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On Sunday, we witnessed the final stage of implosion for the defending Superbowl Champion Giants. Anyone watching the NFC’s top seed get eliminated at home by their divisional rivals couldn’t possibly be stunned. Well, maybe you can be, if you haven’t tracked the former champs from there to here. The G-men down the stretch had no semblance of the squad in earlier weeks. And if you’re a fan feeling like a quick change victim, there’s one word that altered the entire season….”Plaxico”.

Plaxico Burress caught the game winning pass to put the Giants on top of the NFL world. But even before the new season began, he was already proving to be a pain in the Giants’ backside. But regardless, he played, and the Giants continued to notch victories. Then came a suspension, an injury, and another suspension for using his own thigh to collect bullets, and no one thought the impact would be tremendous, if having any at all. The Giants played smash mouth football, running the ball aggressively down the throats of their opponents. The passing attack held more of a support role, never truly emerging as a must for victory. Besides, the aging and sure-handed Amani Toomer, along with the youth of Steve Smith and Domenik Hixon, was more than enough to carry the load of one troublesome pass catcher… Right?

It was all wrong. The absence of Plaxico Burress had a severe impact on the offense as a whole. Without him, defenses weren’t threatened by Eli Manning. Without him, defenses stressed run stoppage, daring the Superbowl MVP to beat them with his arm. The Giants averaged 172 rushing yards per game with Burress in the lineup. Since his departure in week 11, that number had been trimmed to 131, and the team finished just 3-3 down the regular season stretch. Now make it 3-4, and the Giants managing just 138 rushing yards in their playoff loss to the Eagles.

New York is now officially in the offseason, and they have plenty of decisions to make. The expectation is that Burress will not be in a Giants uniform next year, and the closing weeks have given us a preview of a Giants offense without him. In case they haven’t realized which position is a priority in coming months, they need only to track from there to here, and it becomes very clear.