Take away QB Kurt Warner and RB Marshall Faulk, and you still have a Rams team that beat the Giants last year.
That's right, Kurt Warner is first in the NFL with a 115.0 quarterback rating and Marshall Faulk leads the league in total yards with 615, and neither player was present when the Rams beat the Giants 38-24 at the Meadowlands last year. Not only will the Giants be playing this game away, against both those guys, but they will be facing a whole new, much, much better defensive unit. This is an outfit that actually recorded a shutout over another team for the first time since they became the St. Louis Rams.

The Giants offense.
The Giants offensive line has had injury problems dating back to training camp, and their top offensive weapons, Tiki Barber and Ike Hilliard are either shaking off, or living with injuries. The best thing the Giants have had going for them this year was Ron Dayne, and that can be questioned after last week. Dayne had 16 carries for just 39 yards before leaving the game with a sprained neck. This was against a struggling 0-3 Washington team that had previously given up 112 points in three games. The Giants kept all the fans in their seats as they gave the Redskins every chance to turn the corner, as the score was tied 9-9 starting the fourth quarter.

Finally 7 points up.
It was 16-9 two minutes later when for the first time all game, the Giants were able to pull ahead by as much as 7 points. Of course, they immediately let Washington get down to the Giants 17 yard line, and needed Jason Sehorn to intercept a Tony Banks pass in the endzone to help prevent a tie. Now with the ball, points were out of the question for the Giants, as Kerry Collins threw his own interception, and the offense was able to do no more than run the clock for the rest of the quarter using a backup running back, named Damon Washington. Jason Sehorn finally had enough of all this, scoring his own points off another interception to put the game away.

Stepping up on offense.
In that 23-9 Washington win last week, the Giants defense scored a touchdown, there were three field goals, and only one offensive drive resulted in a touchdown. That's not enough offense for a game against a team like the Rams. Kerry Collins, who has thrown five interceptions, and been sacked 10 times in four games, will have to drive the offense for touchdowns, and not just settle for field goals. We need to see Kerry Collins play a lot better game then we have seen from him all this year to beat the Rams. If we don't, expect to see a lot of critical Monday morning press focusing just on Collins.

The running game.
As game time approaches, it's looking less likely that Tiki Barber will play. Third-string running back Damon Washington will probably be the "Lightning" working with Ron Dayne for this one. Washington wasn't drafted, and the Chicago Bears signed him as a free agent. Then they waived him and then signed him to their practice squad. The next April, the Rams signed him as a free agent. They waived him in August and the Giants signed him in September to their practice squad. Last week he had 25 carries for 90 yards.

The defense.
The Eagles put Kurt Warner on his back four times in the opener, tied the game and took it into overtime. They lost the game 20-17, but held the Rams to 17 points over the first four quarters. That was the first game of the season when teams were just settling in. The Giants also did poorly in their first game, losing to Denver, but since then they are also 3-0, and the Giants defense has given up a total of just 25 points in those last three games.
The Giants defense is in tune for a game like this, but will have to hope that Jason Sehorn and Shaun Williams can help out the corner rookies Will Allen and Will Peterson when blitzing. The Giants have adjusted the defense, using Sehorn in the slot, working the middle of the field, and it has been effective over the last three games.

Those other games.
The Giants have not beaten the Rams since 1993, when they were the Los Angeles Rams. They have not won on the road against them since 1990. Overall, since a 28-0 win by the Giants over the Cleveland Rams on Nov. 13, 1938, the Rams have gone 24-9 against the Giants. Since 1983, when the L.A. Rams beat Bill Parcells, 16-6, in his first game as coach, the Rams have gone 11-4 against the Giants. The Rams have won all three games since Fassel took over, by a combined score of 82-37, including the 38-24 win at Giants Stadium last season, playing without quarterback Kurt Warner and running back Marshall Faulk.

Notes:
The Giants are underdogs by 10 points.
The Rams are averaging 32 points a game.
The last time the Giants scored more than 33 in a regular-season game was Dec. 5, 1999, against the Jets, 41-28.
That's the only time they have scored more than 34 points since Jim Fassel took over.
Giants -- QUESTIONABLE: RB Tiki Barber (hamstring); RB Ron Dayne (neck).
Rams -- QUESTIONABLE: RB Robert Holcombe (shoulder); T Ryan Tucker (hand).

Next Game
Oct 22, Eagles at Giants 9PM.

For those very organized fans.
If you use a Palm Pilot and want to keep the Giants schedule, and actually the whole NFL schedule on it, there is a free download available here at PFL.

Last Week's review, game 4 - Giants 23 - Washington 9

Stop in and visit "Mike's Keys to the Internet" at  www.myhost.com/miked

Website by Mike