These Giants Compete With Simms, Gifford and Lombardi

If you're a Giants fan, would you consider it a letdown if they didn't go all the way this season? You should, because right now, after their hugely impressive 23-7 victory over the Washington Redskins on Sunday, the Giants are clearly the best team in the NFC and probably in the entire league.

If you really want to know how much difference a year makes, consider this fact: The Giants are currently 11-1. This time last year they were 8-4 - a shaky 8-4. And that isn't close to being the whole story. Last year's Giants were lucky to be 8-4 after 12 games; they were averaging just 22.8 points per game on offense and allowing 21.4 on defense. Nine times out of ten, those numbers translate into 6-6, not 8-4. This year's model is scoring an average of 29.3 and giving up an average of 17.2 per game.

Here's the kicker: the Giants are doing it all without defensive end Osi Umenyiora, their leading sacker last year, and their most dangerous receiver, Plaxico Burress, who shot himself in the thigh and, probably as far as his season is concerned, in the foot as well. Not only is this team blessed with a brilliant coaching staff, a splendid offensive line, a huge, fast, aggressive defense and a rapidly maturing quarterback, but they have depth as well. Domenik Hixon, whose two long kick returns made the difference against Arizona two weeks ago, should step effortlessly into Plaxico's cleats at wideout.

Exactly how good are they this year? Well, so far, the 2008 New York Giants, like Hemingway's definition of a great novelist, are competing only with the dead. They're so far beyond last year's Super Bowl winners that you're forced to look to the great Giants teams of the past -- 1990, 1986, and 1962 - to find a match. The 1990 squad, which started the season with Phil Simms and ended in a Super Bowl victory over Buffalo with Jeff Hostetler, had a 13-3 regular season record and a per-game margin of victory of 7.7 points.

In 1986, the Giants went all the way with Phil Simms and featured the two best players in the league: right end Mark Bavaro on offense and linebacker Lawrence Taylor on defense. They were 14-2 during the season with a margin of 8.4 points per game. (They beat John Elway and the Denver Broncos in a rout in the Super Bowl.)

The legendary 1962 team, quarterbacked by Y.A. Tittle with Frank Gifford and Del Shofner catching his passes and Rosey Grier at tackle, was 12-2 with an 8.2 margin. It was one of the NFL's best teams never to win a championship, losing 16-7 to Vince Lombardi's Green Bay Packers.

After 12 games, the 2008 Giants are whipping their opponents by an average of slightly better than 12 points per game - and that includes a flukish 14-35 loss to a bad Cleveland Browns team in Week 6. Just for fun, toss the Cleveland game out of the equation, and the Giants are averaging 30.7 points per game and allowing just 15.5.

In some ways, Sunday's 23-7 win over the Redskins was the Giants' most impressive of the season. Unlike the Arizona game the week before, they weren't outgained and didn't need two long kick returns to win. Washington is a bitter division rival that had plenty of incentive on its own home turf to fight for a possible playoff berth, but the Giants were up 10-0 before the first quarter was over and though it was just 13-7 at the half, there was never a doubt as to which team was in control.

The Giants pass defense gave up 229 yards to the Redskins' talented but erratic quarterback Jason Campbell, but took a chunk of that yardage back by sacking him four times. (Defensive end Justin Tuck had two of the sacks and knocked Campbell down twice on two other pass attempts.)

As has been the case all during the Giants seven-game win streak, Eli Manning got superb pass protection. He was downed twice but both were "coverage" sacks where his receivers were blanketed, and he wisely chose not to put the ball up for grabs. Manning threw for 305 yards - his first 300-yard game of the season - and spent most of the afternoon surveying the field with the calmness of a camp counselor playing quarterback in a game of touch football.

A couple of weeks ago it looked as if the Giants' last ten games - all against teams with winning records - were going to be a severe test. Now it looks as if the only test will come on December 18 when they play the Carolina Panthers, currently a 9-3 team who they may meet in the playoffs. (The 7 ½ points the Giants are favored by in this Sunday's rematch with the Philadelphia Eagles seems about a touchdown short.) My guess is that the Giants won't be coasting through the rest of the season but will pull out the stops in order to make a statement to whoever they face in the postseason.

It's probably not on their minds right now, but they may be making a statement towards posterity as well.