Reeling Giants feeling good about chances

Say this much for the Giants: They haven't had any game these last three weeks, but at least they're still able to talk a good one.

Three straight losses, each one more disheartening than the last, but they're still talking as if they'll be there at the end. Call it confidence. Call it swagger. Call it blind faith. Or call it a severe case of denial.

In the aftermath of a 49-24 drubbing by the Saints, the Giants keep believing they're in control and they'll turn their season around. Even if the evidence suggests to the contrary.

Safety Antrel Rolle said unequivocally Tuesday he thinks they're playoff-bound.

"Absolutely, absolutely," Rolle said on his weekly appearance on WFAN. Rolle also suggested anyone ready to jump off the bandwagon should feel free to do so; the Giants will still fight to make the playoffs, and adopt the us-against-the-world mentality.

PS: Rolle said essentially the same thing when the Giants' playoff hopes were teetering last year after a 38-31 loss to the Eagles in which they blew a 31-10 fourth-quarter lead. And you know what happened then. Still very much alive going into a game against the Packers, the Giants were routed and saw their playoff hopes evaporate.

They face the Packers again on Sunday, and although they might not be mathematically eliminated by another loss, the specter of a four-game losing streak and a 6-6 record will only weigh more heavily on a team getting far too used to these second-half collapses.

So unless they can pull off an upset of the undefeated defending Super Bowl champion Packers, then all this talk will amount to whistling by the playoff graveyard. And unless the Giants can somehow reverse a trend that has seen their defense become more exasperating by the series, then the late-season swoon will continue and take Tom Coughlin's coaching tenure right along with it.

That defense gave up 577 yards Monday night, the second-worst mark in franchise history. Drew Brees sat back and had zero problem as the Saints ran their customary deep crossing routes.

And the Giants think they can now turn it around against the Packers? This one could get as ugly as Monday night. Aaron Rodgers, the reigning Super Bowl MVP, is having one of those transcendent seasons that could see him win his first regular-season MVP award.

His receivers run similar routes as the Saints, the deep crossing patterns that confounded the Giants all night. There is an unstoppable quality to the Packers' offense. Green Bay's win over the Giants late last season began a streak of 17 straight wins, and with the Packers talking openly of matching the 2007 Patriots as the only team to go 16-0, it's tough to see them suffering a letdown.

Sure, the Giants have rallied in these spots before; they beat a Patriots team that had won its previous 20 home games overall and 18 at home against NFC opponents. Hard to believe that game was less a month ago.

Still harder to believe the Giants are talking as if their season is about to turn around.

"The only thing different right now is that we've got the season to play," Justin Tuck said. Then again, Tuck said in the next breath about all the doubts being voiced from those of us with tape recorders and laptops at the ready: "If I were you guys, I'd be writing the same thing, too."

Sorry, but the Giants have left us no choice.