By all accounts, the Monday Night Football game between the New York Giants (3-2) and Atlanta Falcons (1-4) should be a sackfest for the G-Men.
Why is that?
Well, last year against Atlanta, the Giants got to Michael Vick seven times, and he was a lot more mobile than current Falcons starting QB Joey Harrington is.
New York also had a whopping 12 sacks against the Eagles two weeks ago, including six by Osi Umenyiora, so the Giants can get to the quarterback: they are tied for first in NFL sacks with 17, while the Falcons tied for third in most sacks allowed with 18.
And struggling Atlanta will be without their starting two tackles. Undrafted rookie Renardo Foster takes over at left tackle, as starter Wayne Gandy is done for the season after tearing an ACL in last week's 20-13 loss at Tennessee. Second-year player Tyson Clabo, also undrafted, takes over at right tackle for Todd Weiner, who is out a minimum of two weeks after undergoing knee surgery Wednesday.
"I know it will be a large task," Foster said.
"We've all seen the Philadelphia game, so we know what we have on our hands."
So being Harrington tonight may not be pleasant as the Giants look to win their fourth straight game overall and seventh in a row in Atlanta since a loss in 1978.
"It's quite a tragedy," Giants offensive tackle Kareem McKenzie said. "That's tough, to lose the two bookends of your offensive line. Man, I've never heard of that, ever. But you know what? If you've prepared them well, it shouldn't be that difficult. It's just like changing a spare tire."
Even Giants coach Coughlin said he couldn't remember an instance where a team had two new starters at offensive tackle in the same week.
"I don't know that I have seen it," he said.
The Atlanta offense has struggled as a whole, with only five touchdowns thus far. Byron Leftwich replaced Harrington late last week, but Atlanta coach Bobby Petrino says he is sticking with Harrington as his starter for now.Petrino no doubt would like to rely on Warrick Dunn, Jerious Norwood and the running game to keep his quarterback safe tonight, but Atlanta ranks 21st in the NFL with an average of 91.6 yards and is still looking for its first 100-yard game of the season.
"It's always huge when you run the football because you can get the tempo going," Harrington said. "You can control the clock and you are controlling the line of scrimmage. That's what you want as an offense. The teams that can run the ball always have a lot of success."
The Giants appear headed on the upswing after starting the season 0-2, and they got back starting running back Brandon Jacobs last week, when he rushed for 100 yards and a touchdown on 20 carries against the Jets.
The New York defense has surrendered just 44 points in the past three games, holding two opponents to 17 points or less in that span.
"For whatever reason, it took two games for us to get accustomed to things, and we played those first couple [games] like it was all just totally foreign to us," said middle linebacker Antonio Pierce. "But now we've got it down pretty good."
And the Giants say they aren't looking past the Falcons.
"They have played a lot of teams tough," said quarterback Eli
Manning. "They have caused turnovers, they have had defensive scores. They are big up front and teams aren't running the ball. They do a lot of different looks and blitzes. So we have our hands full."
"If anything, it makes you nervous," defensive end Michael Strahan said of going up against an inexperienced tackle in Clabo. "Really, to be honest with you, I don't have film [on Clabo playing tackle].
I don't have anything on him.
"And it makes you nervous because you know the expectations for what you are supposed to do against somebody who is young or new are so high that I don't know if you can ever live up to them. So it is actually a bit more nerve-racking than anything else."
"People have to expect us to play very well," added Umenyiora, who'll go up against Foster, "but those guys aren't any slouches."
The lowdown: Strangely, the visiting team has won the past 11 meetings in this series, and Manning has won seven straight starts in October. Those trends won't change tonight, as the Giants, -4.5 on WagerWeb.com, should cover with ease.
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