The Giants are entering a critical stretch of their season with a need to regain their identity. For the better part of the past two seasons, they have been a great running team on offense, an attacking, pocket-collapsing team on defense and with field-position-changing special teams. None of that has been evident during the team's three-game losing streak.

After averaging 36 rushing attempts during the season-opening, five-game win streak, the Giants have fallen off to 25.7 per game the past three. The Giants trailed early in two of those three games and got away from the run, which is what they do best.

The Giants allowed no more than 187 passing yards to their first five opponents — and 88 or fewer to the Buccaneers, Chiefs and Raiders — before allowing a whopping 262.3 per game against the Saints, Cardinals and Eagles. Now, clearly there's a difference between defending Byron Leftwich, Matt Cassel and JaMarcus Russell and trying to stop Drew Brees, Kurt Warner and Donovan McNabb. But the difference has been too big for a defense of the Giants' caliber.

P Jeff Feagles has not been as pinpoint accurate, the return teams have been subpar and the coverage groups have just been OK. Last season's units were very competitive and mostly solid. Those hidden yards were a big edge that many people forgot to consider.

Clearly, QB Eli Manning is not playing his best football right now. He is struggling to hit open receivers and his accuracy has looked like it did prior to the team's Super Bowl run in 2007. But there is more to it than that. The reason the Giants have had to throw is because the run game hasn't been as consistently fruitful and because the defense has failed to stop good offenses.

The Giants are allowing a surprising 4.6 yards per rush on defense (that number was 4.0 last season) and have been gashed by the Cowboys, Saints and Eagles for 6.1 yards per rush. For a front seven that was hailed as not only one of the deepest in the NFL but perhaps the deepest the league has seen the past few seasons, that is unacceptable.

Injuries have hurt. DT Chris Canty has played in one game. LB Michael Boley, who was playing well, has missed time because of two injuries and a one-game suspension. And DT Jay Alford, who was set for a big role, went down in training camp. The tackles have disappointed in their penetration, but DEs Justin Tuck and Osi Umenyiora have not been as routinely great either. Neither has a LB group that has looked slow, especially when talking about Antonio Pierce and Danny Clark. The front seven should be better when Canty and Boley return, but their presence is only part of the solution.

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