are engaging in wishful thinking or there is something to their optimism these days.The reality is the Giants have a 1-4 record heading into Thursday night's game against the Super Bowl champion Philadelphia Eagles (2-3) and they are facing long odds in a bid to make the playoffs in coach Pat Shurmur's first season.The struggling Eagles have beaten New York in their last three meetings and seven of the last eight. The Giants are coming off an excruciating last-second 33-31 loss to Carolina on a 63-yard field goal by Graham Gano http://www.giantscheapshops.com/cheap-authentic-nate-solder-jersey , and now they have to rebound with three days of preparation.But the Giants believe there is reason for hope. Their offense scored 30 points for the first time since the end of the 2015 season. The team rallied from an 11-point fourth-quarter deficit to take a lead with just over a minute to play, only to be denied by a near-record kick. And they did all this despite dealing with some ill-chosen words by star receiver Odell Beckham Jr., about Eli Manning and the team's heart in the days leading up to the game."Very optimistic," Beckham said Tuesday when asked about the team. "I've always said, it's a long season, and we have an opportunity to come in here in a big, big division game and be able to reshape our season. We know what we have in front of us, short week, just coming off of a tough loss, so we're all just trying to get our minds wrapped around what the game plan is, how we can come out and best beat Philly."The Eagles tend to bring out some of the best in the Giants. Despite winning only three games last season, they lost two games to Philadelphia by eight points, with the first coming on a last-second 61-yard field goal by Jake Elliott. The second was 34-29 in a game New York trailed by two points entering the final quarter.The Giants also could be getting some key players back. Linebacker and leading pass rusher Olivier Vernon, who has yet to play because of a high ankle sprain, is very close to ready. Tight end Evan Engram, who missed the last two games with a sprained knee, was going to test his knee in practice on Tuesday. Both were limited.Engram watched the telecast of the game in Charlotte this past weekend and was encouraged."There was a point in that game where maybe last year or the old DNA of this team would've given up or would've tapped out," Engram said.Rookie halfback Saquon Barkley said the Giants scored 30 and left points on the field."We got to continue to keep growing, continue to keep working and to be able to put up 30 points Ray-Ray Armstrong Jersey ," Barkley said. "I think that game showed it was the toughness, the grit, the passion that we played with as a team, and obviously the outcome wasn't the way we wanted to be, but you could learn a lot of things from that game and take that game a long way."NOTES: PK Aldrick Rosas, perfect on field goals and PATs this season, did not practice again because of a sore quad. The Giants have signed Marshall Koehn to their practice squad. He was in training camp. He was working for Randy's Flooring in Coralville, Iowa when the Giants called Monday. "I looked at my phone because I was making a delivery and there were two calls from my dad, two from my mom and two more my agent. Everyone was freaking out." Needless to say, he found his way to New Jersey. The Giants can wait until 4 p.m. on game day to active Koehn if needed. ... LB Connor Barwin (knee) and WR Russell Shepard (neck) also did not practice. Barwin has been dealing with a knee issue all season.__Saquon Barkley wants to get back to “Giants Football” on offense When the New York Giants drafted running back Saquon Barkley second overall in the 2018 NFL draft, visions of offensive fireworks danced through fans’ heads. With hyper-athletic playmakers at every offensive skill position, how could the offense NOT improve? Unfortunately, the Giants’ offense has yet to realize its potential through the first quarter of the season. The fault for the offensive slog isn’t at the feet of Barkley, however. He has racked up at least 100 all-purpose yards in each game so far, and scored a touchdown in three of them. He is doing his part on the field, and he also seems to be blossoming rapidly off the field as well. Despite the way the team has started the season, Barkley sounds like the mature “Face Of The Franchise” he was drafted to be. He insists that the way forward for the team is to be optimistic, but also realistic about the hole they have dug for themselves. “Obviously you’re 1-3, the season is obviously not over Janoris Jenkins Jersey ,” he said. “It’s a long season but you can’t say it’s a long season forever because you get to a point where you get redundant and you keep saying that, then there’s no chance for you to make the playoffs. Everything that we still want, all of our goals are still in reach. Coach said something perfect today, he said the only thing that we’re not capable of doing this season is an undefeated season, and that only happened one time. I don’t know if everybody expects to win every single game, but most likely not going to win every single game. You’ve just got to continue to work, not get down like I said, have positive energy, come into the building and continue to work and like you said examine yourself, watch film, learn what you can do to help the team, learn what you can do better to help yourself better in certain situations and get ready for the next week.”On the offensive strugglesDespite having players like Barkley, Odell Beckham Jr., Sterling Shepard, and Evan Engram on their offense, the Giants have struggled mightily on offense. They have struggled with execution and mental mistakes, they have struggled with consistency, and they have struggled to find an identity.“We’ve got to get back to the basics. We’ve got to kind of do what we did the first drive against other teams, continue to have that momentum Kerry Wynn Jersey , that first drive epitomizes what we’re capable of doing on the football field and we have to have that mindset,” Barkley said. They showed in their first game that that they have the talent to match up and be a problem for any defense in the NFL. But what the Giants need to do is find an identity on offense.“Yeah, it is that simple,” Barkley added. “We’ve got to get back to playing Giants football. I don’t think really any team so far that we’ve played, obviously at the end of the game they had the win and they had more points than we had, but there’s a lot of things we did ourselves to put us in that situation. If we can fix ourselves and just focus on ourselves, I think the rest of the season will take care of itself.”‘Giants Football’, as Barkley referred to it, is “just being consistent, running the ball, making efficient plays, maximizing on the opportunities when we get the opportunities, stay away from mistake-free football – obviously you’re going to make mistakes, but make less mistakes than the other team, not turn the ball over.”On his rookie seasonBarkley himself has had a good start to his NFL career. So far he has proven his ability as a runner and receiver, shown that he can create on his own in both facets of the game, and be the playmaker the Giants drafted him to be. But that doesn’t mean that he is satisfied.Barkley said, “Even when you win, win or lose http://www.giantscheapshops.com/cheap-authentic-curtis-riley-jersey , I’m always going to be my biggest critic because I have the passion, I want to be great, I want to be a great player in this league and I have to hold myself to that standard. When we lose, you’ve got to look back on yourself.”That passion, the high standards to which he holds himself and the work ethic with which he drives himself to meet those standards, bordered on legendary in college. Despite having the kind of start to his rookie season of which any player would be proud, Barkley wants, needs, to be better.“I’ve got to be better,” he said. “I think I’ve been doing a pretty good job of breaking tackles so far, I’ve got to find a way to break more tackles. I was brought here to be an efficient player and when the opportunity comes, create big plays, and I’ve got to do a better job there. A lot of the reason we haven’t been successful is we haven’t been able to run the ball, we haven’t run the ball as well as we are capable of. That’s where my job kicks in and that’s where myself and the O line, we’re kind of a whole when it comes to that, where we’ve got to take that as a personal challenge and continue to work and get better. When the next game comes, when the opportunity comes, capitalize on it.”