If the Giants are without strong safety Jabrill Peppers, head coach Pat Shurmur has an idea of how the defense will look Sunday when New York (2-9) hosts the NFC North-leading Green Bay Packers (8-3).

Ahead of Sunday's 1 p.m. kickoff at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey, Shurmur said Wednesday that the Giants are prepared to enter rookie Julian Love and veteran Michael Thomas into the safety rotation.

"We'll have a combination with Love back there and Michael Thomas, so we'll fill in," Shurmur said. "I thought Love did a good job, first extended action last week and so he displayed a lot of the things that we thought he might have. So we'll just try to build on that if, for some reason, Jabrill can't make it."

Julian Love's homecoming in Chicago on Sunday was a bittersweet one. For one, he was playing in the NFL for the first time in his city with friends and family watching from the stands. However, a couple friends he was hoping to see weren't there for very unfortunate circumstances. 

Love's childhood friends in Joey Ramos and Tony Lemon tragically died after their car plunged into Lake Michigan last Sunday. The car was recovered on Tuesday, just five days before Love was supposed to hit the turf at Soldier Field. 

"Joey was a big Bears fan, and this is the game where, I have no doubt they'd be there Sunday cheering me on," Love told NorthJersey.com's Art Stapleton. "It's hard, it's definitely hard, but they'll be with me this way, too. They'll be there in spirit."

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Saquon Barkley put a ridiculous spin move on Bears cornerback Prince Amukamara in the second quarter, and then nearly spun out of another tackle on the same play. It was a violent move that sure seemed to prove he wasn't still bothered by his ankle injury.

So if that's not it: What in the world is wrong with Saquon Barkley?

That question has to be asked after he had another low-impact performance in the Giants' ugly, 19-14 loss in Chicago. He gained just 59 yards on 17 carries - 22 of which came on one fourth quarter run. Coupled with his disaster against the Jets (13 carries, one yard) he now has just 60 rushing yards on 30 carries in the last two games.

It's been well documented this season just how young this Giants defense is. They have the most amount of rookie snaps of any team in the NFL, and it's mainly because of their starters on defense. 

First-round cornerback DeAndre Baker has been starting since Day One, and so has DT Dexter Lawrence. Mix in players like LB Ryan Connelly (out for the season with torn ACL), OLB Oshane Ximines, and now CB Corey Ballentine and you can see why this unit has struggled facing top offenses this year. 

But this is what the Giants want: develop the young talent to set a foundation for next season and the foreseeable future. Rome wasn't built in a day, and GM Dave Gettleman and the rest of the front office realizes there is a process to this. 

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The Giants haven't led the NFL in much recently, but they had a big lead in one category through the end of October. No team played rookies more often than they did. And they led in that category by about 500 total snaps.

That only counted rookies, like quarterback Daniel Jones, defensive tackle Dexter Lawrence, linebacker Oshane Ximines and corners Corey Ballentine and DeAndre Baker. It didn't count all their second-year pros like guard Will Hernandez, running back Saquon Barkley, defensive end B.J. Hill, linebacker Lorenzo Carter, and cornerbacks Grant Haley and now Sam Beal.

The point is, the Giants are young. Very, very young. And that might be the biggest reason to be optimistic about their future, and to believe that GM Dave Gettleman could have them on the right path.

Ralph Vacchiano | Facebook | Twitter | Archive

Pat Shurmur was still the Giants head coach on Monday morning, which is how it will likely stay for at least the remainder of the season. And his assistant coaches will apparently remain on the job with him, too.

On the morning after what might have been the most humiliating loss of his Giants tenure, Shurmur said: "Having slept on it, no, I'm not going to make any coaching changes." He had said the same thing in the moments after the Giants' 34-27 loss to the Jets on Sunday afternoon, but that didn't stop speculation that he could change his mind -- or that ownership could change it for him.

A team source confirmed, though, that there were no immediate plans for ownership to either fire Shurmur or to force any staff shakeup in the wake of the Giants' 2-9 record -- at least until the end of the season.