The Offensive Lobby

Not that Shaun O'Hara has any more influence with Kevin Gilbride than any other player outside of Eli Manning, but he knows what he'd suggest to him to get the Giants' offense going after last night's debacle.

More running.

That's saying something, considering the way the offensive line got manhandled by a Denver defensive front that relies more on finesse than brute force. But O'Hara was right in that a cumulative 57-yard effort, the lowest rushing total since 2006, is not going to get them anywhere in the remaining schedule.

So, like, if the coaching staff puts out a suggestion box, O'Hara might fill it by himself.

"The only way in my eyes to get back on track is to keep doing it, and do it more," O'Hara said a few minutes ago in a conference call. "As offensive linemen, we're always going to complain we're not running the football enough. That's our MO. We want to run the ball more.

"I'm not going to be happy until we have 35 to 40 carries in a game."

They haven 't reached those lofty numbers since their 41-carry, 220-yard rushing effort against Oakland, six games ago. Only three times has the backfield had as many as 35 carries.

And now, there exists a legitimate question on whether the Giants are capable at all of generating such an offense against Dallas, Philadelphia, Washington, Carolina, or Minnesota. Generally, they have followed the league's pass-first trend, setting up the run with the throw. And lately, specifically during the last six games, they've had trouble generating ground yards on the early downs, forcing Eli Manning into the air.

Of the 10 first-down runs the Giants had last night, one was fumbled, three went for minus yardage, and four others went for three yards or less. Only two were five yards or longer.

O'Hara, still smarting from such a devestating loss, couldn't explain the grounding of the ground game.

"I can't put a finger on why," O'Hara said. "If we knew, we'd have fixed it. I'm sure there are a lot of factors that have gone into it.

"There are certain times we can execute better. Certain defenses are keying in on the run, and I'm sure they feel that's one way to try to beat us, to slow us down in the running game. If they can do that early on, maybe that frustrates us and we shy away from it. I don't know."

It wasn't hard to figure out who he was directing his comments to. And it wasn't the folks on the other end of the phone with the notebooks and voice recorders.

"It's something where we need to just make sure we start fast and run the ball effectively right at the beginning so we have confidence in ourselves that we're not going to stray away from it.

"We have to be effective at the outset of the game to give confidence to ourselves, not just the unit that's blocking, but for the running backs as well, and certainly for the coaches. We're a much better team when we go out there and get into rhythm. That's how we've won games around here, when we go out and put our best foot forward."

EP