Jonathan Stewart not expected to play at Giants, Ron Rivera says

The Giants are 2-3 in NFC East games, having lost to Dallas, Philadelphia and Washington once. He’s thrown for almost 3700 yards with 28 touchdowns and just 10 interceptions.

Even offensive coordinator Mike Shula has trouble explaining the newfound success.

“I know it’s a ligament”, Rivera admitted. “He capitalizes on people’s mistakes, and that’s one thing we’ve got to do is eliminate the mistakes”.

The big matchup this weekend will be Giants receiver Odell Beckham vs. Panthers corner Josh Norman. He in fact hasn’t played in Carolina’s last six games. “Explosive, exciting, a really great player”, says Panther safety Roman Harper.

Can anyone else make a play? Harris’ injury came against the Dolphins on Monday. They aren’t awful, but still have obvious holes the Panthers can exploit.

Carolina has the league’s second-best rushing offense at 141.9 yards per game, while Stewart is third in the NFL with 989 yards. He has been an absolute star for the Panthers and will total at least 350 yards and four touchdowns this week.

Whittaker, the team’s backup running back, has 74 yards rushing on 18 carries with one touchdown. A few years later, Hall of Fame tight end Shannon Sharpe told me that loss was the best thing to happen to the Broncos because it forced them to refocus and launched their drive to the Super Bowl win. The Giants will stay close throughout, but will eventually fall flat when it matters most.

Aside from the Giants, the Panthers have the Falcons in the George Dome; the Falcons have been in an utter free fall over the last month, and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers at home and they’ve been a very up and down team, but Carolina should handle them.

On our weekly National Football League preview Grandstanding podcast, my colleagues Jay Busbee and Kevin Kaduk both picked the Giants as their upset of the week.

Flowers will be aligned against veteran defensive end Jared Allen, a five-time Pro-Bowler. Do I expect him to give push up the middle? Yes. A pair of 7-year vets rotates in – Jonathan Casillas is second on the team in tackles, while former Gamecock Jasper Brinkley has 3 forced fumbles. “But we’ve got some guys that can make plays, too”. One would think that a secondary lead by CB’s Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie and Prince Amukamara would be more efficient in stopping the passing game. He starts with Craig Dahl, Trumaine McBride is the nickel back, he also has 3 picks with a score.

Obviously, Giants’ head coach Tom Coughlin has taken notice of all of that. He also caught his only target of the afternoon. Often times that means utilizing rookies and young players. The Panthers rank highly in average field position stats, so it hasn’t hurt them there.

Now, those aren’t exactly numbers to write home about, but with Stewart out, Whittaker’s workoad is going to increase and there’s a serious opportunity for him to do some serious damage against a Giants squad that is nothing short of woeful when it comes to defending the run.