The New York Giants are always under pressure, as the most successful NFL team in one of the most demanding media markets in the entire country and world. However, it looks like sustained losing over the past few years has built this season up to have even more pressure than what would be normal. After a season where the team was one of the worst in the league during their bad days and only a middle of the pack team on their good days, the fans want results.
And former Giants center Shaun O’Hara, who won a Super Bowl with current starting quarterback Eli Manning, recently talked with NJ Advance Media about the amount of pressure on the team.
“This is the biggest September the Giants have had in a long time. They need to win some football games early on. Not just for Eli, but for the coaching staff, too. If you are Coach [Pat] Shurmur, you are not sitting there saying, ‘Oh, I’ve got three years.’ Everybody in that building feels the heat. It’s not just Eli,” O’Hara said. Three years is the amount of time that Daniel Jones is expected to spend as backup, although many believe that Eli Manning won’t last that long and that Jones will end up taking the reigns earlier.
The Giants’ September schedule involves clashes with old rivals Dallas and Washington, with out of division games against Buffalo and Tampa Bay.
“Their schedule is a good schedule. I think they’ve got a good chance to start fast. If you take care of business on the field, all of that will fall into place,” O’Hara added.
If the Giants can’t pull off a good run in the early part of the season, they risk what happened last year: getting into an early hole and not being able to climb out of it until there’s not enough time left in the season to seriously compete. Playing from so far behind in the standings killed any enthusiasm around last year’s Giants team, months before the season was over. One of the key goals for the Giants will be avoiding a repeat…
And whether or not they do that may just decide several factors, such as how long the current coaching staff keep their positions and how many more years Eli Manning will play.