Silverman: While Giants Have Climbed Out Of Their Rut, Bears Sink Lower
By Steve Silverman
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The New York Giants are searching for a running game that they may never find, and while the defense is improved, it is still a work in progress.
They have the No. 1 red zone defense in the league, and that speaks volumes. But when it comes to sacking opposing quarterbacks, they have a grand total of 14 sacks, with Landon Collins and Oliver Vernon leading the way with three each. Those are not awe-inspiring totals.
Nevertheless, the Giants have won four games in a row, and the sorrowful Chicago Bears are coming to MetLife Stadium on Sunday.
This is music to the ears of the Giants' coaching staff, although they will never admit it. Compared to the 2-7 Bears, the Giants are a model franchise that once again has a chance to reach the promised land this season.
LISTEN: McAdoo Says Cutler Could Be More Dangerous Without Jeffery In Lineup
The Bears have fallen apart since firing Lovie Smith at the end of the 2012 season. They made a brutal mistake in bringing in Marc Trestman in 2013 and 2014, and they followed that up by hiring the tired John Fox.
The onetime Giants defensive coordinator (1997-2001) has made no progress in two years, and there are strong rumblings that the Bears will go through another house cleaning at the end of this season.
Just this week, No. 1 wide receiver Alshon Jeffery was suspended for four games as a result of testing positive for performance-enhancing drugs. Jeffery offered the typical excuse of taking a supplement that he did not know was banned and blamed himself for the mistake.
Few in Chicago believe Jeffery's claim that it was an innocent mistake. The Bears, like all NFL teams, have trainers and medical personnel who are more than happy to tell all players the makeup of any supplement being considered. Jeffery, in his fifth NFL season, has no excuse.
This is not to say that Jeffery is responsible for all of Chicago's problems. The Bears are coming off a two-game sequence that indicates just how inconsistent the team has been.
The Bears played their best game of the Fox era in Week 8 when they defeated the Minnesota Vikings on "Monday Night Football." In that game, they dictated the pace, and quarterback Jay Cutler did not make mistakes.
The Bears then had their bye week, and they made noises as though the team had turned the corner and was on its way to the NFC North title. They smugly went on break and then came back and were hammered by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, 36-10, in Week 10.
While every aspect of the team looked awful, nobody was worse than Cutler, who had a 55.1 passer rating while throwing two interceptions and fumbling twice.
Nobody wears it like Cutler, who still looks like a player who is happy to be cashing an NFL paycheck and couldn't care less about any other aspect.
Cutler's supporters say that his body language does not tell the full story and that he does care, but the proof comes in the way he plays. Try to find a time in Cutler's Chicago career when he plays three good games in a row. It hasn't happened.
So the Giants have an opportunity to punish a team that has not been able to get out of its own way in more than four years.
The Giants were able to look at last year's results and come to two conclusions, and then made appropriate changes.
They could not handle end-of-game decisions, and that fell squarely on former coach Tom Coughlin. He was invited to leave the Giants' employ.
They also had the 32nd-ranked defense, so they took steps to improve it by signing free agents Olivier Vernon, Janoris Jenkins and Damon Harrison, and those moves have worked. Vernon may not have the sack total he did in his salad days in Miami, but he is a hardworking bull of a man who sells out on every play.
That kind of attitude rubs off on the rest of the defense, and the Giants should be able to manhandle a Chicago team that lacks direction, talent and motivation.
The Giants' winning streak will reach five games and confidence continues to grow for the Giants. The Bears will offer little competition.
Follow Steve on Twitter at @ProFootballBoy
