It has become fashionable to write off the Giants, even if they are defending Super Bowl champions, as a team that got hot and got lucky at the end of the season, the perfect time for those things to occur.

They really aren't championship caliber, say the experts, who have managed to predict a Super Bowl appearance for the Dallas Cowboys, the Minnesota Vikings, the Green Bay Favres and even a few others.

One topic, however, is being ignored. If most offensive success starts with the line up front, which NFC team has a better unit than the Giants?

The left tackle is David Diehl, a conversion last season from left guard; the right tackle is Kareem McKenzie; the left guard is Rich Seubert, whose horrific leg injury in 2003 seemed to mark him for the trash pile; the right guard is Chris Snee, who appears headed for a Pro Bowl berth this year; and the center is Shaun O'Hara.

Last season, through the 20 games that mattered, the line missed the total of one game (O'Hara, the first playoff game in Tampa). Diehl was said to be too slow for the position. He wasn't. Sure, some of the super-fast defensive ends beat him, but they beat all the left tackles. McKenzie is a road grader on running plays and did more than well at pass protection. Seubert is said to be the toughest player on the line, the "Tasmanian Devil" when it comes to giving 100 percent. Snee combines size and strength with intelligence, and you know he has a great understanding of patience since he is head coach Tom Coughlin's son-in-law. O'Hara is the "old man" of the line at 30, a nine-year veteran who joined the Giants (unrestricted free agent, Cleveland, 2004).

So before the high-tech defenses can get to quarterback Eli Manning and stand up the running backs like Brandon Jacobs (6-4, 265), Derrick Ward 6-0, 228) and the swift and elusive Ahmad Bradshaw (5-9, 200), they have to get past the O-line.

"We've got a few things going for us," says O'Hara. "Like smarts, toughness, talent and a very nasty streak when people say we aren't good enough."

Go argue with offensive linemen.

CAMP CALENDAR
Camp opens July 25 with players reporting July 24. Camp closes Aug. 17. There are no intra- or inter-squad scrimmages scheduled.

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