THE NFC championship game can be at Giants Stadium, and if turns out the Panthers are coming back for it, what a preview these two teams put on last night.
Back and forth the Giants and Carolina went at each other like the two best teams in the NFC then they have proven over 15 games to be.
“As I said earlier in the week, how could it be any better?” said coach Tom Coughlin, after it turned out really even better than that, as exemplified by one second-quarter play.
With his right hand, Brandon Jacobs held the ball. With the left, he threw Na’il Diggs, who had appeared to have the returning Giant running back stopped, to the ground, then scored.
The Giants, with the winds howling and fans howling, were up 10-7 after scoring on their first two possessions, doing it in the way they draw it up for December. But after that, it wasn’t easy.
All night Big Blue couldn’t lay a hand on Jake Delhomme, and Aaron Ross couldn’t close his hands and intercept a ball, which turned into a 60-yard reception to Muhsin Muhammad in the second quarter. This is when the Panthers were looking unstoppable, largely because for most of the game, DeAngelo Williams, who scored four touchdowns, was inside the red zone.
But in the end the Panthers couldn’t prevent the game of Derrick Ward’s life (215 yards rushing) or deny the irrepressible Jacobs, who returned after a game-and-a-half’s absence from a knee sprain. The big back scored his second touchdown from the one with 3:24 to play to set up an Eli Manning-to-Domenik Hixon tying two-point conversion, then a third touchdown in overtime on what might have been the hardest yet of his 87 grueling, punishing, yards.
The fans, praised unabashedly by Coughlin because he wasn’t getting pelted with the same snowballs as John Fox’s Panthers, won the right to watch two playoff games at home. The 12-3 Giants fully earned the conference’s first seed, despite all the doom and gloom spread by their consecutive clunkers, overcoming everything the Panthers threw at them and ultimately wearing them down.
“We played ourselves back into good football again,” Coughlin said. “To hang in there, just to get the game into overtime was a very good sign.
“It didn’t start out the way we wanted, defensively we had issues, but being able to hold them to just seven in the second half, and rush the ball well was really outstanding. Our offensive line rose up, and I think answered some questions about being challenged.”
Domenik Hixon, who had a huge drop against Philadelphia, used his body perfectly to shield off Ken Lucas and provide Eli Manning a big target on a perfectly executed game-tying two-point conversion. Jeff Feagles nailed what ultimately proved to be the Panthers’ coffin corner with 9:21 to go.
“I said ‘get it inside the five’ ” Coughlin said. “He said ‘how about the one?’ ”
And that’s where the ball stayed, because of the hustle of Terrell Thomas. After the Giants got it back at the Carolina 44, third-down conversions to Amani Toomer and Boss moved the chains to get Jacobs, who finished with 87 yards on 24 carries, in position to be undeniable.
“We knew it was going to be the toughest schedule in pro football because we were the World Champions,” a joyful Coughlin said.
The Giants also played the NFC East, where even Washington had enough left to probably kill the surging Eagles chances yesterday. The Giants had to go to Pittsburgh, in the end had to persevere against the hottest team in the NFC.
Their home-field advantage hardly has won a second consecutive Super Bowl, but it certainly has earned them total respect.