Pierce has missed the last two games for the Giants with a bulging disk in his neck. The injury wasn’t thought to be that bad at first but more evaluations led the team to pull the plug on his season.

The Giants defense is clearly struggling right now and not getting one of their best players back on defense isn’t going to help any. With Pierce gone the Giants lose a lot of their bark. They don’t have to worry about losing their bite though, they lost that a while back.

Technorati Tags: Antonio Pierce, New York Giants, NFL

Eli Manning plays good when everyone else around him does, and right now he’s surrounded by inexperience at receiver. He’s not getting a lot of help from his running game either, Brandon Jacobs isn’t living up to the hype he creates for himself.

Antonio Pierce is another guy who can’t live up to his own hype. These guys need leaders to be leaders and the Giants just don’t seem to have any. There is a lot of young talent on that team but the lack of true veteran leadership is showing. It’s time for guys like Osi Umenyiora and Justin Tuck to step up and be leaders, these are the guys they need to start filling that role.

New York can’t afford to keep sliding, not with the way Dallas and Philadelphia are playing. Coughlin knows this and he’s trying to create a sense of urgency for his players, which is probably what they need. The law of averages says they come out and win against San Diego this week. If they don’t they could be in for a disappointing finish to their season.

Technorati Tags: Antonio Pierce, Eli Manning, Justin Tuck, New York Giants, NFL, Osi Umenyiora, San Diego Chargers, Tom Coughlin