Here’s the thing folks. The whole of this season’s Giants is better than the sum of last year’s parts.

How many fans, halfway through last season, believed that the Giants were Super Bowl material, let alone good enough to beat a team that nobody could for 17 straight weeks?

The Giants have lost their star receiver. That loss alone magnifies the last two losses, but this Giants team has outperformed last year’s team on paper and on the field. I believe that while the losses of Michael Strahan and Plaxico Burress are great, they’re not insurmountable. The Giants have already been able to make up for the loss of Strahan, who was thought by many to be the singular MVP of last season. They can make up for the loss of Plaxico Burress.

Burress is a fine receiver and his mere presence effects an opponent’s entire defensive scheme, however it is the job of Kevin Gilbride, the Giants offensive coordinator, to adjust to that loss. Gilbride was able to take a lesser team last season through the gauntlet of the playoffs, into the juggernaut of a Patriots defense and figured out a way to win.

There is no doubt the Giants have a formidable challenge ahead of them, but the chicken littles of the world need to put things in perspective. This is a better Giants team than the one that did the unthinkable last season, lets give them the benefit of the doubt. These Giants, as a whole, are better than the sum of their parts.