Palladino: Lack Of Experience Could Doom Giants In Playoffs

By Ernie Palladino
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Eli Manning, Victor Cruz, Will Beatty, Zak DeOssie, Jason Pierre-Paul, and Jonathan Casillas.

That's it.

That's the total amount of players on the Giants' roster who have playoff experience. And now that the regular season is out of the way, that factor looms ever larger as the NFC's fifth-seeded team attempts to get past its wild-card game in Green Bay and mount a serious Super Bowl challenge.

Though surmountable, it's no small matter, especially to a team that has forgotten the art of scoring points. The 19-10 victory in Washington may have the Giants feeling good about themselves from a defensive standpoint, and rightly so. But with Manning's unit having failed to score even 20 points in its last five outings, the offense should be viewing Wild Card Weekend apprehensively.

It's circumstances like these where a team needs those wise, seasoned heads on both sides of the ball to make clear to their teammates that the playoffs are like no other time of year.

Intensity rises exponentially. Players get just a little faster; the emotional level elevates along with the stakes as the rounds go by.

The five who remain from the 2011 Super Bowl championship team, the last one to make the playoffs, know that. The question is whether that little nucleus can speak loud enough to convince the remaining 48 to kick up their games that extra level.

The leadership had no such issues in 2011, or in Manning's first Super Bowl run in 2007. Plenty of Giants went into those miracle drives with at least a taste of playoff football.

Coach Tom Coughlin had taken the Giants to the postseason the two years previous to 2007. Even though those gambits ended in losses -- 23-0 to Carolina in 2005 and 23-20 in 2006 -- the franchise returned much of those rosters in 2007.

The defense and offense was packed with playoff experience. Manning was young, and Brandon Jacobs was at the height of his bruising prowess. Steve Smith and Plaxico Burress had seen the differences between life in the regular and postseasons. The offensive line was thoroughly hardened with David Diehl, Chris Snee, Shaun O'Hara, and Kareem McKenzie. Michael Strahan, Justin Tuck, Osi Umenyiora added voices for the defense, and Jeff Feagles, DeOssie, and miracle-catch man David Tyree handled the special teams.

That squad went into the playoffs with no fear of anyone.

By the time 2011 rolled around, Mario Manningham had come into the group, and Ahmad Bradshaw had the knowledge of a Super Bowl and the 23-11, one-and-done exit against Philadelphia in 2008.

The fact that the Giants find themselves in yet another situation where they must win three road games to reach the big show is nothing new. They were wild cards in both 2007 and 2011.

But never was their core so inexperienced to the ways of the playoffs.

As well as the defense played -- make no mistake, it carried the Giants this year -- key free agent additions Janoris Jenkins, Olivier Vernon, Damon Harrison, and Kelvin Shepard have never sniffed the playoffs. As fiercely as Landon Collins has performed, he has but two years of total experience. To him, studying the Giants' last playoff appearance would be like perusing an ancient manuscript.

Ditto for Odell Beckham, Jr., the team's only true offensive weapon.

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Four years of watching from the living room has prompted major roster renovations. The passage of time caused retirements and departures.

What is left is an aging quarterback in Manning, an old long-snapper in DeOssie, a wide receiver who injuries and circumstances has relegated to second-class status in Cruz, a defensive lineman whose hernia surgery makes him an iffy proposition to even play in Pierre-Paul, and an offensive lineman who no longer plays at all in Beatty.

Casillas has won two Super Bowls, with the Saints and Patriots, respectively. If you're a Giants fan, you can only hope he continues to step up big on the leadership front, as he did prior to Sunday's win in Washington.

Postseason leadership is only part of the equation, of course. But it helps. And given the way the Giants insist on keeping opponents in games this season, they will need to utilize every facet to the fullest.

Deep down, players know playoff life is different. But they still need the experienced voices to bubble that realization to the surface, where it can translate into action.

Whether the Giants have enough of those to accomplish that could mean the difference between another pulse-pounding Super Bowl run and an early exit next weekend.

Follow Ernie on Twitter at @ErniePalladino