Sunday, November 26, 2006

Breakdown

New York Giants at Tennessee

4:15 p.m.135

Average rushing yards for Giants running back Tiki Barber in his last five games against AFC teams

148.1

Rushing yards allowed per game by the Titans this season, which ranks 30th in the NFL

The Giants seem to be on the verge of a big-time collapse. Their defense has been decimated by injuries. Quarterback Eli Manning looks to be regressing in his third NFL season. And now running back Tiki Barber is spouting off again, much to the chagrin of Coach Tom Coughlin.

"A disproportionate amount of teams that win, win it by running the football," Barber told reporters this week. "Period. That's football. It's not complicated. This is something that teams and kids and coaches do from 12 years old to college and up and beyond. This isn't rocket science. It's football."

In New York's 5-2 start, Barber averaged 22 carries a game. In the past three games, two of them losses, Barber has been averaging 15 carries a game, and he had only 10 carries in last week's loss to the Jaguars. He said that the Giants should be relying on him, and not Manning, to get them out of their offensive rut.

Strangely, New York tight end Jeremy Shockey, who's no stranger to publicly calling out his coaches, now is leading the rallying call.

"When one of us gets knocked down, we pick each other up and keep swinging. That's how we do it around here -- Coach Coughlin's way," he said Friday in his weekly New York Post column.