Who is going to stop the New York Giants? Right now they are poised to return the Super Bowl.

Just look at this team. Consider that Eli Manning was 13 for 23 for 153 yards; I mean he’s almost the antithesis of his brother, Peyton. They win big and he doesn’t have to throw for 300-plus yards.

NFL Week 11

Week 11 action

Jets 34, Patriots 31 — Recap | Box
Broncos 24, Falcons 20 — Recap | Box
Packers 37, Bears 3 — Recap | Box
Bucs 19, Vikings 13 — Recap | Box
Panthers 31, Lions 22 — Recap | Box
Eagles 13, Bengals 13 –Recap | Box
Saints 30, Chiefs 20 — Recap | Box
Colts 33, Texans 27 — Recap | Box
Dolphins 17, Raiders 15 — Recap | Box
Giants 30, Ravens 10 — Recap | Box
49ers 35, Rams 16 — Recap | Box
Cards 26, Seahawks 20 — Recap | Box
Titans 24, Jaguars 14 — Recap | Box
Steelers 11, Chargers 10 — Recap | Box
Cowboys 14, Redskins 10 — Breakdown
Browns-Bills — Preview | Notes



---

Analysis

• NFL Czar breaks down Week 11
• Marvez: Gruden no QB monogamist
• Hasenmayer: Week 10 power rankings

Video

• Glazer’s Edge: ‘Skins commit to Hall
• Online OT: Complete NFL coverage

Photos

• Week 11 snapshots

People ask who has the best offensive line in football and most would say right now that it is the Giants. But who is on the Giants’ offensive line? I don’t think they have a dominant player in the vein of a Jonathan Ogden or a Larry Allen. They don’t. But as a group they play better than any other team’s unit.

I tend to be an old school kind of guy, but I think their formula is the best one for winning. They have made great strides in a lot of areas. Madison Hedgecock has really improved as a blocker.

They are not just a two-back team like many teams in the league this season, they are a three-back team. Ahmad Bradshaw led them Sunday with 96 yards rushing. Bradshaw is a home-run runner, a great change-up back. But Brandon Jacobs imposed his will Sunday on a Baltimore defense that I thought prior to the game would match up well against the Giants. Early in the game, Jacobs just kept pounding them and that set the tone for the whole game.

They can afford to keep Bradshaw on the shelf like they have been. What a luxury! The Giants do so many things right. They convert on third down; they don’t turn the ball over. They ran the ball 33 times for 207 yards on the best run defense in the NFL. That’s the fifth game this season they have rushed for 200 or more yards. The last New York team to do that was in 1960. I mean, that is not just a great formula for today, but for later on in the year when the weather turns. It’s also a great formula for success in the playoffs.

Just think back to Week 3 or Week 4 of last year when that defense started to turn the corner. Steve Spagnuolo has taken Jim Johnson’s scheme from Philadelphia and he’s tailored it to fit the players that he has. Believe me, that says a lot of about Spagnuolo. He’s intelligent to do that. They were the first team to put four defensive ends on the field at the same time. Somebody goes down on that defense and someone invariably steps up. Honestly, I never would have thought they would remain as good as they were last season with Michael Strahan retiring and Osi Umenyiora getting hurt.

But what the Giants did to Baltimore’s defense…well, to say it was impressive would be an understatement. It was really remarkable.

I believe the other teams in the NFC East must reassess their particular situations. They all have to rethink in the short term where their season is. I mean, unless the Giants have a catastrophic injury to the quarterback position, they are going to finish first and be the No. 1 playoff seed.

Right now, teams are loaded up to stop the run and nobody can stop the Giants. I’m 265 pounds and Jacobs looks bigger than me. And he runs 4.4. He’s just an enormous man. And how do you tackle him? Where do you tackle him? Tackle him high or low? Where do you go? Nothing seems to work.

The Giants have been focused since Week 1 — I mean they had that one hiccup in the Cleveland loss — but beyond that, really, the focus has been there all year. The one thing about the Giants is that they remain so mentally tough. Teams often feed off the image of their coach, and Tom Coughlin is so tough mentally. This team is performing exactly like he probably drew it up in the offseason.

Grant gets Pack back on track

The Green Bay Packers finally got back on track in a showdown game against the Bears. They dominated Chicago. This was the first week that Aaron Rodgers has had a full week of practice and that had to help.

This is the first game the Packers and Ryan Grant looked like the team they were last season when they ran away with the NFC North. Grant has run the ball well in the last two games against Tennessee and Minnesota. In the first half of both of those games, Grant ran well. But for some reason the Packers got away from it in the second half and they lost both of those games. He was over four yards a carry in both games.

Grant had the holdout early in camp and then the hamstring injury. That hurt them. He is so much more physical than you would think. He’s not a runner who goes down on initial contact. He carries defenders pretty good.

Ryan Grant took the pressure off Aaron Rodgers in the Packers rout of the Bears. (Doug Pensinger / Getty Images)

When you commit to run the ball from the opening possession, it definitely helps your quarterback and your receivers. It helps your offensive line and Green Bay’s line was criticized over the past couple of weeks. You look at the Minnesota loss, Rodgers got mauled. You look at the Tennessee game, Rodgers had opportunities but he didn’t convert in the red zone, plus he had an interception down there. He had another turnover, too.

There are three teams now atop the North, but the Packers will look at the Tennessee and Minnesota games as two games they could have won.

Bucs step up against Vikings

Just look at what Tampa Bay did against Minnesota Sunday. The Bucs ran the ball 33 times. They didn’t run it for a lot of yards, but what it did was keep Minnesota’s defensive front honest. Because of that running game, Jeff Garcia was able to check down and move around in the pocket and buy some time to keep the offense going. He passed for 255 yards in a 19-13 game. You don’t see that very often.

I also thought Adrian Peterson was unbelievable. He’s really an incredible player. He had 19 carries for 85 yards. Now, any other back facing that defense and those odds today, well their total might have been 19 for 25 yards. I don’t know how many plays he picked up five, six yards after it looked like they had him stuffed in the backfield.

The Bucs only had 15 sacks all season, but they had five today. The Bucs had 21 first downs and they held Minnesota to 210 yards. Everything that Jon Gruden called was smart. They controlled the game with seven minutes in time of possession.

As Warner goes, so go the Cards

The one thing that does concern me about Arizona is its lack of a running game. It surprises me, considering Russ Grimm is their offensive line coach. I do like Tim Hightower and he has brought an element to that offense. But what happens when the Cardinals face another game like the Jets’ loss earlier in the season? Remember, they got whipped in that game. I figure, for whatever reasons, there will be games when the protection breaks down or when Kurt Warner is off target. Or, the matchups aren’t working.

Arizona’s defense is much improved. Moving Antrel Rolle to free safety gave the Cardinals so much more range at that position. I think they are going to be in a position to be able to walk away with the division and probably get whatever players they need to get well for the playoffs down the stretch — and if Warner can stay on his feet, they have a chance. But, remember, Warner can be brittle. He hasn’t been knocked around a lot this season.

I do look at Warner as an MVP candidate right now. What he has done is pretty extraordinary. I lot of people are also mentioning Kerry Collins for MVP, but I really don’t see that. Just because you play quarterback on a team that is unbeaten doesn’t mean you’re their best player. OK, the last two weeks Collins has come up big in the passing game. But they have a lot of good players.