MINNEAPOLIS – There was an edge in his voice, a tone that suggested Shaun Williams did not care to be trifled with. Not anymore, anyway. The subject-matter was the state of the Giants as they embark on the second half of their season and the affable strong safety sounded impatient.
“We need to beat the teams we’re supposed to beat, whoever that team may be,” Williams said. “In the past we kind of played down to our opponent at times and we can’t do that. I’m not trying to imply anything about Minnesota so I don’t want you saying that I said we should beat Minnesota and all that.”
Williams wanted to make sure nothing he said could be remotely construed as disrespecting the Vikings, who at 2-6 are even worse than the meager expectations established for them coming into the season. The message, though, was quite clear, and for emphasis, Williams went a step further.
“When a champion has a chump in the ring, he’s going to knock that guy out or he doesn’t deserve to be the champ,” he said.
Proud owners of a one-game winning streak, the Giants today want to believe that they will leave the Metrodome knowing a whole lot more about themselves than they did before they arrived. In a one-game-a-week league, a single victory can be viewed as rejuvenating, a single loss as devastating. Beating the Jaguars 24-17, with Jim Fassel taking over the play-calling and the offense responding with its best showing of the season, gave the Giants the jolt they needed. A loss today would provide the thud.
“At some point if you want to make the playoffs you have to put together some wins,” Michael Strahan said. “This is our chance.”
Fassel this week grew testy when asked to consider the soft stretch of games that line the schedule. “I look at other teams and they’re playing other teams with not great records,” he said. “That’s just the way the league is.”
The Vikings were lousy last year, yet the Giants ventured into town and exited with a 28-16 loss, as the Vikes clearly were motivated by the bitter memory of the 41-0 whipping administered by the Giants in the 2000 NFC Championship Game. This time around, the streamlined offense put in place by Fassel goes against the NFL’s 30th-ranked defense and the worst pass defense in the league, a unit that has given up 16 touchdown passes. With Randy Moss, Daunte Culpepper and Michael Bennett, the Vikings can score, just not enough to keep up with the massive points they allow and not nearly enough to offset the league-high 24 turnovers they’ve committed.
Perhaps the Vikings will simply hand the ball over the Giants, but most likely not. Fassel had the magic touch for one game, but is anyone prepared to stamp this offense as having arrived?
“This group has got to realize if everybody comes together we can do some special things,” tight end Jeremy Shockey said. “We see where we’re sitting right now, we see what we got, we can still reach our goal, but we got to get on a roll and get this thing going.”
Entering the second half of their season, the Giants understand they are similar to so many other teams in need of a streak. Facing the Vikings here is not the most difficult place to start.
“We can’t go into this game looking at their record, we have to look at their personnel,” Williams said. “They have the personnel, if we’re not prepared, they’ll beat us. It’s a new start if we want it to be. It’s a new start if we start winning games, if we continue on the same path, it’s not a new start.”
