The phrase “must-win’’ always is a bit curious, because it almost always is misused.
Unless the Giants can accept missing out on the playoffs for the fourth time in the past five years, it is highly advisable they get off the schneid this weekend in Carolina. But must they? What happens if they lose? Will the last 13 games be rendered meaningless?
No doubt, the rhetoric will be the next game, in Kansas City, is really, truly the one they have to win.
“Us starting 0-3 … this is a must-win game for us,’’ safety Antrel Rolle said Tuesday on his weekly WFAN spot. “I don’t care how you look at it, I don’t care who has to say what about it, this is a must-win game for us.’’
Giants missing emotion
Rolle, since the 41-23 loss to the Broncos on Sunday, has hit on a familiar theme: He doesn’t see enough emotion and passion out of the Giants. Former Giants safety Deon Grant paid a visit to the team facility on Monday, and Rolle spoke with his friend and former teammate about that.
“It’s always great to get an opinion outside looking in,’’ Rolle said.
“[Grant] said, ‘Antrel, even when you all make good plays, even when you are playing good football, it’s really not showing too much because there’s no excitement behind it.’ As a team we have to pick it up because there’s no one man without sin — that’s myself, that’s Eli [Manning], that’s [Justin] Tuck, that’s whoever you want to point a finger at. We all can make a difference and we all can make it better.’’
Rolle, elevated this season as one of the team captains, is more fire to Tuck’s ice, two respected voices with different tones. But Tuck hears what Rolle is saying and agrees there’s a lack of juice.
“I think we’re kind of waiting for that spark play,’’ Tuck said Tuesday at a Manhattan event to promote his R.U.S.H for Literacy program. “I think we’re waiting on somebody else to make a play. I think we’re out there hustling, I think we’re out there playing our butts off, but I don’t think we’re out there having fun. And I think you have fun when you win, so I think he was dead-on when he said that.
“When we’ve won we’ve been excited on the sideline. Now it’s kind of like sitting back and waiting for somebody to make that big hit or that interception return for a touchdown, that whatever it is to get us sparked up. I’m not saying that we haven’t played hard because I think we have, but the excitement hasn’t been there the first two games for whatever reason.’’