at the upcoming game for the New York Giants those focus largely on numbers. The only number that really matters for the Giants as they prepare to head south for a Monday Night Football game against the Atlanta Falcons is that 1-5 record.Whatever side you’ve chosen in all the Eli Manning-Odell Beckham Jr.-John Mara drama that has been unfolding http://www.giantscheapshops.com/cheap-a … der-jersey , the source of all of that drama is the 1-5 record.Mara says he is “embarrassed” at being 1-5. Coach Pat Shurmur says he is “disappointed.” Fans are mostly hopeless, with only 9 percent showing confidence in the team’s direction in our most recent Fanpulse survey.“I think we need to play better, I think we need to coach better, and we’re certainly not happy with the record. I feel like when you’re close in games, you look back on plays here and plays there, and close isn’t enough. We’ve got to try to find a way to get it over the top.”It’s tough to remember with the taste of last Thursday’s 34-13 whipping by the Philadelphia Eagles still fresh, but the Giants have indeed been “close in games” several times in their five losses. Close enough to have perhaps won three of them, to perhaps be sitting at 3-3 or 4-2 at this point without all the drams having unfolded.Week 1 — The Giants lose 20-15 at home to a Jacksonville Jaguars team that, as the season has unfolded, was more vulnerable than last season’s AFC Championship Game appearancemight have indicated. The defense gave up just 13 points. Awful offensive line play that culminated in breakdowns leading to a fourth-quarter Pick 6 by Myles Jack doomed the Giants here.Week 2 — A 20-13 loss on the road to the Dallas Cowboys. This one “should” have been winnable, but the Giants were never really competitive. They trailed 10-0 at the half, 13-0 before getting a field goal and 20-3 before tacking on a couple of stat-enhancing late scores.Week 5 — What do you say when you crack the 30-point mark for the first time in three seasons and still manage to lose on a 63-yard game-ending field goal?That’s three “coulda/woulda/shoulda” games for the Giants already this season. While that’s not really a productive game to play Ray-Ray Armstrong Jersey , good teams find ways to win those, and right now the Giants just aren’t a good team. Can they become one? At least one that provides optimism heading into 2019?We have 10 games to find out.Giants-Falcons by the numbers432 and 401 — The Giants gained 432 vs. Carolina and 401 yards vs. Philadelphia, their first consecutive 400-yard games since Sept. 18 and 25, 2016, when they totaled 417 yards vs. New Orleans and 457 yards against Washington. Points, obviously matter more than yards but if you are looking for a glimmer of hope about the offense that might be one.5 — That’s the number of Falcons starters already on injured reserve. That list includes:S Ricardo AllenRB Devonta FreemanLB Deion JonesG Andy LevitreS Keanu Neal Atlanta placekicker Matt Bryant is also not expected to play against the Giants due to a hamstring injury. The Falcons have signed Giorgio Tavecchio to take his place.7 — If Saquon Barkley can total 100 or more yards from scrimmage he will join Kareem Hunt as the only two players to hit that mark in each of their first seven NFL games.33.3 — The points per game surrendered by the Giants in their last three games. They have given up an even 100 points in losses to the Saints, Panthers and Eagles. 6 — The number of points the Falcons are favored by.8 — The number of points the Giants fan base believes the team will lose by.9 — The percentage of the fan base that said in our weekly Fanpulse poll that it still had confidence in the direction of the Giants.19.5 — The number of points the Giants are averaging per game, 27th in the league.368 — Odell Beckham Jr. (358) needs 10 receptions to surpass former Giant and Pro Football Hall of Famer Frank Gifford (367) for 6th all-time in receptions in franchise history.350 — Eli Manning (345) needs 5 touchdown passes to become the 7th player to reach 350 in NFL history. In Week 4, Manning surpassed Pro Football Hall of Famer Fran Tarkenton (342) for seventh-most touchdown passes all-time. 70 — Odell Beckham Jr. (4,930) needs 70 receiving yards to reach 5,000 in his career.23 — Beckham (22) needs one 100-yard receiving game to pass Amani Toomer (22) for most 100-yard receiving games in franchise history.Pat’s Perspectives: Was Ereck Flowers prepared for last week? I usually try to not read into things too much, but I must be honest and admit that an alarm bell sounded this week regarding right tackle Ereck Flowers and his preparation for the Jaguars game.First a little context. In the past Janoris Jenkins Jersey , many players have told me that mastering the mental part of the game is more than 50 percent of the battle on game day. To do that, you have to be sharp in the classroom, demonstrating that you know your assignments inside and out. You also have to be willing to spend the extra time studying the film of your opponent, as the more you learn about him, the better prepared you can be.That brings us to this past Monday when Flowers, after sleeping on things following his rocky showing against the Jaguars the day before, came out to speak with the media.One of his responses that kind of stuck out like a sore thumb was in response to a question concerning his tripping penalty on the first play of the game.“Yeah, it was a quick pass, so I jumped out there too fast on it,” he said before dropping his bombshell.“Next time I know what type of player I’m against. He’s not really a speed guy, so next time I won’t jump out so fast.”Wait, what? Seriously Kerry Wynn Jersey , wouldn’t studying the tape have offered a clue as to what type of player he was facing before he went out there? If that wasn’t enough to make you go “Hmmm,” then how about this response from offensive coordinator Mike Shula Thursday when asked if he felt like he’s going to have to give Flowers blocking help. (Emphasis added.)“Everything ties in together. Guys have to win one-on-one’s. You’re going to have times where you’re going to slide. You want to mix your protections up whether you’re keeping your backs and tight ends in or free releasing them, not being predictable. 鈥?“To start with, guys got to know what they’re doing, know where their help is, got to get the ball out on time and then when we have backs or tight ends helping out, chipping on the way out or involved with protection, we got to do a good job with that too.”I’m really not sure how to take the comments by Flowers and Shula. I’d like to think neither was admitting that there was a lack of preparation, but given what we saw last week, if that was the case, then shame on that player for taking a shortcut.Say what? I wanted to revisit a comment head coach Pat Shurmur made during his Wednesday press conference that left me confused.The comment was in response to a question about potentially falling to 0-2 because of how detrimental that might be in making the playoffs (which, as the 2007 Giants team will tell you http://www.giantscheapshops.com/cheap-a … ley-jersey , isn’t necessarily the case).Shurmur’s response to that question/statement was, “We don’t worry about that. That’s fun for everybody to talk about outside the building. “We didn’t do enough in the first game to win the game, and we’re working to do what we can to win this next one. Period. End of story. All that stuff is fun for everybody to talk about, but we don’t worry about that.”Considering that this next game is against a division opponent where the game can ultimately count for an extra half step in the standings if there is a tie, how can you not worry about falling to 0-2 when the next game on your schedule is a division opponent that can put you at that record?I kind of get where Shurmur was trying to go with his response — he’s said many times he lives in the moment. But I’m not sure his attempt at separating the next game from the 0-2 record went over quite the way as planned. Let’s calm down about Sam Darnold for nowI know Ed is going to touch upon this topic at some point, and I don’t want to steal his thunder, but I must weigh in here on the Sam Darnold-Eli Manning debate because I think it’s simply ridiculous that there even is a debate at this juncture.Seriously, I think we need to temper our enthusiasm about Darnold until he plays in several games and opposing defenses get some quality film on him in the Jets system before we go getting his bust ready for Canton.That’s not to say Darnold won’t become a very good player, but to sit there and compare him with the more accomplished Manning is just ludicrous at this point.