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Eli Manning hangs his head after the frustrating loss to the Philadelphia Eagles at Giants Stadium on Sunday night. (Nick Laham/Getty Images)
Losing 45–38 to the Philadelphia Eagles (9–4) on Sunday night was a body blow for the Giants (7–6) but the season isn’t over yet. A 7–6 record isn’t the end of the world in the NFC, which has its share of mediocre teams. Currently Dallas (8–5) holds the last wildcard spot and the Giants are alone behind them, a game back.
For New York, the good news is that Dallas has a brutal upcoming schedule with road games against the New Orleans Saints (13–0) and the plucky Washington Redskins (4–9) followed by a season-ender at home against the Eagles.
With star linebacker DeMarcus Ware possibly out due to a serious neck injury sustained in Sunday’s loss to the San Diego Chargers, the Cowboys task gets even harder.
As for the Giants’ remaining games, they include a Monday night matchup against the Redskins, a home game against the slumping Carolina Panthers (5–8), and then a road game against the Minnesota Vikings (11–2).
Speaking with www.giants.com, Giants head coach Tom Coughlin knows how important the remaining games are, “We still have a lot to play for and that is the way it is going to be.”
“Obviously each game is extremely important and we’ve got to get ourselves ready to go to Washington next Monday night.” Washington’s combined margin of defeat in their last three losses is seven points. Those three losses have all come against teams with winning records.
By the time the Giants play Minnesota, the Vikings should have secured the NFC North Division and a first round bye. Most likely, quarterback Brett Favre would be rested in that scenario. They could be facing a Vikings team with nothing on the line.
The Giants own the tiebreaker against the Cowboys, having swept them this season. It is even conceivable that the G-Men secure a wild card spot at 8–8, depending on a plethora of other factors although, that is not the preferred way to enter the postseason.
Sunday Sucker Punch
When dissecting Sunday’s sloppy loss, the straw that broke the camel’s back came after the Giants had taken the lead in the third quarter when Eli Manning hit Domenik Hixon for a 61-yard touchdown, putting them up 31–30.
With the home crowd in an absolute frenzy, the Eagles came right back 15 seconds later with a 60-yard touchdown strike of their own, as Donovan McNabb hit an open DeSean Jackson.
Jackson, who also scored a touchdown in the second quarter off a 72-yard punt return, taunted the Giants by jogging backwards into the end zone. At that point, the momentum switched in Philly’s favor and the Giants never recovered.
The reason the Giants lost this game was due to the terrible performance of the defense.
Because New York couldn’t muster a pass rush, McNabb patiently sat in the pocket and picked apart their secondary. In addition to getting little or no pressure on the Eagles quarterback, the Giants defense also had several gaffes including blown coverages and missed tackles.
If the defense could have held up its end of the deal, the Giants should have won this game because Eli Manning and the offense scored 38 points against a very good Eagles team. Manning had a solid performance completing 27 of 38 passes for 391 yards and three touchdowns.
Any time a team scores 38 points at home and the quarterback has those types of numbers, it should translate into a win. But because the Giants defense was incapable of slowing down the Eagles, it was all for naught.
Giants defensive end Mathias Kiwanuka commented on his unit’s disappointing performance, “This one definitely falls on the shoulders of our defense.”
“Regardless of how many points our offense puts up on the board, we still have to be able to shut them down a little bit. That is our job—to shut them down and we failed in that tonight.”
Truth be told, the Giants lost this game because they were outclassed by Donovan McNabb (275 yards passing, two touchdowns) and DeSean Jackson (six receptions for 178 yards, one touchdown).
Unless they play drastically better, the G-Men could face similar nightmare scenarios against the Redskins and Panthers as both teams have very talented receivers.