For too much of this sorry season, the Giants have not even earned feeling heartsick, have not been close enough, or good enough to agonize about the last play of a game that did not go their way.
So, this was an all-too familiar ending to a brand-new script, as Eli Manning, at the controls of a retro high-octane passing attack, lofted his 55th pass of the day and for a moment it looked as if the worst team in the NFC would knock off the best team in the conference.
“A 2-11 team beating an 11-2 team on the last play would have been special,’’ interim head coach Steve Spagnuolo said.
“It didn’t happen.’’
No, it did not happen and thus the Giants are 2-12 and the Eagles are 12-2. It did not happen because Manning, tossing darts from start to finish Sunday, from the Eagles 11-yard line fired a fastball intended for rookie tight end Evan Engram, blanketed in the back of the end zone by safety Corey Graham. The two wrestled for position and as they went up, Graham held down Engram’s right arm as the ball sailed over his reach with 43 seconds remaining. No call. Giants lose, 34-29 at MetLife Stadium, where their special teams were an atrocity and a green-clad Eagles invasion made the building sound more like Lincoln Financial Field than the home of the Giants.
“I was almost kinda held, it was obvious. I went up for the ball, was obvious he kinda arm-barred me,’’ a deeply frustrated Engram said. “I thought it was definitely defensive pass interference. Fourth down. It was really obvious, but there was no call.’’
Receiver Sterling Shepard ripped his helmet off and was hit with a penalty for unsportsmanlike conduct.
“I usually don’t let that type of stuff happen,’’ Shepard said. “I was just staring dead at it and I’m just like ‘What are you looking at?’ I apologize for reacting the way that I did. That’s not the way the New York Giants do things and not the way I handle things, but it’s tough in that moment and you’ve been fighting your tail off the whole game, it’s pretty tough for it to end like that.’’
The non-call came just after Bobby Hart was called for a false start.
“I don’t blame Bobby … [center] Brett Jones couldn’t hear me call the cadence,” Manning said. “I guess when you only win two games, you got a lot of Eagles fans and they were loud, and we couldn’t hear the cadence, that’s why we jumped offside.”
The Giants have not specialized this season in tough endings and so loss No. 12 was of the feel-bad variety, which is an improvement from the usual game-out-of-reach scenario. The Eagles clinched a first-round bye in the playoffs and one team they are happy to leave behind is the Giants. This was some wild two-game series sweep. The Eagles needed a last-second 61-yard field goal to beat the Giants on Sept. 24 in Philadelphia and in the rematch had to withstand a throwback Manning barrage that produced 37 completed passes for 434 yards, three touchdowns and one interception.
In some ways, the Giants won for losing. They got to throw the ball around the field, show they have not quit and remained just behind the winless Browns in the 2018 draft order, sitting with the No. 2 pick.
“At this point, I don’t know if you take much away from it,’’ Manning said. “I think, who got the win?’’
Not the Giants, even though they attained their season-high in points. They were done in by a defense that allowed promoted backup quarterback Nick Foles to enjoy a wonderful first start in place of injured Carson Wentz. Foles threw four touchdown passes with the greatest of ease. The Giants were also done in by a special-teams unit that crashed and burned. They had an Aldrick Rosas extra point blocked, a punt blocked and a Rosas 48-yard field-goal attempt blocked early in the fourth quarter, trailing 31-29. The tally was a swing of 11 points for the Eagles.
“It hurts, it hurts,’’ Spagnuolo said.
The Giants led 20-7 but only by 23-21 at halftime. Nelson Agholor out-leaped Darryl Morris on a 15-yard TD and the Giants were down 31-23. They got most of it back on Tavarres King’s 57-yard scoring catch-and-run but the two-point conversion failed when Manning was sacked. The Giants were set to go ahead with 11:26 remaining when Rosas’ 48-yard field goal was blocked by Malcolm Jenkins. A missed tackle on Ertz by Darian Thompson kept alive a drive that ended with Jake Elliott’s 20-yard field goal as the Eagles extended their lead to five points.
Manning moved the Giants from their 20-yard line to the Eagles’ 6 before Hart’s false start moved the ball back to the 11-yard line. Close, but not close enough as Manning targeted Engram and the Giants lost again.
“That just speaks about the heart of this team,’’ Engram said. “We were 2-11 coming into this game. a lot of people wouldn’t have battled like we did.’’