Some Motivational Material for the Giants

Some negatives to worry about during a winning streak

Things are going well for the Giants right now. 

They've won three straight games, taken sole possession of first place in the NFC East and gotten past some of the injury issues that threatened to derail them earlier this season. The only big issue anyone could come up with this week was Victor Cruz's contract, and that's not exactly something that qualifies as a major concern at this moment in the season. 

For many people, this would be a good thing. For the Giants, however, calm waters do not make for good sailing.

This team doesn't tend to play all that well without a little bit of pressure bearing down on them, whether it is the mathematical implications of the playoff hunt or the doubts that other people have about their ability to win big games. Now that they are 5-2 and everyone expects them to win every week, it's hard to keep going to those wells. 

So we've decided to help them out a little bit and point out some trouble spots on the Good Ship Giants at the moment. None of them are really going to qualify as things to keep you up at night nor would they be the type of things that wind up on bulletin boards, although one should never underestimate Big Blue's ability to find a slight. 

Ahmad Bradshaw's foot - Bradshaw missed a second straight day of practice on Thursday with the latest iteration of the foot injury that has plagued him throughout his career. Bradshaw said that it is no big deal because he wanted to avoid a setback by practicing on Thursday, although one is forced to wonder how great the risk will be of a bad turn will remain all season. 

Eli Manning's degree of difficulty - There's absolutely nothing wrong with the season Manning has turned in, but there should be a bit of concern about how often he seems to wait until the final moments of the game to turn it on. It makes for a better story to have the fourth quarter comebacks but we're pretty curious to see what would happen if Manning played all 60 minutes. 

The rest of the pass rush - Jason Pierre-Paul's having some fun again on the defensive line, but the help he's getting from the rest of the gang is still lacking. Justin Tuck and Osi Umenyiora each had a sack last week, but their play hasn't reached the level the Giants will need to hang with the league's better passing attacks. 

Josh Alper is also a writer for Pro Football Talk. You can follow him on Twitter.

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