The Giants have consistently been one of the NFL's most-injured teams the past four seasons and it's no coincidence their on-the-field performance has suffered as a result. Head coach Tom Coughlin says injuries should not be used as an excuse for losing, but they sure do count as a reason.
The Giants led the NFL in a statistic the website Football Outsiders call "Adjusted Games Lost," a stat that compiles total games missed by players due to injury:
"With Football Outsiders' Adjusted Games Lost (AGL) metric, we are able to quantify how much teams were affected by injuries based on two principles: (1) Injuries to starters, injury replacements, and important situational reserves matter more than injuries to benchwarmers; and (2) Injured players who do take the field are usually playing with reduced ability, which is why AGL is not based strictly on whether or not the player is active for the game, but instead is based on the player's listed status that week (IR/PUP, out, doubtful, questionable, or probable)."
Last year, the Giants led the league in AGL with 137.1 and in 2013 with 144.3. In 2012, they ranked eighth with 82. This season, they have 14 players on season-ending injured reserve, one on PUP and one on IR/Designated to Return.
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