Pat Shurmur likes to say that hope is not a strategy.
It can, though, be a powerful force when properly harnessed. For the last two weeks, the Giants have been running almost entirely on that fuel. They’ve won two straight games, have a rookie quarterback who makes things happen, have played lights-out defense for the past three halves, and find themselves in second place in the NFC East just one game behind the Cowboys.
That they have done it without some of their best players on the field only adds to the optimism.
And now that those pieces are starting to return, the hope they have been collecting can be refined and transformed into its final state: Winning.