For the Giants, hindsight is 20-20, especially when the vision before them is a 19-17 loss to the Eagles.
One day after a late Sunday night in which they were fashioning another comeback victory devolved into a difficult loss, the Giants gathered Monday to lick their wounds and come to grips with the way they ended the game without getting a shot at the makeable field goal they set themselves up to have.
“If I were to do it over myself, would I be as conservative with 15 seconds?’’ Tom Coughlin asked. “Not this morning. This morning I throw it to the sideline, something of that nature, take a chance on that.’’
With 25 seconds remaining, trailing by two points, Eli Manning had put the Giants in enviable position, with the ball on the Eagles 26-yard line, setting up a 44-yard field goal attempt for Lawrence Tynes, who had been 11 for 11 in field goals to that point in the season.
Coughlin had a choice: Run the ball on second down to get a few yards closer for Tynes, spike the ball on the next play to stop the clock and go ask Tynes to win the game for the Giants. Or else, try another pass play, making sure the receiver got out of bounds because the Giants were out of time outs. Coughlin and Manning chose the latter and that’s where it all went awry. Manning’s pass lofted to the right sideline, deep down the field, was thrown too far, forcing Ramses Barden to nearly haul down cornerback Nnamdi Asomugha in order to prevent an interception. Barden, who earlier on the drive had drawn two defensive pass interference calls, this time was flagged for offensive interference. There were no complaints from the Giants, only heartbreak as the ball was moved back 10 yards and Tynes with 15 seconds remaining came up short on a 54-yard field goal try.
“Would we change? Sure, today we would,’’ Coughlin said. “Today it’s easy. You got the ball at the [27], you run it once to the 26. You run it again, put it in the middle of the field. But there’s no guarantees for a 44-yarder or a 46-yard field goal are going to be easily handled either.
“What happens if you get a sack there? What happens if you try to fit one in tight and it gets, whether you catch it or not, you get tackled in bounds? Game’s over. Would I be that conservative? Not today. Last night I chose to do that knowing full well that the clock was not in our favor. We had no timeouts. I fully expected the type of coverage that would take the short throw to the sideline away from us. But, I’m not going to know whether or not because we didn’t try it.
“So I take full responsibility for that and as I told the players, I’ll start the meeting off by talking about my sins and that’s one that I’ll confess to.’’
Coughlin and the Giants have won two Super Bowls largely by putting the ball in Manning’s hands and trusting him with it. “That’s the way we usually play unless the clock id radically against us,’’ Coughlin said. “We’ve been able to do that by virtue of putting the ball in the hands of the quarterback and having him make good decisions. And this one didn’t work out.’’
Manning took the hit for the penalty on Barden. “I think I just could have thrown the ball differently,’’ Manning said. “Probably just throw it back shoulder with the way the corner was playing, so you don’t put Ramses in a situation where he is worried about the absolute worst thing that could happen is an interception. That’s what you can’t have occur. Then (it’s) game over, you don’t even have a shot. So I just could have put the ball in a better spot.’’
Barden defended himself, saying he knew he could not allow Asomugha to get the ball before he did.
“It was a physical game,’’ Barden said. “It was a physical play. He’s trying to keep me from running straight and I’m trying to keep him from making an interception. We both made contact. I probably made a little bit more, according to the refs. But what’s done is done. You can’t give up the interception. If I could’ve had a better release we wouldn’t have been in that position. But once it gets to that point, I’m not going to let anyone else get the ball.’’