THEY will never admit it as they are packing their bags on Blue Monday, but the Giants’ championship season was shot dead the night Plaxico Burress shot himself in the leg inside the Latin Quarter at the end of November.
They kept telling us all along they could make history without him, and the stubborn bravado was exposed as a Big Blue Lie yesterday by the Eagles.
Tom Coughlin and Kevin Gilbride’s play-calling made you think that Burress had a significant role in the game plan, and that delighted the Eagles, who knew they could dare Eli Manning (two interceptions) to beat them and live to tell about it and head to Arizona for the NFC Championship Game.
A year ago, the Giants’ season was Shock And Awe.
This time, after Eagles 23, Giants 11, it was Glock And Awful.
Or Gun-And-Done.
Manning missed an open Steve Smith down the field on his very first pass, the first sign that he wasn’t showing up as anybody’s Super Bowl MVP, and yet Coughlin and Gilbride, even with their team heading into the wind, neglected to establish Brandon Jacobs at a time when they were backed up at their 13. Manning overthrew Smith and Asante Samuel showed up unexpectedly to intercept it. He returned it to the Giants’ 2 and soon it was 7-3 on a day when the Giants offense looked incapable of climbing those steps that Rocky Balboa climbed. Manning and Coughlin dismissed the wind as a factor.
“The ball sailed on me and threw it high,” Manning said. “You can’t throw high over the middle.”
You can throw high if you have a 6-foot-6 receiver. Manning completed exactly one pass to a wideout, for 11 yards to Smith, in the first half.
Manning: “It’s not about Plaxico. We had opportunities. That’s not the issue. I had total confidence and faith in the guys we had out there today.”
Coughlin: “I don’t think it has a whole lot to do with that. Those are the questions that have been asked since Day 1. The fact of the matter is Plaxico is not out there.”
The fact is the red zone became the dead zone for them.
The fact of the matter is Manning’s offense resembled Glockwork instead of clockwork. Just ask the Philadelphia defense.
Sheldon Brown: “Any big receiver in the red zone puts a lot of stress on the defense.”
Samuel: “Plaxico being 6-6, 230 pounds, Eli can throw the ball up to him a lot of the time so . . . he don’t have (anybody) that tall right now, so it is what it is.”
Jim Johnson: “No question about it, things change, especially down in the red zone. Plaxico always seems to come up with big plays down there.”
Brian Dawkins: “The ability (for) him and Eli to be on the same page, sometimes playing playground ball on the weakside, if he has a one-on-one over there, they feel he is gonna win that battle nine times out of 10. As a defense, you don’t have to be as concerned about roaming from one guy to another because you can’t play Plaxico one-on-one without expecting him to have a huge game.”
If you play The Blame Game, you look at two minutes before intermission, first-and-5 at the Philly 21. Instead of running the ball and the clock, Manning throws three consecutive times, settles for a field goal, and gives McNabb 1:24 for a field goal drive of his own.
At the start of the second half, Fred Robbins intercepts a Donovan McNabb pass deflected by Chase Blackburn, and Manning starts at the Philly 33. Jacobs for 11. Jacobs for five. But then, inexplicably: Manning incomplete for Derrick Ward. Manning incomplete for Kevin Boss. Field goal. Run the ball until they prove they can stop you!
The Blame Game also falls at the feet of John Carney, who missed a 46-yard field goal wide right in the first half and a 47-yarder wide left in the third quarter.
Then Big Blue eventually buckled, allowing McNabb to escape the rush and convert a third-and-20 with a 21-yard dagger to Jason Avant, and before long it was 20-11 early in the fourth quarter. Jacobs for 11. Jacobs for 5. Jacobs for 2, setting up third-and-3 at the Giants’ 42. And here, the Wildcat, of all things, a direct snap to Ward that gained two yards. Manning tried a keeper and The Best Offensive Line in Football could not get him inches.
“You can blame it all on the offense,” Rich Seubert said.
Then fourth-and-2 at the 47, and the Eagles were waiting for Jacobs, who got a yard. That’s when the fans threw in the white towels on the Giants.
“It came down as fourth-and-1, it actually was fourth-and-2, I should have taken the timeout,” Coughlin said. “That was me.”
Outplayed and outcoached.
Eagles, by Glockout.