Let’s take a look at five of the key story lines surrounding

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Tampa Bay Buccaneers game at MetLife Stadium.The return of Jason Pierre-Paul This has been the big story line all week. Former first-round pick Jason Pierre-Paul , traded to the Bucs by new GM Dave Gettleman during the offseason, coming back to MetLife Stadiumfor the first time against the Giants and promising that he will be “bringing the house down.”Coming off their best game of the season, the Giants’ offensive line knows a motivated Pierre-Paul will be a handful on Sunday. The job of controlling Pierre-Paul will likely fall mostly on the $62 million shoulders of left tackle Nate Solder.“He’s playing well. He’s got tremendous talent and ability. He plays within the system. They’re putting him in a place to be successful. He can run around guys, he can run through guys, he’s got both of those qualities,” Solder said.There are sub-plots. Pierre-Paul having 8 sacks while the Giants as a team have only 10. Pierre-Paul saying he was disappointed no one from ownership contacted him when he was traded.The story on Sunday will simply be this — can the Giants block him or not?Home cooking?Both of the Giants’ victories this season have been on the road, where they are 2-3. At home the Giants are 0-4 and have been outscored 107-59. MetLife Stadium crowds are getting used to exiting games long before they are over, often in the third quarter.Can the Giants finally win a game at home? Or, at least keep fans in their seats until the end?“That’ll be big, just the momentum for our team of getting two in a row and getting one in front of our fans,” Saquon Barkley said. “We got two this year, and we haven’t got it done at home. So, that’ll be big for us to get a win at home, and definitely need it.TurnoversTampa Bay managed the seemingly impossible feat last week of generating more than 500 yards in total offense (501 to be exact) and yet getting only a field goal in a 16-3 loss to the Washington Redskins.How is that even possible?Well, when you turn the ball over four times and fail to generate any takeaways of your own it certainly goes a long way toward making it happen.The Buccaneers, in fact, have been horrid in the turnover department all season.Tampa Bay is a league-worst -19 in the takeaway/giveaway category. The Bucs are last in the league in giveaways with 25, and 31st in takeaways with only 6.The Giants are 22nd in that category at -2 overall. They have 11 giveaways and 9 takeaways. Eli Manning has thrown six interceptions this season. He’s on pace for 11 interceptions, second-lowest total of his career and his interception rate of 1.7 percent is a career low. Check downs often don’t get you first downs or points, but the flip side is that punts are better than interceptions.Let’s see if the Giants can win the turnover battle on Sunday.Handling all those receiversMike Evans (50 receptions, Chris Godwin (37), Adam Humphries (37 and Giant-killer DeSean Jackson (33) at wide receiver. O.J. Howard (29 receptions) and Cameron Brate (15) at wide receiver.The Buccaneers have a ton of weapons to choose from in the passing game, which is a big reason why they lead the NFL in passing yards and total yards gained. How are the Giants going to handle all of that on Sunday?Defensive coordinator James Bettcher was asked about all those receivers on Thursday. His answer included a whole lot of coach-speak gobbledygook but amounted to him saying the Giants would try but he wasn’t really sure.“Going through and watching every pass in the whole season, you see everything everyone’s tried to do to find a way to slow them down , maybe double a guy, to play coverage, to bring pressure, and I think it’s that good balance of the mix of finding downs in places where you can bring extra guys and speed up the process, create some one on ones and win those one on ones,” Bettcher said. “Then in the back end, you can play zone or you can play man, there’s going to be a lot of times in one on ones you’ve got to win them, and I think all that said, it’s play fundamentally sound football and play fast. That’s really a point of emphasis for us.”OK, then.One thing we are likely to see is more of Landon Collins, playing more of a pseudo-linebacker role close to the line of scrimmage lately, matched up against Howard. The Giants tried to do that Monday night against George Kittle of the San Francisco 49ers, but Kittle wound up with nine receptions in 10 targets. Per Pro Football Focus, though, Kittle was only targeted once while being covered by Collins — a play that resulted in an 18-yard gain.Bettcher insisted on Thursday that Collins vs. tight ends is a matchup that favors the Giants.“I love the matchup with him on great tight ends, I really do,” Bettcher said. “That’s one thing he’s built to do.”Taking advantage of Tampa Bay’s secondaryEarlier in the week Chris detailed the weakness of the Buccaneers’ secondary. Statistically, the Bucs are 29th in the league in passing yards allowed per game, 30th in yards allowed per pass attempt, 25th in yards allowed per completion, last in the league in opponents’ completion percentage, 28th in completions allowed per game and last in the league in opponents’ passer rating.With Odell Beckham Jr., Sterling Shepard , Evan Engram and Saquon Barkley the Giants should be able to take advantage of that Tampa Bay weakness. If they can protect Manning from JPP and Co. It’s Saturday, which means it’s time to open the Big Blue View Mailbag and see what questions New York Giants fans have as we look ahead to the 2019 season.Ed says: Nobody knows for sure if the Giants are taking Dwayne Haskins with their first pick. Nobody knows if he will even be available if the Giants stay at No. 6. We don’t know what they think of Kyler Murray, either, but I have a hard time seeing Giants GM Dave Gettleman, a traditionalist who favors size, falling for Murray.The majority of mock drafters seem convinced the Giants are taking a quarterback with their first pick. I am a loooooooooong way from coming to that conclusion.Ed says: One word — No!Ed says: Anthony, I don’t believe that what happens on the offensive line has anything to do with the future of Rhett Ellison on the Giants. I think it simply has to do with the Giants needing to decide whether or not Ellison is worth a $5.75 million cap hit un 2019, and whether or not they can replicate what Ellison does with a cheaper option like Scott Simonson or someone else.Ed says: Honestly, that is hard to answer when we haven’t seen how the offseason will unfold. The Giants have soooo many difficult, critical decisions to make this offseason. Right now, I couldn’t tell you what they will look like when the 2019 season opens.That said, I think Dave Gettleman and Pat Shurmur are both solid, capable people. I like their approach, and I like many of the things they did in 2018. I think this is a critical offseason and 2019 a critical year. It’s often said that players often make their biggest improvements from Year 1 to Year 2 of their careers. Can that be applied to front offices and coaching staffs, too? I really don’t know, but I think the offseason will tell us a lot about the eventual success or failure of the Gettleman-Shurmur duo.I would like to see improvement in 2019. I would like to see the team in real playoff contention. I would like to have a clear idea of how they will proceed long-term at quarterback.CTscan asks: If the lions were willing to trade Matthew Stafford as has been reported, would you be interested? How much would you give up for him?Ed says: If it’s me as Giants’ GM? I give up precisely nothing. I have no interest in Stafford. I’m not paying a king’s ransom for a guy who has been in the league for 10 years, not when the Giants have so many needs in other places.Tommy Donlan asks: With the #6 pick in the 2019 NFL draft the New York Giants select...I realize there is much to be worked out with FA, contracts of Eli, Vernon, Jenkins, etc., but if you had your choice between Bosa, Q. Williams , Josh Allen, Greedy Williams, or Deionte Thompson (Giants need positions on D), which player do you think would have the biggest impact?Ed says: I’m not going to evaluate one guy over another at this point. What I will say is pass rush before pass coverage. So, given my choice of defensive players I’m taking the best front seven player who can impact the pass rush.Eric Chavis asks: There is talk that with 9 (potentially 11) picks in this draft, the Giants have volume to try and maneuver the draft in order get their QB of the future. I am just wondering how realistic that may be considering most of the picks are day 3 picks?Ed says: Eric, thanks for the question. The Giants can do one of two things. First, they can sit tight, make all their picks and try to accumulate as many players as they can to supplement a thin roster. They could also use those picks to move around the board and target players, quarterback or otherwise. As GM of the Carolina Panthers, Gettleman was never afraid to move around the draft board if he had a conviction about a player. With picks to maneuver with, I wouldn’t be surprised to see him do so this year. I don’t, though, think we will see the Giants move up from No. 6. That’s a steep price.Brett Peeling asks: Why do you think there is so much noise about Eli’s age and consequent diminished ability, but nothing similar for Roethlisberger or Rivers? Is it a function of being under the microscope in NY, or is Eli’s play at that much lower than the others? Is the jury in, and Eli is the worst of the three?Ed says: There will forever be comparisons between Eli Manning, Ben Roethlisberger and Philip Rivers. Over the years I have written some of them myself. I don’t believe right now you can judge Manning the worst of the three. He’s perhaps not playing as well as the other two at this point, and most would tell you right now Rivers is playing the best of the three. How they would rank has probably changed a number of times during their careers.I really don’t think you can rank them properly until they are all finished playing and you have their entire bodies of work to judge. No matter what, I think the Giants and their fans have to be happy with getting two Super Bowl titles out of Manning.

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