The news has just broken in New York that Mathias Kiwanuka is out against the Bears Sunday night at the New Meadowlands. 

With Osi Umenyiora a non-factor these day, the pass rush is thrust onto the shoulders of Justin Tuck.  This should allow the Bears to sit Brandon Manumaleuna over there all afternoon.

Other injury news:

Shaun O’Hara is out for the Giants and Keith Bullock is battling turf toe for, unbelievable, the first time in his career.  He may play but he’ll be limited.

Chris Williams and Major Wright are out.

In front of what will feel like Soldier Field Sunday night, the Bears attempt to shock the football world and open 4-0.

I’ve seen all three of the Giants games this season, having just finished watching their odd contest with the Tennessee Titans.  They dominated the awful Carolina Panthers in the second half.  They were dominated throughout by the Indianapolis Colts.  Here’s what I discerned from the Titans tape.

Offense

• The Giants run game that ushered them to a Super Bowl victory was up-the-gut with Brandon Jacobs and Derrick Ward, countered with Ahmad Bradshaw taking off on the outside.  Their interior run game is almost non-existent now and they gained all their significant yards on outside pitches to Bradshaw.  Against linebackers of our speed, I don’t see that working.
• I counted a total of one completion made to a receiver in-stride, moving down the field and that was to tight end Kevin Boss in the seam.  This play has killed the Bears for years.
• The Giants like to go three-wide and complete intermediate passes in front of the corners.  They’ve got three talented receivers – Manningham, Smith and Nicks – and our defensive backs need to make tackles in space.  The Bears like to force opponents into ten-plus play drives.  The Giants will oblige.
• David Diehl and Kareem McKenzie will start for them at the left and right tackle spot, respectively.  And neither can block Julius Peppers.  Both will require significance assistance.
• If Shaun O’Hara can’t go again at center, look for Rod Marinelli to dial up some stunt blitzes for both Briggs and Brian to exploit the over-matched Adam Koets.
• The Giants seem to throw to the backs as a last resort.  Both of their designed screens on Sunday were disasters.
• Their play-calling around the goal line is boring.  Lots of drop backs that involve Eli standing in the pocket.  If the Bears increase pressure down there, they’ll get turnovers.

Defense 

• On a whole, I was terribly unimpressed with this unit and think the Bears are going to have the opportunity to score a boatload of points Sunday night.
• They have faced three teams.  The one that wanted to throw the ball (the Colts) threw it at will.
• The only thriving remnant of the championship defense, as far as I can tell, is Justin Tuck.  Tuck is still a brilliant player but they don’t move him around the line of scrimmage.  He’ll be lined up over Kevin Shaffer, most likely, the entire game.  Expect Brandon Manumaleuna to spend most of the evening at his side.
• They almost sell-out their linebackers with mega-blitzes on third and anything over five yards. The Bears could gain big yards early with well-calculated screen calls.
• The Giants linebackers are not particularly fast and not particularly versatile.  We’ll have huge mismatches with Forte and Olsen whenever we line them up outside.
• The trick to running the ball against this group is attacking the ends directly and not letting Tuck or Kiwanuka (Osi is essentially not on the team anymore) beat our tackles to the inside.
• Justin Gage and Kenny Britt are talented guys but not speedsters and there were opportunities deep down the field against this secondary.  If Vince Young weren’t the Titans quarterback, they would have scored at least ten more points.
• In the fourth quarter, Giants defenders wanted nothing to do with the field and Chris Johnson ran through them.

Special Teams

• Didn’t see much of rookie punter Matt Dodge, as the Giants didn’t punt much Sunday.  But he’s mostly struggled in his rookie season.
• Lawrence Tynes is one of the most inconsistent kickers in the game.  He pushed a low-forties kick about six or seven yards right.
• They acquired Darius Reynaud from the Vikings in the Sage Rosenfels deal and he’s returning their kicks and punts.  He doesn’t seem like a big threat.
• Their return games have struggled so badly, they’re moving some starters onto the units.  I think we might have a big game returning the ball.

There are very few writers out there as critical of the play-for-play coaching decisions of Lovie Smith as I am.  I think he is as brutal a clock manager as there is in the sport.  I think he acts stubbornly in support of his own poor decisions.  (Who didn’t know he’d go for it on the fourth down this week?)  But I think his benching of Tommie Harris is a bold stroke of desperate genius.  For too long Lovie has been The Great Excuser, putting overmatched players on the field simply because they’re there and he likes them.  Benching Tommie shows that Smith is well-aware he’s coaching for his NFL life.  And I like that.  (To hear Warren Sapp break down the situation, click here.)

“If you put him in a group of most-competitive, biggest-clutch players, I think he’d have to be the guy who would win it all,” his Raiders coach, John Madden, said in a phone interview Monday.

“He was the most competitive guy that I ever knew.”

Never was that more evident than during a five-game stretch in 1970 when the 43-year-old Blanda, his chiseled jaw framed by salt-and-pepper sideburns, led the Raiders to four victories and one tie with late touchdown throws or field goals.

“It got to the point where when he’d come in [the game], the whole team would go, ‘Here comes George. We’re going to do it now,’ ” Madden said. “Then pretty soon all the fans started believing, and they’d all go nuts. And then the topper is when the opponents knew it. It was like, ‘Oh no, here he comes.’ 

Some fans get mired in Power Rankings and pundit prognostications.  Some fans clamor for respect from the national “experts” because it seems the national “experts” are the only ones talking about sports on television these days.  We live in a BCS sports culture.  A sports culture, led by the four-letters, that believes winning is not enough.  Because if winning were enough, if results were all that mattered, what the hell would the roster of talent the four-letters employs have to talk about?   

• Raise your hand if last night reminded you of 2006.  There is one major difference.   Jay Cutler is 1,000,000 times the quarterback Rex Grossman ever was.  This might be the worst offensive line in football and Cutler created offense last night where there was none to be found.
• My mindless support of Greg Olsen for the last year plus is starting to look less mindless these days.
• It is impossible to dislike Aaron Rodgers.  The kid can play quarterback.
• As bad as that offensive line is, I thought Kevin Shaffer earned himself a shot at that right tackle spot moving forward.  I’m starting to wonder where Chris Williams figures into all of this.
• It was a great night for Lovie Smith’s defense.  Some will say the Packers dominated the game because they dominated the time of possession but time of possession does not equal points.  The big plays made to Jermichael Finley over the middle were great, great, great throws.
• Julius Peppers is pretty damn remarkable, ain’t he?  I’d love to see another sack or two on his stat sheet but he is currently dominating the opposition in the run game and forcing an inordinate amount of penalties on weak offensive tackles.  And the blocked field goal.  Beautiful.  Somebody needs to step up opposite Peppers at some time season.
• The Bears are better without Tommie Harris.
• The Bears are not better without Devin Aromashodu.
• The Bears should never run the wildcat.
• I believe I predicted something about Devin Hester returning a punt for a touchdown.  Never been happier to be right in my life.
• Gotta catch that ball, Desmond Clark.  Gotta.  Catch.  That.  Ball.
• Brad Maynard had a hell of a game punting the ball.  Both of the terrific Devin Hester returns were partly the result of his forcing the Packers to start inside their own ten.
• This is the best Brian Urlacher has played since the early part of the decade.
• 3-0.  Wow.