The Giants have a chance to assure themselves of their third straight non-losing season tomorrow against the Vikings.

Think they’ll take advantage of Minnesota’s up-and-down ways? They’ve played down to the competition before. Could be interesting, even though the Vikings are a totally uninteresting team to watch.

Here’s the five questions.

1) What kind of defense will the Giants play?

Look for a lot of eight-in-the-box stuff, since the Vikings are a run-first, almost run-always team. It’ll be interesting to see whether Vikings coach Brad Childress will actually use rookie phenom Adrian Peterson, or if he was just playing with everybody’s heads by listing the NFL’s leading rusher as questionable with a knee sprain. Even if Peterson sits, the Vikings still have a strong run game with Chester Taylor and a massive, not to mention expensive, offensive line blocking for him.

2) But what about Tarvaris Jackson?

What about him? He doesn’t exactly scare the wits out of anybody with the passing game. The Giants will play lots of single coverage on Troy Williamson and Bobby Wade, who have exactly 43 catches and a touchdown between them. If the Vikings are going to do anything, they’ll do it on the ground.

3) How’s the Giants’ long passing game coming?

Not good. Plaxico Burress remains hobbled. Even though Sinorice Moss showed signs of life last week, don’t expect him to suddenly burst into a downfield danger, even against the worst pass defense in the league. That means small chunks again, which is fine if Eli Manning continues to avoid mistakes and Jeremy Shockey can provide those catches in the middle. Ordinarily, you’d want to get some decent ground work going, too. But Reuben Droughns will be in for a tough time against the league’s best run defense. They need to run away from monster tackles Kevin and Pat Williams.

4) How many fumbles will Ahmad Bradshaw have if he gets significant work behind Droughns?

He’s had fumbling problems this year on kickoffs, but has solved them to get back into Tom Coughlin’s good graces. Who knows if he’ll hang onto the ball in the backfield, though, since his next carry will be his first. Bradshaw has promised he’s working on the old high-and-tight. Fans should hope he’s kept that promise, since the Vikings in the past have taken advantage of Giants mistakes to beat them.

5) Are the Vikings on the same level as the Giants?

Nah. They’re a lesser team, to paraphrase the eminent Jon Kitna’s evaluation of the Giants after they beat him last week. And not just because of the 4-6 record. The secondary is hurting and can’t cover. They don’t pressure the passer. The offense is nothing if the running game slows down. The quarterback is more flash than substance. They’re exactly the type of team the Giants would lose to in another year. This year, they’ve taken care of business against those teams, but they still need to proceed cautiously to keep from falling into that big, old lion’s trap.

Prediction: Resign yourself to it now; by no means will this be a work of art. But with all the running the Vikings do, it could be over in less than three hours, and that’s always good news. The offense will take their little chunks, the Vikings will stay in the game until the end, but the Giants will do just enough to win, 14-10, with the Vikings scoring a late touchdown.

Enjoy the game.

Ciao for now.