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Before the Giants’ embarrassing 23-0 shutout loss to the Seattle Seahawks, I wrote that for the Giants to have any success, they needed to frequently run the ball.

Here’s the final play breakdown: 35 pass, 14 run.

Against the top pass defense, and a middle-of-the-road run defense.

I’m not sure.

You can point fingers all you want at the effectiveness, or lack thereof, of Andre Brown and Peyton Hillis.  You can say the offensive line stinks.  The fact of the matter remains simple, you can’t be expected to be successful on offense without a good game plan and the Giants didn’t have one against Seattle.

The truth of the issue is that there’s probably an equal amount of blame to be shared between the personnel and Offensive Coordinator Kevin Gilbride. To pass the ball 2.5 times more often than you run it against a defense like the Seahawks’ is irresponsible.

Sure Brown and Hillis struggled, but they never got the opportunity to build some momentum and get anything going on the ground.  The ground game is one of those things that if you’re persistent at it, the holes will eventually open up because you’ve worn the opponent down.

By virtue of the play calling, the Brown and Hillis never got the opportunity for holes to open up for them.

While you can’t blame Gilbride for this season without acknowledging his role in helping the Giants to two championships in the last six years, it’s painfully obvious that he’s fallen well behind the league the last two seasons as the game has changed.

When it became clear that Eli Manning was struggling against Seattle’s secondary, how do you not run the ball more?  How do you double down on committing to pass the ball on a team that has done nothing but prove that you can’t pass on them?  What were they trying to prove by passing the ball 35 times!?!

This week against a lackluster Detroit Lions pass defense, I could see that.  But not against the best pass defense in the league.  Speaking of Detroit’s defense, it is almost the inverse of the defenses that the Giants have faced in recent weeks – its pass defense is much worse than its rush defense.

For the Giants to have success this week, they’re going to have to use the run game sparingly, something they don’t seem to have a problem doing.

But even in limited action, Brown needs to be better against Detroit than he was against the Seahawks.  Eleven rushes for 17 yards is not going to cut it.  Unfortunately, I don’t have enough faith in this offense to think that they can bounce back and even compete with the Lions.

Joe’s Prediction:

Last Week: 22 carries, 85 yards, 0 touchdowns

Actual: 11 carries, 17 yards, 0 touchdowns

Verdict: Not even close, Joe.

This Week: 13 carries, 34 yards, 0 touchdowns

Joe Vasile | Featured Columnist

Joe Vasile is the voice of the Fayetteville (NC) SwampDogs.  Follow him on Twitter at @JoeVasilePBP.