Can the underdog New York Giants pull off an upset of the Carolina Panthers on Sunday?

Here are six things to watch as the 1-3 Giants try to get their season turned around.Barkley’s touchesComing off a game in which Saquon Barkley ran the ball a season-low 10 times we can likely expect to see a heavy dose of Eli Manning handing the ball to the rookie running back on Sunday. Provided Cheap Jon Halapio Jersey , of course, that the Giants are close enough on the scoreboard for the running game to matter.Barkley is averaging 14 rushing attempts per game, tied for ninth in the league in rushing attempts. In two games, though (Dallas, 11 and New Orleans, 10) the Giants have seemed to get away from the running game too quickly.After coach Pat Shurmur admitted during the week that Barkley should have gotten more carries vs. the Saints, don’t expect the same mistake vs. Carolina. The Giants need more big plays, and handing the ball to Barkley is one way to try and get them. Doing so might also help open up some avenues in the passing game.Big plays in the passing gameThrow ‘em short. Throw ‘em long. Throw ‘em somewhere in between. Doesn’t matter — at least according to coach Pat Shurmur and quarterback Eli Manning. Hit it right and you can generate big plays. Unfortunately for the Giants, they haven’t generated enough thus far. The Giants are 23rd in the league in passing plays of 20 yards or more, with just nine through four games. They are one of only three teams without a passing play of 40 yards or more. Superstar wide receiver Odell Beckham Jr., the game’s highest paid wide receiver doesn’t have a touchdown and is averaging a career-worst 10.7 yards per catch. Thus far, Beckham has been a highly-paid possession receiver. Or even worse, a decoy.The Giants can talk about picking away at opposing defenses, staying ahead of the chains or on schedule on offense, but this is a team with two of the game’s great play-makers in Beckham and Barkley along with some quality ancillary options. They need to begin to find ways to get those explosive plays in the passing game.Defending the zone read Blake Bortles: 4 carries, 42 yards (a long run of 41 yards)Dak Prescott: 7 carries, 45 yards (a long run of 15 yards)Deshaun Watson: 5 carries, 36 yards (a long run of 10 yards)Taysom Hill: 4 carries, 28 yards (a long run of 19 yards)That’s 20 carries for 151 yards, an average of 7.55 yards per pop, by quarterbacks running against the Giants this season.Sunday, the Giants face Cam Newton, who could end his career as the most prolific rushing quarterback of all time. Newton needs 27 yards rushing to surpass Randall Cunningham (4,482) for most rushing yards by a quarterback with a single team. Only Michael Vick (6,109) and Cunningham (4,928) have more rushing yards than Newton (4,456) among quarterbacks.You can bet that the Panthers will use a heavy dose of the zone read, which has bedeviled the Giants all season, and other designed quarterback runs until — and unless — the Giants finally show they can handle it.Defensive coordinator James Bettcher knows what’s coming.“He [Newton] is a very physical, big guy who at times in the zone option scheme, will take the matchup. You will be in the right spot, you’ll have the guy that’s supposed to be on the quarterback on the quarterback, and he will take the matchup at times whether that’s just pulling the ball, or maybe that’s giving the ball and taking the matchup,” Bettcher said. “He’s really smart with those kinds of things and they do a nice job putting him in some of those kinds of situations.”The Giants really haven’t successfully defended the zone read yet. Can they figure out a way to do it against perhaps the best quarterback who has ever run it? That’s not fun to think about.Here is part of what Chris wrote about the Carolina offense earlier in the week:Which brings us to McCaffrey Back to more of what Chris wrote earlier in the week:After Newton, the second-year back is clearly Carolina’s most important offensive player. “One thing about him, when I turn the tape on, I see an explosive guy who’s not afraid. He’s shifty, he can do all those things in space http://www.giantscheapshops.com/cheap-authentic-connor-barwin-jersey , but he’s not afraid to put his foot down, lower his pads, and he’s going to try and run someone over,” Bettcher said. “Those are the kinds of backs that as a defensive coach you have a lot of respect for, that when it’s time to put your pads down and get those tough two yards, this is a guy who’s going to put his pads down and get the tough two yards.”Can Olivier Vernon make an impact?Vernon, who had 6.5 sacks a season ago and has 44 in six NFL seasons, could make his season debut Sunday. The Giants, 30th in the league in sack percentage at 3.65 and facing a prolific running quarterback like Newton, could use Vernon’s help.Vernon said this week he wants to be certain he can move well enough not to be a liability. Vernon is the team’s most talented EDGE player. His presence vs. the Panthers would be a huge plus.Oh, those negative playsManning, Shurmur and offensive coordinator Mike Shula all talked during the week about the need for the Giants to eliminate negative plays. That seems obvious, of course. Just how many negative plays have the Giants had on offense? Here’s how many:15 sacks (fourth-most in the league)14 runs for negative yardage (fifth-most)Four passes for negative yardage (that’s unofficial, by my count having gone through every play)Sixteen accepted offensive penaltiesThat is 49 negative plays in 279 potential offensive snaps, including the 16 plays that didn’t count because of penalties. That means that 17.5 percent of the time the Giants have gone backwards. You just can’t overcome that high volume of bad plays, especially when you are running an offense that is trying to minimize risk. Everybody loves the backup quarterback. Thus, with the New York Giants at 1-5, 37-year-old Eli Manning playing inconsistently and the Giants’ offense struggling to find its footing, the calls we have been hearing from the fan base for rookie quarterback Kyle Lauletta to play were inevitable.Those calls will grow louder should the Giants lose to the Atlanta Falcons on Monday Night Football. Even if the Giants win, they won’t subside. Not with the Giants almost certainly headed for a sixth season without a playoff berth in the last seven, and a dark cloud having been cast over Manning’s ability to finish out his contract as the team’s quarterback.On Friday, I asked Lauletta about the increased media traffic at his locker recently and what he has learned from watching everything that has gone on around the Giants during the first six weeks of his NFL career.“It’s very demanding in New York in general. Our fans and this city demands a lot. They want to see us win, they want to see us do well and obviously from the poor season we had last year a lot of fans were hopeful that we’d turn things around,” Lauletta said. “They just expect a lot of you, but that’s how you want it. You want a fan base that’s going to be with you and be great fans, but if they’re not disappointed then they’re probably not a great fan base.“We understand. It’s our job, it’s our responsibility to start winning some games.”The Giants are going through a change after four years in the Ben McAdoo offensive system. New head coach and play-caller in Pat Shurmur, new offensive line, new running back, new wide receivers beyond Odell Beckham Jr. and Sterling Shepard.Lauletta has experience — lots of it — with learning new offensive systems while trying to win games. He had a different offensive coordinator in each of his four seasons at Richmond, and played in three completely different offenses. Thus, he understands what it’s like to play while you’re still trying to become comfortable with a new scheme.“It’s very difficult. These are all new concepts and new stuff that these guys didn’t do last year,” Lauletta said. “Any time you’re exposed to something new you’re going to have some growing pains and make some mistakes here and there.”Still, as he watches from the sideline in street clothes each week, Lauletta sees reason for optimism.“We’ve had games where this game the o-line didn’t have a great game, or this game we dropped passes, or this or that, or Eli had a couple bad throws. Everybody wants to point fingers, but it’s a team sport and I think we just need to put it all together Cheap Will Hernandez Jersey ,” Lauletta said. “I think we’ve showed bright spots on offense. We have drives where we go and score and then we’re stagnant and we’re three-and-out the next two or three. We just need to pick it up in our consistency.”That stuff, though, isn’t really what many in the fan base want to hear. Or think about. They want to know when the rookie is going to get to play.That, of course, is out of his control. Reality is, that throwing him out there right now would be unfair to him. His practice reps have consisted to this point of running the Giants’ scout team, which means running the opposing team’s offense vs. the Giants’ starting defense. Lauletta has not been getting live reps running the Giants’ offense.As Lauletta told me, it’s “Eli getting the reps because he’s the one who’s going to be getting the reps on Sundays and Mondays.”Offensive coordinator Mike Shula said during a session with media on Friday that he likes what he has seen from Lauletta.“He’s talented, he’s got a good arm, he’s accurate. I think he’s got a lot of poise for a young guy,” Shula said. “He’s not just a smart young football player quarterback, but you kind of get a feel for rookies, quarterbacks or whatever position, but does football make sense to him outside of just what’s on the paper? And I think he definitely fits into that category.”I asked Giants’ defensive back Michael Thomas for his thoughts on Lauletta:“He plays hard. He’s trying to learn the game, he’s trying to get used to the speed, he picks up things fast, he can make every throw so far as what we’ve seen,” Thomas said. “I like the way the he’s developing.”There may come a time this season when that development includes live reps, a game day uniform and perhaps some playing time. Fans can’t shake the nightmare of the way the Davis Webb situation unfolded a season ago. The Giants have a new GM and coach, though, so it’s really unfair to tether them to the decisions of the previous regime. If the season continues to spiral out of control, the Giants figure to put a plan in place to get Lauletta ready to play. Until then, he says he will continue to do what he can to be ready.“In the NFL another thing I’ve learned is that you have to prepare and be responsible for all the information that Eli is getting. If he takes a rep and we see a look and ‘hey, you should have done this.’ If you go in the game you’ve gotta know that because you should have been paying attention,” Lauletta said.“The coaches do a great job preparing everybody. Obviously it’s hard when you haven’t repped it, but you still have to go out and execute. There’s no excuses.”The Giants were thrilled when they found Lauletta still available to them with the 108th pick in the draft.“He’s got all the stuff – he’s tough, he’s not shy in the pocket, he’s got pocket presence, patience and feel, which, again, those are instinctive things that you can’t teach,” GM Dave Gettleman said when the Giants drafted him. “He throws a really nice ball, he’s accurate, he’s got a sense of anticipation and timing and the other part is he’s a runner. He’s got legitimate escape dimensions and we’re really pleased about that.”When will Lauletta get a chance to show whether those traits that attracted the Giants to him in the draft could translate to long-term success on the field? No one really knows. Finding out what they have in Lauletta, though, figures to be where the Manning succession plan starts.