PHILADELPHIA — This is how you save a season: Together. With everybody all in.
The Giants did not defeat the Eagles 15-7 Sunday at Lincoln Financial Field because Eli Manning had one of those otherworldly Peyton Manning-like 400-yard passing games.
They did not win because star receivers Victor Cruz and Hakeem Nicks were running all over the yard catching Manning touchdown bombs.
There was no 100-yard rushing performance in sight.
Defensive ends Jason Pierre-Paul and Justin Tuck did not combine for eight sacks of Eagles quarterbacks Michael Vick and Matt Barkley.
No one on defense registered 20 tackles.
The Giants beat the Eagles and kept their season relevant together. With everybody all in.
“There are champions in this room,’’ linebacker Jon Beason said. “We have a group of guys that have been there, that have been through it.’’
Beason spoke about a “belief’’ that has enveloped the Giants’ locker room the last two weeks as they’ve begun what they hope will be an ongoing big dig from 0-6.
“Confidence is scary in sports,’’ Beason said. “The prefix of confidence is ‘con’ — meaning you can trick yourself into believing anything. That’s really what this about — guys right now believing in each other, going out laying it on the line, just doing your job and playing hard … and good things are happening.’’
Good things, indeed.
While the Giants dressed inside the visitor’s locker room in the bowels of the Linc, word began circulating the Lions had just completed an improbable comeback and stolen a win over the Cowboys in Detroit and there was a palpable elevation to the buzz in the room.
The exact scenario the Giants hoped would unfold on Sunday went to form, beginning with their win, followed by the Cowboys’ choke job. That combination has the 2-6 Giants, who have their bye this week, a mere two games out of first place in the NFC East with another game to play against the Cowboys and two against the Redskins with half the season still to play.
“From the outside looking in, obviously people didn’t expect us to have a shot at this point in the season, but we never gave up faith and we understood the circumstances we were in,’’ defensive end Mathias Kiwanuka said. “This affirms what we’ve been saying to ourselves throughout the last couple of weeks — that all of our goals are still there on the table. We still have an opportunity to win a world championship here, and that what our main focus is.’’
Here is the anatomy of how the Giants saved their season for another Sunday — or two, three or six — with this win:
- With safety Antrel Rolle setting a tone by picking off Vick on the Eagles’ third offensive play and sacking him for a 12-yard loss on the first play of the second possession.
- With cornerback Terrell Thomas strip-sacking Barkley near the Giants goal line with 1:05 remaining in the first half and the Eagles about the score, and linebacker Jaquian Williams making an acrobatic recovery along the sideline before sliding out of bounds.
- With newcomer running back Peyton Hillis, who ran for 70 yards, making a huge blitz pickup to allow Manning to complete a 27-yard pass to Nicks.
- With kicker Josh Brown making up the offense’s struggles in the red zone by kicking five field goals.
- With Manning, who’s been a turnover sieve all season, not turning the ball over once, managing the game masterfully and allowing the defense to own the Eagles.
- With Nicks, who was called out by Giants coach Tom Coughlin this week, making Nicks-ian catches again with his long arms and big hands (7-for-51 yards), and Cruz coming back from the X-ray room to finish with 7 catches for 86 yards.
- Even the Giants’ maligned special teams (minus the late long-snap gaffe by Zak DeOssie that gifted the Eagles their only points) was a positive factor.
It came from everywhere for the Giants and it had to. Together. With everybody all in.
“The fact that you couldn’t really find a star to this game for us today I take as a compliment, because everybody stepped up and did their part,’’ linebacker Spencer Paysinger said. “That’s how we want that culture to be, where you don’t need that one star player, you don’t need to rely on that one player.’’