The undefeated Carolina Panthers head to MetLife Stadium on Sunday to take on a New York Giants team with their season on the brink. A loss for the Giants wouldn’t eliminate them from the playoffs, but it would likely mean they’d have to win their remaining games to even have a shot at the postseason. The play of the Giants’ safeties has been suspect all year, but on Sunday there is no room for error when facing MVP-candidate Cam Newton and a Carolina team on a roll.

The Giants released safety Brandon Meriweather this week and signed former-Giant DT Barry Cofield, a Super Bowl XLII Champion. Meriweather had missed two straight games with a knee injury, but in his previous 11 starts, had churned out some pretty poor play at the position. Pro Football Focus had him ranked 67th out of 86 qualified safeties in 2015. The Giants now have three safeties on their roster: rookie Landon Collins, Craig Dahl and Cooper Taylor.

Collins and Dahl have had some streaky play themselves. The pair are graded as two of the 12 worst safeties in the league this season, according to Pro Football Focus. Last week against the Miami Dolphins, Dahl missed multiple tackles and found himself on the sidelines for the final defensive stand of the game in favor of Taylor. Taylor played 18 snaps against Miami, the most he has played in one game in three seasons with the Giants. With such poor play from the rest of the safeties on the roster, Steve Spagnuolo has gone to the depths of the roster to attempt to get some quality production.

The Giants rank 32nd in the NFL in pass defense, but on Sunday, they face the 28th ranked pass offense in the Panthers. Carolina is the only team in the NFL that calls more run plays than passes, and on Sunday, they will be running the ball without their starting back Jonathan Stewart, who suffered a sprained left foot last week. If Carolina leans on the pass, the secondary must keep Newton at bay if they hope to have a chance at an upset win.

The top receiver for Carolina is their tight end Greg Olsen who is having a Pro Bowl-caliber season. Olsen is banged up as well but is expected to play. The Giants will likely use safety help to defend Olsen as they did when they faced another Pro Bowler in Rob Gronkowski. Dahl managed to disrupt Gronk in many of his routes which helped keep that game against the New England Patriots a close one.

The Panthers also have a significant deep threat in Ted Ginn Jr. While he is a journeyman and a better returner than receiver, the Giants need to be wary of his blinding speed. Last week, Ginn had touchdown catches of 74 and 46 yards against the Atlanta Falcons. The Giants have been weak against the deep pass all year, so the safeties will need to keep Ginn in front of them if they want to have success on Sunday.

The Giants’ safeties will have a tough task ahead of them on Sunday against the undefeated Panthers. If they can balance keeping Olsen in check while limiting the deep threat in Ginn, New York will have a chance at an upset win. The pressure is on for a safety group that hasn’t shown the ability to stop a dynamic offense like that of the Panthers yet this season.

Christopher Schwarz is a New York Giants beat writer and NFL Coverage writer for www.RantSports.com. You can follow him on Twitter.