THE AVENGERS
Giants have eyes on payback after getting swept by Redskins last year Ralph Vacchiano,
THE GIANTS HIT ROCK BOTTOM last Dec. 18 when they were booed off their home field after another hideous loss to the Washington Redskins. It was the game that pushed them to the brink of elimination, one so bad it caused Antrel Rolle to question his team’s “heart.”
It was also the second loss of the season for the eventual Super Bowl champs to the lastplace team in the NFC East. The Redskins won only five games last season — two against the Giants.
That’s a blemish on a championship season the Giants refuse to forget.
“We definitely remember,” Rolle recalled last week. “It made things extremely hard for us to get into the postseason last year with those two losses in our division against the same team. We understand that they’ve got a good team — especially when they come play us.”
That hasn’t always been the case in this division rivalry, but it certainly was last year. And that’s a big reason why the Giants (4-2) are so guarded against the Redskins (3-3) entering their game at the Meadowlands on Sunday afternoon. The Redskins nearly ruined the Giants’ Super Bowl season a year ago, and now that they’ve replaced quarterback Rex Grossman with rookie Robert Griffin III — “obviously the most exciting new addition to the NFL,” said Justin Tuck — the Skins may be more dangerous than ever.
Also, as several Giants said last week, this might just be a “must-win” game. Even though the Giants reestablished themselves as legitimate contenders with their impressive 26-3 win in San Francisco on Sunday, they’re still off to an 0-2 start in the NFC East.
And in a division that has four teams separated by a game-and-a-half, and in a race that’s likely to stay tight all season, the Giants can’t let that division record fall to 0-3.
“We know that (0-2 record) is not good,” said Victor Cruz. “In certain ways, this is probably a must-win game for us, especially in the division. We need to get ourselves a win (and) we need it right now.”
After the way they dismantled the tough 49ers defense on Sunday, getting that win against the Redskins should be easy. Wash- ington is giving up 417.2 yards and 28.8 points per game (27th and 26th in the NFL, respectively), and their NFL-worst passing defense (328.3 yards per game) should look appetizing to Eli Manning, especially now that his top receiver, Hakeem Nicks, is feeling healthier with a game under his belt.
The problem is the Redskins offense, which now has RG3.
“It’s different,” Tuck said. “He’s a gamechanger. They haven’t had a game-changer at quarterback for a while, and he’s that. He definitely makes it difficult for defenses.”
There’s no doubt about that. Griffin, the No. 2 pick in the NFL draft, has completed an impressive 70.2% of his passes through his first six NFL games (113-for161) for 1,343 yards and five