PHILADELPHIA – They were hardly warriors a year ago, much less the road warriors they have become, and the road warriors they will need to be today, more than at any other time this season.
It is Giants-against-the-world today at Lincoln Financial Field, and if they are who they think they are, they will embrace it, and never blink, never waver, never crack.
They should do themselves a favor and remember what it felt like and what it sounded like when the Eagles ended their dysfunctional season. They trudged out of Hell’s Kitchen 23-20 losers in the first round of the playoffs last season.
“They were giving us hell,” Antonio Pierce said. “Talking smack to us, yelling fire our coach, saying things to Tiki … just being Brotherly Love just like they are [smiles]. Showin’ us love.”
Payback would be all but ending the Eagles’ 2007 season. Payback for Tom Coughlin would be, with some outside help, clinching a third consecutive playoff berth, and a new contract. Payback would be hell freezing over, and rendered silent.
“Worst place that I’ve ever played,” Pierce said. “It’s crazy. I’ve seen people in handicapped chairs flipping me off, I’ve seen little 2-year-olds flipping me off, booing, throwing stuff. … and when their team’s going and they’re behind their team, they make it loud, they make it tough. Especially behind your bench, calling you every name in the world. They keep you on your toes over there and to be honest, the way we’ve played on the road this year, it actually plays to our favor, I believe.”
The road warriors have won five in a row since dropping the opener to the Cowboys. But today, what awaits them following a short trip down the Turnpike is a bloodthirsty stadium that wishes every Eagle can be Chuck Bednarik, and every Giant can be Frank Gifford. No wonder Coughlin had the noise pumped inside the practice bubble this week.
“I consider Philly’s fans some of the best in the country,” Barry Cofield said.
Cofield was a rookie when the Big Blue bus pulled up to the Linc in September, 2006.
“Eggs hitting the bus on the way in,” he began. “I had some family at the game, and they said they were scared to come and wear Giants blue that game. You can hear all kind of things being screamed from the stands … they’re very passionate, and that’s what you want out of your fans.”
Do you think they hate you guys?
“On Sundays,” Cofield said. “I wouldn’t liken it to Ohio State-Michigan where they refuse to utter the other one’s name, and all that kind of stuff. But I think that week, and on that Sunday, there’s a lot of hatred, but after that, you know, I don’t think anyone’s scared to drive through Philly on an off-day.”
Jeremy Shockey, for one, always has relished the role of villain. He better not be the only one who does today.
“That is the roughest place to play in this league as far as fan interaction and what they say and how they treat you, so you look forward to it,” Michael Strahan said. “I actually enjoy it.”
The Giants will be reading, ahem, sign language.
“And,” Strahan said, “they show you with their backsides how much they feel about you, so sign language is key in Philly.”
No one knows what to expect from Eli Manning, or his ground game, so Giants fortunes could hinge on whether Steve Spagnuolo’s defense can again get after Donovan McNabb and force him into mistakes and get the mob to turn on him. This is a homecoming for Eagles defensive coordinator Jim Johnson’s former pupil.
“It’ll be exciting to go back; I haven’t been back since I left in the spring,” Spagnuolo said.
He might have to slow Brian Westbrook with Chase Blackburn replacing Pierce at middle linebacker.
“When the other 10 players are used to hearing the same voice, it’s a change; it’s just like when you make a quarterback change,” Spagnuolo said. “Hopefully we won’t skip a beat, and if we gotta use Chase, we use him.”
His secondary is banged up.
“The guys that’ll have to step up in there, are guys that have been in the system, and that’s part of what we all get paid to do,” Spagnuolo said.
Keeping cool inside Hell’s Kitchen.