Several weeks ago, when Schmidley and I were prematurely predicting who would win the Super Bowl, I wrote, "[The Giants] look even better than they were last year, minus the downgraded defensive line, and Eli Manning has come into his own."
Weeks later, are there any doubters still out there? The Giants are for real. Patriots fans and Colts fans (myself included in the latter) need to get used to this fact, as there are new kings in the NFL.
While the Titans own the sole undefeated record in the NFL, the Giants are dominating the stacked NFC East. When we compare the schedules of the Giants and Titans, the competition played is almost identical. Going into Week 10, the Titans had beaten eight teams with a combined record of 25-40 (.385 winning percentage). The Giants have gone 7-1 against teams with a combined record of 27-41 (.397).
However, the Titans haven't had, in my opinion, a big win. The Packers, Colts and Ravens are all competent, and the Titans pulled out wins against each, but those games were won by a combined 16 points.
In contrast, the Giants beat the Redskins by nine points, the Steelers, at Pittsburgh, by seven and the Dallas Cowboys by a whopping 21 points. Those are big wins. If the Giants go to Philadelphia and beat the Eagles in Week 10 -- a game that is finishing after this column goes to print -- we can tack that game onto the list of big wins. The Titans don't really have one.
Records and schedules aside, my gut feeling is that the Giants have an all-around better football team. The key difference between the Giants and Titans is versatility.
The Titans are largely one-dimensional, running first, controlling time and making an occasional big play -- a great football strategy. But the Giants can beat you in more ways. Eli has turned into an elite quarterback. If you were a coach and the Super Bowl were tied in the final two minutes, who would you rather have as a quarterback: Eli Manning or Kerry Collins? It's a no-brainer. Eli has proven he can perform under pressure, and he's still the defending champion. Through the air, Eli can deliver the ball to a variety of personnel. Eli has thrown TD passes to seven different players this season, and six players have over 150 receiving yards.
In contrast, Collins has thrown all of three touchdowns to three different receivers. (Vince Young had one catch before losing the starting job.) Brandon Jacobs is a fierce running back for the Giants, racking up an impressive 680 yards on the ground to complement Derrick Ward's 437 rushing yards. As a team, everybody always talks about how well the Titans run the football, evidenced by 1,193 yards on the season. But the Giants have run for 1,301 yards, so New York's running game can't be all that bad either.
"Well, Ryan," Titans fans may say, "You don't need to score many points when your defense is as good as ours." It's true. The Titans easily have one of the best defenses in the game. But the Giants defense is no pushover. Remember how the Giants held the almighty Patriot offense of 2007 to just 14 points? That defense is largely the same this year. On the season, the Giants have allowed an average of 30 fewer total yards.
To recap my argument thus far, the Titans' strengths have been identified as the run game and defense. The Giants are right there with the Titans in both categories, and the Giants's passing game is infinitely more effective than the Titans's passing game. The Giants play in the better conference (the NFC), and the Titans haven't had a truly big win all season.
Yes, the Titans have one less loss, but the question Schmidley and I are debating is who is the better team, and in my opinion it's the Giants by a comfortable margin. I stand by my prediction of a Giants repeat Super Bowl victory.
