Does anyone know what is wrong with the Giants right now? I don’t. I doubt that Tom Coughlin does either. If he did, he might have opted to go for the touchdown on the Giants final offensive series instead of settling for a field goal and wrongly assuming that his pass rush could hold the Chargers with two minutes to go. Championship football teams don’t settle for field goals with a three point lead and under three minutes to go. Championship football teams go for the kill. Sure, our defense had come up with some pretty timely stands in the fourth quarter today, but from what I’ve seen in the last three weeks, I would be hesitant to leave the game in their hands against an offense like San Diego’s that is capable of breaking down defenses. Actually, I don’t know if I would leave anything in their hands right now. I wouldn’t trust the Giants defense in a flag football game against the cast of Gossip Girl at this point.
I’m going to be honest, I wasn’t too impressed by what I saw from Philip Rivers throughout most of the game. Then he went and did what we were afraid he would do. He led a game-winning, 80 yard touchdown drive and put a knife right in the back of the team that traded him away on draft day 5 years ago. Actually, it wasn’t even a knife, it was a samurai sword about the size of the one Uma Thurman used in Kill Bill. He made our defense look silly, and our coach look sillier for gambling and thinking he couldn’t beat us.
You might say that we have been beating ourselves these last few weeks, but not today. Today, it was Philip Rivers that beat us and it certainly is not going to quiet the critics who still believe that the Giants made the wrong choice by giving away Rivers. Eli can only rest on his laurels for so long and the grace period he got with his Super Bowl ring has just about run out. Controlling the time of possession and still failing to execute in the red zone and lacking the big play capability that can really put a game away is something that has been killing the Giants all season and it surfaced once again today.
Don’t get me wrong, Eli Manning played a stellar, virtually mistake-free game today (25/33, 215 yards, 2 TDs, QB rating of 112.6) but sometimes there are things that you can’t see from just looking at the stat lines. When Terrell Thomas picked off Rivers with three and a half minutes to play, the Giants could have put the game away for good. Instead, they chose to drain the clock and settle for a field goal and that proved to be the difference in the game.
It’s been a while since I’ve seen the Giants play this poorly for this long, in fact you’d have to go back to the 2006 season to find the last time the Giants lost four games in a row. After a much needed bye week next Sunday, the Giants will host a hot Atlanta Falcons team and there is a solid chance that the streak could extend to five games, which would be the longest losing streak since an 8-game skid in 2004. Right now, this Giants team does not look like it can win too many more games. Of their last 7 remaining games, 5 will be against teams with winning records, including games against the Broncos, Vikings, Eagles and Cowboys. The Giants are staring straight down a road of desperation right now. By no means are the Giants out of the race just yet, but with the team finding new ways to lose every week, things are not looking good for Big Blue.
According to Tom Coughlin, today was a “one-game season” for the Giants and it looked like they came out ready to stand behind their coach and save their season. It made for a good newspaper headline, but it wasn’t enough to suddenly rid the Giants of all their woes.
Despite what I’ve seen, I’m not ready to give up on this season just yet. Even when all signs point to the Giants being in the midst of an epic collapse, I still refuse to give up hope. Maybe I’m in denial, or maybe I see a team with so much talent just not playing up their potential. Whatever it is, with this Giants season fading quicker than LaDainian Tomlinson’s career, it may only be a matter of time before the clock strikes midnight and the dance is over, along with 4 consecutive playoff appearances.
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