On a night all about physical toughness, the Giants might as well have filmed an infomercial and plastered it on every television outlet: We are going to run the ball on the first play of the game.
The Giants don’t do it every week but they were hell-bent to do it Sunday night in Philly.
MORE: Coughlin Top-Notch In Challenging Business
SERBY: These Giants Carry Coach’s Stamp of Grit
Eli Manning was going to turn and hand the ball to Brandon Jacobs on an off-tackle play meant to fool no one and knock over everyone. Jacobs gained four yards on a first-series possession against the Eagles that ended two plays later with a Manning pick.
No matter. The next time the Giants got the ball, trailing 7-0, Manning on first down again turned and handed off to Jacobs, who this time gained eight yards. Derrick Ward then picked up three yards for the first down. A tone was set and never left.
The Giants were determined to line up and overwhelm the smaller Eagles play after play, quarter after quarter, up and down Lincoln Financial Field.
“We want to run the ball,” coach Tom Coughlin said yesterday. “We’re good at it.”
And they did just that, humming along with the NFL’s No. 1 rushing attack, triggered by an offensive line that is gaining a reputation as the best in the league and a key component in the Giants’ 8-1 record following their 36-31 manhandling of the Eagles.
There’s no rest for those who make others weary. You think the Giants suffocate opposing running backs? No one does it like the next team on the schedule, the Ravens, who lead the NFL in run defense, allowing a miserly 65.4 yards per game and a microscopic 2.9 yards per rushing attempt.
The Ravens have not allowed a 100-yard rusher in 28 straight games, the longest active streak in the league. Linebacker Ray Lewis may not be what he once was, but he remains the ring leader of a unit that, the past three seasons, has finished first or second in run defense.
The Giants average a league-leading 168.9 rushing yards per game on 5.2 yards per attempt. They have rung up 200-yard rushing games against the Rams, Seahawks and Cowboys before putting up 219 yards on the supposedly rugged Eagles.
The Eagles came into the game allowing only 89 rushing yards per game, good for eighth-best in the league. The Giants surpassed that before halftime en route to crashing through the 200-yard barrier for the fourth time this season, this time not only utilizing Jacobs and Ward but also Ahmad Bradshaw.
Few if any teams can put three powerful, game-breaking running backs on the field at any time and few teams, if any, can operate behind an offensive line as efficient as the unit comprised of David Diehl, Rich Seubert, Shaun O’Hara, Chris Snee and Kareem McKenzie.
“They’re the ones who make everything go – they protect the quarterback, protect the running backs, they open holes, they are a physical bunch,” Jacobs said. “They are the best blocking any kind of way you want to block. They are the No. 1 offensive line in the league, period.”