Giants Slide in MMQB's Power Ranking Poll

The New York Giants are a mess--there is no other way to put it.

What has happened to the New York Giants?

They’re 1-3, they’ve been outscored by opponents 122-46 this season, and there seems to be no hope in sight for a team to which so much hope and expectation was attached in the preseason.

Maybe last year was a mirage, a by-product of a new coaching staff coming together to catch the rest of the league off guard with its schemes and personnel deployment.

Maybe it was a result of a gentle schedule. Or maybe it was simply luck.

Whatever it was, the Giants have done a 180-degree turn and are headed in the opposite direction, which has the fan base concerned, disgusted, depressed--you pick the adjective.

Not surprisingly, the Giants slid two spots in the latest MMQB power ranking poll, down from 23 last week to No. 25 this week.

Notes Conor Orr of the ranking:

Top to bottom an embarrassing performance by the Giants, who began the night with some momentum via their pass rush and completely squandered the early success. This offense cannot operate behind this line anymore. It’s starting to be deleterious to the quarterback’s health. While some of these highlight plays against the Giants came when the game was clearly over and the team had already quit, it’s going to be a difficult film session to recover from, especially given how the season began against Dallas.

Orr might be feeling generous with this ranking, or perhaps it might just be a matter of the teams ranked behind the Giants being far worse off. But one thing is for sure: the Giants have been a disappointment so far.

Head coach Brian Daboll always liked to warn people to taper their expectations coming off the 9-7-1 record last season, saying that every year is a new year and every team is a new team.

But while success doesn't necessarily carry over from year to year, what should at least be carrying over but is not is growth for all facets of the game, especially since the main coordinators returned to run their respective systems.

That hasn't been the case. The Giants' offense is ranked 31st league-wide (252 yards/game) and 32nd in average points scored per game (11.5)--all this despite having added talent to upgrade the unit.

The defense has fared slightly better, averaging 341.5 yards allowed per game (19th). But they've allowed an average of 30.5 points per game, the third most in the league through four weeks.

Giants Week 4 Report Card: Major Fail

When it has come to situational football (third down and red zone), where they were so good last year, the Giants have struggled, falling to 22nd and 16th, respectively, in those two categories.

Special teams? That unit can be summed up in one word: Hardly.

Power rankings don't mean all that much (though they're kind of fun to follow), but the fact is the Giants have been a colossal disappointment. What's even worse is that there isn't much that can be done to fix some of the major leaks this ship has sprung short of a major roster upheaval.

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