Giants defensive captain Justin Tuck was listed as questionable yesterday against Washington, a game-time decision with a painful toe injury. He played, but it was his team’s effort and intensity that were in question, the 23-10 beating they took from the Redskins sure to hurt even more than his toe.
“Obviously the one word that comes to mind is disappointing, a little bit embarrassed. Knowing what we had at stake, it is disappointing,’’ said Tuck, whose Giants got knocked out of first place atop the NFC East by a struggling Redskins team and could well miss the playoffs.
Big Blue have lost five of six in a stretch Tuck admits is one of his most disappointing defensive skids ever.
PHOTOS: REDSKINS BEAT GIANTS, 23-10
“I’d say so,’’ Tuck said. “I wish I could give you the right answers to these questions, but I think we’re all searching for answers as far as, why? I think we are all searching for a spark. I think we all are looking at ourselves and saying, ‘How can I do better?’ and that’s the tough thing because we haven’t seemed to have found a consistent answer.’’
More competitive fire would be a start. The Giants had beaten the Redskins in six of their previous seven meetings, and Washington had lost eight of its last nine. But yesterday the Giants just looked flat, with Tuck acknowledging they appeared to have the game taken to them due to a lack of intensity.
“I’d say that’s a good way of putting it,’’ Tuck admitted. “The first few drives on defense, we played OK, we could’ve played better. It seems like after that, they started bleeding us a little bit. They didn’t really make that many big plays, they just converted.
“I don’t know exactly where our energy level decreased … I just don’t know how to tell you what went wrong. Obviously something went wrong — we just didn’t make enough plays. They made plays when they had to and we didn’t.’’
With defensive end Osi Umenyiora already sidelined, the Giants couldn’t afford to have lost Tuck as well. He played through the toe injury, but appeared to re-injure himself when he tackled Redskins rookie running back Roy Helu for a 2-yard loss on Washington’s second drive of the game.