Why The Giants Are So Terrible Right Now

Everything is bad all at once. But the curious collapse of the offensive line is the single biggest reason why they're so awful.

It's an odd development.

Four of the five starting lineman from last year's team and three of the five starting lineman from the 2011 Super Bowl are back. Yet they have been atrocious through three weeks.

The Giants are last in the league in rushing yards and haven't had a player go over 40 yards in a game all year.

Based on the Football Outsiders advanced stats, they have the worst run blocking in the league. In the first two weeks, a full 39% of their runs were stuffed at the line (the NFL average is 21%), and yesterday they gained just 60 yards.

Part of that is on the running backs. Ahmad Bradshaw is gone and Andre Brown got hurt before the season, leaving the running load on the inexperienced David Wilson and Da'Rel Scott.

Wilson got benched and embarrassed by coach Tom Coughlin after fumbling on the first night of the season, and has never recovered. Scott, for his part, never played meaningful snaps until this year.

But the stats say the line is getting almost no push, and that has nothing to do with who's running the ball.

The pass blocking hasn't been much better. Eli Manning was sacked six times in the first half alone yesterday.

There are other reasons for the 0-3 start: the lack of pass rush, injuries in the secondary, an incredibly unlucky streak of turnovers, etc.

But the line is awful, and it's stifling everything they're trying to do offensively.