THEY had the lead and the wind, 16 miles an hour of it, with gusts of competence from an offense that should have energized the blowhards on the Giant defense.
Truth is, they are not as good against the run as they are at running their mouths, are better at pointing fingers than at the point of attack, have given themselves a pass from blame when they couldn’t stop one on third down yesterday to save their season.
In the end, they left the locker room with the air sucked out of their windpipes at least one week too late. Jessie Armstead, critical of the offense eight days ago after his defense gave up 183 rushing yards to Washington’s Stephen Davis, did not make himself available to the media. Michael Strahan, asked if the season was slipping away, said “the only thing slipping out of here is me.” Then he was gone, along with the illusion that he is half the leader he is purported to be.
Jason Sehorn was gone before Jim Fassel had concluded his press conference, leaving Phillipi Sparks, the corner who has rarely given up a touchdown pass he couldn’t blame on somebody else, to be the stand-up guy. To his credit, yesterday Sparks was. “I hurt my team more than I helped it,” he understated.
Sparks had the ball yanked out of his hands by Rob Moore on Arizona’s go-ahead third-quarter touchdown. The corner also was beaten by a fourth-quarter Frank Sanders catch on a huge third-and-eight after Kerry Collins had engineered an 88-yard touchdown drive into the teeth of that wind, just before teeth of the members of the defense were left all over the Giants Stadium rug. Adrian Murrell went 24 yards on a screen pass to key a ridiculously-easy, 9-play, 60-yard drive that put away the game and, probably, the season.
They have lost three straight, with five games left, none with a team against whom the Giants should be favored. They still have more than just a mathematical chance at the postseason, but are not, even by any stretch of a weak NFC field’s imagination, a playoff team anyway.
Playoff teams get better, not worse, as seasons move along. They get big stops in fourth quarters, don’t let well-thrown balls go through their hands, can run the ball on third-and-short, and don’t suddenly, curiously, inexcusably go flat at the time they have a chance to take control of a season-turning game.
Kerry Collins had a terrific second quarter. With Simeon Rice advancing hard, Collins laid a hard spiral over the usual flypaper coverage of Aenaes Williams to Ike Hilliard for a 33-yard completion like we had not seen from a Giant quarterback in half a decade. Collins completed eight consecutive passes over two drives that exploded with promise, and then with one mistake on the Giants’ second series of the second half, suddenly turned back into a pumpkin.
Collins threw into Tom Knight’s tight coverage of Amani Toomer, a pass that Toomer let go through his hands, off his shoulder, into the clutches of Rob Friedrickson. Five plays later, Moore outfought Sparks for the pass from Jake Plummer, who had relieved the forever-relievable Dave Brown, at the beginning of the second half, to put Arizona ahead. On the next series, Rice got wide of Roman Oben, nailed Collins in the back, forcing a fumble. The Cardinals didn’t convert that time, but two series later went 67 yards in eight plays to open up 10-point lead.
The defense had been on the field the entire third quarter. But it also had 6:09 to catch its big breath as Collins was rediscovering his rhythm, driving the Giants 88 yards back to within three points. Big defenses rise to such occasions. This one, with the help of an out-of-bounds kickoff by Cary Blanchard, wilted, sending Jim Fassel home to bury his mother after the kind of performance that can forecast a coach’s fate.
Some Giants who failed badly yesterday are playing hurt, Sparks and Oben among them. Two keys, Brian Williams and Jason Sehorn are still working off rust after missing an entire season, but the Giants played like the rope that had been burning their hands as 5-3 slipped to 5-5, was being let go.
Collins, who didn’t blame anybody but himself for interceptions and fumbles that weren’t really his fault, did enough good things that it is possible to see some wins even in a killer close of the Jets, Buffalo, St. Louis, Minnesota and Dallas. But not if the defense can’t do better than this.
“We don’t cause the fumbles we used to,” said Corey Widmer. Neither do they intimidate anybody with their words, which they should eat in shame. Armstead and Widmer have said things publicly that defensive players have been whispering for three years.
“I think Jessie was thinking about himself as a leader of the whole team, not dividing the offense and defense,” said Sam Garnes.
Jessie should have known units which meet separately could never look to leadership from the other half of the team, that houses divided against themselves can’t stand. Also, that a Giant defense overrated by itself is petty, no longer in yardage allowed.