As you may already know, I like to exaggerate from time to time. I am quite the avid fan of hyperbole, when it is used in moderation and under the right circumstances. Normally, I tend to exaggerate when I’m trying to emphasize something or make a joke, otherwise I like to stay away from it. Sometimes, when it comes to sports, it’s easier to let the stats do the talking. But not on Sunday. The Giants most recent loss this past Sunday to the Philadelphia Eagles goes way beyond what stats can explain.
This latest embarrassment had to be seen to be believed, and no matter what you read in the box score the next day, nothing can compare to actually having to sit through that 3-hour slow-motion train wreck. That, my dear readers, is not an exaggeration — it’s the truth. In fact, and I say this in all seriousness, that game may have been the worst overall performance I have seen from the Giants in the Eli Manning Era. I will not go as far as saying that it’s one of the worst I’ve ever seen because, after all, I’ve lived through the Dave Brown Era and I’m sure many of my readers out there have even been fortunate enough to see the glory days of Joe Pisarcik. So I’ll stick to the last 5 years and just as a fun exercise, I’ll put together what I believe to be the 5 Worst Performances of the Eli Manning Era (2004-Present):
1) Minnesota Vikings 41, NY Giants 17 (11/25/07)
This game tops the list mostly because of when it took place. It was a Week 12 game during the season that the Giants would go on to win the Super Bowl, and it happened during a point in the season where Giants fans and the New York media were once again questioning whether the Giants would ever be able to win a title with Eli Manning. It was perhaps the worst performance of his career, and a day when the infamous Eli Manning Face seemed to be permanently plastered on the TV screen. Eli ended up throwing 4 interceptions, 3 of which were returned for Vikings touchdowns. But the game seemed to have sparked something within Eli, as the Giants (7-4 at the time) went on to win 7 of their last 9 games on an improbable journey to their Super Bowl XLII victory.
2) Carolina Panthers 23, NY Giants 0, NFC Wild Card Playoffs (1/8/06)
In Eli Manning’s much-anticipated first appearance in the postseason, the NFC East Champs hosted the Carolina Panthers in a Wild Card playoff game that proved Eli Manning was not quite ready to lead the Giants to the promised land just yet. On a cold, windy day at the Meadowlands, Eli was picked off 3 times by the Panthers en route to their 23-0 upset over the 11-5 Giants. The game was disappointing because of the our weighty expectations after a highly successful first full season by Eli, and also because getting shut-out in a playoff game on your home turf by a wild card team is about as embarrassing as getting rejected by the bride at your own wedding.
3) Philadelphia Eagles 40, NY Giants 17 (11/1/09)
So why does this game go in the third spot and not the awful loss that happened two weeks ago in New Orleans? For two reasons: 1) This game was a divisional game. We don’t often get blown out by the Eagles, Cowboys or Redskins, and when we do, it’s almost 10 times more painful because they’re our division rivals. To see the Giants come into a huge divisional battle like this one, completely unprepared and caught off guard was shocking and embarrassing. 2) The Eagles exposed the exact same weaknesses that the Saints picked apart two weeks ago. Although the Giants suffered a disappointing loss to the Cardinals last week, it looked as if they had addressed many of the glaring problems exploited by the Saints. And then they all came roaring back on Sunday as if the Eagles had torn the stitches out of those wounds and then poured salt in them.
Every single thing that could have gone wrong for the Giants, went wrong on Sunday. The execution was poor on both sides of the football and the defense was on its heels from the minute the game started. I mean, the Eagles’ first touchdown was scored on a 44-yard run by an unknown fullback before the game was even 2 minutes old. A fullback tore through their vaunted, but apparently overrated defensive line and then scorched their linebackers and secondary. I’m sorry to say this, but from that point on I knew that we were going to be seeing a repeat of the Saints game all over again. And deja vu it was.
Even after the Giants looked like they might start to regroup and pull the pieces back together after cutting the Eagles lead to 16-7 in the second quarter, the defense once again fell apart like clumps of wet newspaper. Donovan McNabb threw two touchdown passes in a 1 minute span to give the Eagles a 30-7 lead and put a dagger through the Giants’ hearts. The two touchdown drives took a combined 45 seconds of possession time and were helped out by an Eli Manning interception.
To suck all the hope out of Giants fans, the opening kickoff of the second half was fumbled by Domenik Hixon and recovered by the Eagles and led to a 33-7 lead. Just when you thought a comeback might be possible, LeSean McCoy torched the Giants for 66 yards to make it 40-17 and Giants fans were left to wonder what exactly had happened to their team that was 5-0 and on top of the world just 3 short weeks ago.
In case you were curious, the other two dreadful performances of the Eli Manning Era to make my top 5 list were:
4) Seattle Seahawks 42, NY Giants 30 (9/24/06)
The score was a heck of a lot closer than this game actually was. Before the Giants tacked on 4 fourth quarter touchdowns in an attempt to save some of their dignity, the Seahawks actually led this game 42-3. It was like a scene from Hostel being played out on a football field.
5) New Orleans Saints 48, NY Giants 27 (10/18/09)
I don’t need to remind anyone how bad this game was.
Honorable Horrible Mention:
New Orleans Saints 30, NY Giants 7 (12/24/06)
Eli Manning: 9/24, 74 yds. 1 TD, 1 INT
Baltimore Ravens 37, NY Giants 14 (12/12/04)
