead against the Falcons on Wild Card Weekend. RBs Ahmad Bradshaw and Brandon Jacobs combined for 155 yards on 28 carries. They broke off 4 runs of 14+ yards. And that was against a Falcons team that finished the regular season ranked 6th against the run. The Packers were a more pedestrian 14th. New York will live or die on the right arm of Eli Manning, but they should be able to run well enough to keep the Green Bay defense on its heels.
Beyond that, the Giants won’t be intimidated heading into Lambeau. They won an NFC Championship Game there back in 2007 – and then went on to knock off the Patriots in the Super Bowl. 14 players from that roster are still on the team. That experience can’t be understated.
It’ll be a shootout this weekend. Both teams’ offenses are better than the Ds. New York’s pass-rush could be the difference though. It wouldn’t shock me in the least if the Giants left Lambeau with a victory.
