Philadelphia Eagles 24 – New York Giants 21
Game Overview: It was a classic game between two bitter rivals waging war for the NFC East crown. Unfortunately for Big Blue, Ron Dixon fell four yards short of the goal line and a miracle play that would have lived forever in the history of the game. But what ultimately cost the Giants game was poor execution on offense in the first half of the game and the inability of the defense to stop the Eagles in the waning moments of the 4th quarter. Indeed, New York is very lucky that the Eagles didn’t take a commanding lead in the first half. Of the Giants’ first six drives of the game, there were three 3-and-outs, one two play drive that ended with a fumble, a five play drive, and a nine play drive. It was that last drive of the first half, the nine play drive that haunts me. Amani Toomer dropped a deep ball that would have set the Giants up deep in Eagles’ territory. On the very next play, Tiki Barber dropped a screen pass that had nothing but open field in front of it; Tiki may have even scored on the play.
Despite all that, the Giants took a 21-14 lead with 2:43 left in the game. If the defense steps up like it should, the Giants win the game. It didn’t. Donovan McNabb had too much time and his receivers were too wide open. Surrendering 10 points in late like that is inexcusable.
There are some special players on the Eagles – guys like Donovan McNabb, Jeremiah Trotter, Corey Simon, and Hugh Douglas – who will make plays no matter what you do. And these guys did just that. Two Eagles who hurt the Giants quite a bit (again I might add) were Trotter and James Thrash. But if the Giants execute well, they win the game. No excuses, the Eagles won because they played better than the Giants did from start to finish.
Quarterback: It’s tough to tell how much the lack of offensive productivity in the first half is the responsibility of Kerry Collins (22-out-of-39 for 303 yards, 1 touchdown, 0 interceptions). I would tend to believe that Amani Toomer and Ike Hilliard were having problems getting open, so Collins dumped the ball off to Tiki Barber a lot. Three dropped passes in critical situations didn’t help matters. One big positive is that Collins didn’t commit a turnover (no interceptions, no fumbles). And for the most part, he didn’t force the ball (there was one throw in the first half on a rollout where he was lucky the ball wasn’t picked). Here is a quick breakdown of the first half for Collins:
- On the first drive, his only pass was dropped by Toomer on third down and the Giants went 3-and-out.
- On the second drive, Collins’ 3rd-and-2 rollout pass to Hilliard was forced and the ball fell incomplete.
- On the third drive, the Giants turned the ball over (Barber fumble) without a pass attempt.
- On the fourth drive, Collins was forced to throw the ball away on 3rd-and-9 when Luke Petitgout couldn’t pick up a stunt.
- On the fifth drive, after a first down pass to Marcellus Rivers netted eight yards on first down, two subsequent running plays were stuffed and the Giants were forced to punt.
- On the sixth drive, Collins did a nice job of moving the team from the Giants’ 16 to the Eagle 43. But two back-to-back drops by Toomer and Barber stalled the drive with only a minute left before halftime.
The second half was a different story. I loved the play-calling – a lot of misdirection, screens, and a flea flicker against an aggressive defense. Scoring 21 points on the Eagles in one half is about as good as you can expect. Collins played pretty tough in the pocket, didn’t make any big errors, and moved the ball on four scoring drives. There were two passes, however, that I’m sure Collins would like back. First, he just overthrew an open Dan Campbell in the endzone on the Giants’ third drive of the second half and the Giants had to settle for a field goal instead of a touchdown. Then on the fifth drive of the second half, on 3rd-and-6 from the Eagle 13 yard line, Collins threw behind Ike Hilliard and the Giants were forced to settle for another field goal. Collins played well, but if makes those two throws, the Giants probably win the game.
Wide Receivers: One of the biggest reasons why the Giants lost was the poor play of the wide receivers. Amani Toomer’s two drops were very costly. He dropped a 3rd-and-9 pass on the Giants’ opening possession to force a 3-and-out. And his drop of another deep sideline pass late in the second quarter cost the Giants sure points. He did score a 60-yard touchdown off of a flea flicker, but that was more the result of the Eagle defense being fooled. Take away that pass and Toomer caught two passes for nine yards. Pathetic. Toomer also fumbled the ball on an end around that put the Giants’ in a big hole that they were fortunate to get out of. (On a side note, Toomer was clearly interfered with on the 3rd-and-6 play right before the Giants’ last punt; if the call is made, the Eagles don’t kick the field goal in the waning seconds of the game. All year, the officials only called two pass interference penalties for the Giants while the opposition got the call pretty regularly).
Ike Hilliard (3 catches for 19 yards) was even worse. He was practically a non-factor in the game. He also missed a block on the WR-screen to Toomer on the first play of the Giants’ second drive. If Hilliard makes that block, Toomer picks up a lot more yardage than two yards. On the positive side, he did catch a 7-yard pass on 3rd-and-5 on the Giants’ first field goal drive. But he also dropped a ball in the second half as well.
Joe Jurevicius only had one catch, but it was a nice 18-yard play. After bobbling the ball originally, JJ came down with the reception despite a big hit from Sean Dawkins. Still, the Giants needed JJ to be more of a factor in the game. Ron Dixon did all he could do on the last play of the game. I’ve watched the play a few times from two different angles and if the strong safety doesn’t tackle Dixon, the Giants win the game. Joe Jurevicius did a good job on his block of Bobby Taylor and gave Dixon the sideline (watch the return from the endzone perspective if you have the tape), there were just more Eagle defenders than blockers in the area. A great play that just missed.
Tight Ends/Fullback: Only so-so in the blocking department. Greg Comella got pushed back on a left-side sweep on the second offensive play of the game and Barber was limited to only one yard (Lomas Brown didn’t get much of a block on the play either). The Giants set up a pretty good looking screen for Comella on the fourth drive, but he couldn’t take advantage of it, only gaining four yards on the play. On the second drive of the second half, Comella dropped a pass that was almost intercepted for a touchdown. On the very next play he caught a 5-yarder on 3rd-and-3.
Dan Campbell got pushed into the backfield by the defensive end on a 3rd-and-3 run to Barber on the fifth drive. Not only did this screw up the play, but Campbell is the one who tripped up Barber. For some reason, on one pass play in the second half, the Giants had Campbell all alone in pass protection against Hugh Douglas and Collins had to throw the ball away. Dan made two important catches on the Giants’ go-ahead TD drive that seemed to salt the game away. He made a great diving 20-yard reception on 2nd-and-20 that moved the ball from the Giants’ 9 to the 29 yard-line. Then on the very next play, he made an 11-yard reception. Three plays later, Campbell got a good block on Barber’s 23-yard run on 3rd-and-1. He did likewise on the two-point conversion.
One positive development was that not only did Marcellus Rivers get involved in the passing game (1 catch for eight yards), but during the last few weeks, he has seen more and more playing time.
Offensive Line: Given the quality of the opponent, the offensive line did a decent job. But once again, untimely mistakes stalled drives. The inside run blocking was pretty good as Tiki Barber was able to pick his way through the trash in the first half for some consistent 4-5 yard runs. But after the Giants picked up their first offensive first down (in the second quarter), the Giants were halted on 3rd-and-9, when Petitgout couldn’t pick up a stunt by Corey Simon and Collins was forced to unload in a hurry incomplete. Ron Stone got hurt on this play and did not return. Jason Whittle did a good job in his place. Petitgout gave up another quick pressure on the pass to Rivers on the very next drive. On the very next play, on 2nd-and-2, DT Paul Grasmanis ran past LG Glenn Parker and nailed Ron Dayne for a 1-yard loss. This really hurt because the failed Campbell block came on the very next play. 3-and-out again. OC Dusty Zeigler looked sharp on a downfield block on a 15-yard screen pass to Barber on the last drive of the first half.
In the second half, the left side of the offensive line really pissed me off. The main culprit was Parker and what really irritated me was that his opponent was Grasmanis – a back-up. The second drive was a disaster. To start the drive, Parker didn’t seem aware of an Eagle blitz coming right up the middle over his head and Collins was forced to throw quicky. Three plays later, Parker was beat straight up in pass protection (the same play where Campbell was blocking Douglas) and Collins was forced to throw incomplete. On the next play, Glenn couldn’t get out of Barber’s way on a pull and Tiki was limited to two yards. Next play, Lomas Brown gets beat to the outside for a sack on 3rd-and-8. Crap offensive line play.
Parker and Brown redeemed themselves a bit on the next drive when Ron Dayne cut behind their blocks on his 30-yard run. Two plays later however, Parker was stalemated on his pull and Cross didn’t sustain his block – Dayne lost 1-yard on the play. Brown’s false start on 2nd-and-goal from the eight-yard line on the same drive really hurt. On the next drive, Brown was embarrassed as he couldn’t move the light N.D. Kalu at all and Tiki Barber was stuffed. A few plays later, either the middle of the line or the backs screwed up royally in recognizing the imminent (and obvious) blitz from Trotter and Collins was sacked.
On the fifth drive, Parker didn’t effectively block Carlos Emmons and the linebacker stuffed the Barber run. On the next play, Parker and Zeigler did a good job on the screen and Barber picked up 8 yards (the Giants ran a lot of good looking screens in the game and this is one area where the offensive line excelled). Parker also got another good block on a screen a few plays later that picked up 15 yards. Three plays after that, Tiki Barber was able to cut back off of quality blocks from Parker and Brown for a 10-yard gain. On the next play, Petitgout and Campbell made excellent blocks on Tiki’s 23-yard run. On the 7-yard run right before Dayne’s 16-yard touchdown, Petitgout got a great block as did Comella and Cross. The Giants were really controlling the line of scrimmage at this point. Too bad they didn’t do this from the start.
Running Backs: In the first half, it was mainly the Tiki Barber (16 carries for 71 yards, 10 catches for 87 yards) show as Ron Dayne was rarely in the game. Barber showed some real good toughness, vision, and moves on a few inside runs that picked up a respectable 4-5 yards a clip. However, his fumble after the McNabb fumble was very costly. He also screwed up big time when he dropped a perfectly timed and executed screen pass on 3rd-and-10 from the Eagles’ 43 yard line late in the second half. Barber had a lot of open field in front of him. This drop may have cost the Giants the game.
In the second half, both Ron Dayne (8 carries for 59 yards) and Barber were big factors. On the third drive of the half, Dayne started things off right with a super-impressive 30-yard blast straight up the gut where he showed some excellent power. He immediately followed that up with another 6-yard power run right up the gut. On the sixth drive of the half, Dayne took advantage of an Eagle defense that dramatically overpursued en route to his 16-yard cutback run that put the Giants up with 2:43 left to play. A few plays earlier, I really liked the power and vision he showed in the hole on a 5-yard gain up the middle.
Barber made a couple of big runs in the second half including the aforementioned 23- and 10-yarders. But where he really looked sharp was on a few screen passes where he showed good patience in vision in setting up his blockers. The screen pass is one of my favorite plays, but it is very hard to execute. The Giants of the mid-1990’s under Dan Reeves could never get this play down. On Sunday, the Giants consistently burned the Eagles with the screen pass. A perfect play against an aggressive defense.
Defensive Line: Michael Strahan (6 tackles, 3.5 sacks, 1 forced fumble) had a monster game rushing the passer, but he lost contain to his side on a few occasions and this really hurt as McNabb was either able to buy time to throw by rolling right or ran for good yardage. Strahan also got run on a couple of times in the first half (including 12 and an 18-yard jaunts by Correll Buckhalter). The 3.5 sacks look awfully good and Strahan was mugged some, but he should have played a more disciplined game. Strahan’s first sack came on inside move against Jon Ruynan where Strahan showed rare closing explosion. On the very next play, on 2nd-and-18, Strahan cleaned up on a Mike Barrow sack and forced a fumble that Barrow recovered. Strahan’s second full sack came when Michael tripped up McNabb just as he was about to scramble up the middle. Strahan lost contain on the Eagles’ 5th drive as McNabb scrambled past him for an 18 yard gain. His third full sack came on a play where Michael beat Ruynan up underneath again.
In the second half, Strahan did a much better job of maintaining his contain responsibilities (while still getting some quality pass pressure). He almost broke the sack record as McNabb barely got rid of the ball on a 3rd-and-16 play. However, Strahan really screwed the pooch twice on the Eagles’ game-winning field-goal drive (just like in the earlier Giants-Eagles game). First, he committed a stupid delay of game penalty when he wouldn’t let McNabb get off of the ground. Then on the very next play, for some reason Strahan left his area of responsibility and allowed McNabb to run for 11 yards right past the area he vacated. It looked to me as if Strahan was freelancing on the play. These two plays moved the ball from the Giants’ 33 to the Giants’ 17 – setting up an easy field goal attempt.
Kenny Holmes (4 tackles) actually got some decent pass pressure in the first half of the game against McNabb and came darn close to two sacks himself. Problem was the Eagles were able to run the ball successfully a couple of times in his direction as well. Holmes got close to McNabb on the first Eagles’ offensive play of the game (as did Strahan who hit McNabb). Both of these two got real close to McNabb again on a 3rd-and-5 play on the opening drive where Emmanuel McDaniel got beat for a first down. One play earlier, Holmes did a good job of staying at home against a WR-reverse (unfortunately, none of his other teammates were there to make the play). Holmes jumped offsides again on the Eagles’ second drive – he’s done that far too much this year. On the Eagles’ third drive, Holmes got close for a sack again, but Strahan and Jessie Armstead lost contain and McNabb scrambled away to his right. In the second half, Holmes really improved against the run and Philadelphia was not able to generate much yardage in his direction. On the 2nd-and-10 play where Emmanuel McDaniel got beat for 15 yards on the Eagles’ game-tying drive, Holmes almost sacked McNabb.
Inside, Cornelius Griffin (2 tackles) showed some life again. He had a couple of quality pass rushes in the first half and looked real strong against the run. In the second half, on the Eagles’ third drive, Griffin got two quality pass pressures on McNabb. Keith Hamilton (1 tackle) didn’t have the kind of game as was hoped. For the most part, he was steady against the run, but the Eagles were successful in neutralizing him on a few runs in the first half. He made some noise at the start of the second half with some pass pressure, but that was about it. He did bat one ball down late in the game.
The reserves saw some playing time. Both Frank Ferrara and Lance Legree got great pressure on McNabb on a 1st-and-10 play in the second quarter. Legree, however, had problems at the point of attack on the 18-yard Buckhalter run (as did Strahan, Armstead, and Shaun Williams).
Linebackers: Not as productive as hoped. Mike Barrow (9 tackles, 0.5 sacks, 1 fumble recovery, 1 pass defensed) was on the short-end of two TE Chad Lewis touchdowns, but Barrow had excellent coverage on both plays. McNabb just threw two perfect passes. Barrow’s blitz led to the play where Strahan forced the fumble and Barrow recovered.
I was more than a bit concerned with the way Jessie Armstead (7 tackles, 1 pass defensed) started the game. To be frank, he looked terrible. He looked slow and it looked like the Eagles were deliberately running the ball right at him (even when he switched sides). On the first defensive snap, he missed a tackle on Chad Lewis that resulted in big yardage (a 31-yard reception). Armstead was also slow to help out Holmes on the reverse to James Thrash that picked up 10 yards on the opening Eagles’ drive. Mike then got blocked on a 4-yard Duce Staley run a few plays later. On the next drive, Philadelphia again ran successfully at Armstead for seven yards (Mike Barrow got picked off by the fullback on this play too). When Armstead flipped to the other side, he wasn’t able to play off the block on Buckhalter’s two big runs. However, as the Giants neared the end of the first quarter, Armstead started to make some plays. His run blitz brought down Staley for a two-yard loss. On the same drive, he did an excellent job of disrupting a screen on 3rd-and-13 and nailed Staley for a four-yard loss. His run defense also stiffened dramatically at this point too. In the second half, Armstead did a nice job of holding Staley to a one-yard gain on a 2nd-and-17 pass attempt.
Brandon Short (3 tackles) was real quiet. The pass interference call on him on the Eagles’ game-tying drive was questionable. He was a step late on the blitz on the deep pass to Thrash during the same drive.
Defensive Backs: Will Allen (5 tackles, 1 interception, 4 passes defensed) had the kind of nightmare game that almost all rookies eventually will have. Unfortunately, it came in a game of this magnitude. Though there were some rough spots in the first half, it was really the second half that most of the bad plays came. On the Eagles’ second drive of the game, Thrash caught a 9-yard pass in front of Allen, who was playing very soft on the play. Allen committed a flagrant 44-yard pass interference penalty on the Eagles’ fourth drive of the game – had he turned around to play the ball, he could have knocked it away. Allen did an excellent job on the Eagles’ last offensive play of the first half. With only a minute left in the quarter, the Eagles ran Staley up the middle and then took their sweet time huddling up and running another play. What they were trying to do was lull Allen to sleep and make him believe they were merely running out the clock. On the very next play, McNabb threw deep on him. Allen was not fooled and he picked off the pass.
The second half actually started off pretty well for Allen as the Eagles tested him quite often yet were unable to move the ball. What was clear was the Eagles were trying to entice Allen to come up and play the short pass before throwing it deep on him. Fox example, just like in the first half, McNabb threw the ball short against the soft-playing Allen for a 5-yard gain. But on the next drive, Allen did a great job of defending Thrash deep on 1st-and-10. Then two plays later, he covered Thrash well on 3rd-and-7 to force a punt. On the ensuing drive, Allen got beat on a slant pass by Thrash for a first down on 3rd-and-8. The roof started to cave in on the fifth drive. Thrash blew by Allen for a 57-yard touchdown. On the play, it was clear that Allen was getting set to jump on a shorter pass. The Eagles then again took advantage of this aggressiveness two drives later when Allen got beat on an out-and-up for 32-yards; this play set up the game-tying touchdown. The agony for Allen wasn’t complete until Thrash beat him for 25-yards on the game-winning field goal drive.
Will Peterson (2 tackles) did alright, but it is tough to judge him since the Eagles really threw more in the direction of Allen (and seemed to game plan for that give that James Thrash was the primary target). Peterson did a good job of covering Todd Pinkston on a pass in the endzone two plays before the Eagles’ first touchdown. In the second half, Peterson did a good job on a left-side sweep and tackled Staley for no gain. Peterson got beat for a 9-yard pass by Todd Pinkston on the Eagles’ game-winning field goal drive. The completion moved the ball from the Giants’ 46 to the Giants’ 37 yard line.
Emmanuel McDaniel (3 tackles, 1 pass defensed) was the nickelback. He got beaten by rookie Freddie Mitchell on the Eagles’ first drive on for five yards on 3rd-and-5. In the second half, McDaniel made a great tackle on the much larger Chad Lewis to prevent a first down after Mike Barrow had gotten beat for 14 yards on 3rd-and-15. However, EMac also got beat on the game-winning drive – a 15-yard completion to Mitchell.
The safeties were quiet. Too quiet. Shaun Williams’ pass interference call in the first half was bullsh*t, however.
One of the big differences in the game down the stretch was that the Eagles’ defensive coordinator felt comfortable enough to blitz the hell out of Collins because he had faith that his veteran corners would shut down the Giants’ wideouts. However, Defensive Coordinator John Fox played it much softer – probably because he feared exposing his rookie corners. The soft prevent-like defense hurt the Giants big-time late in the game.
Special Teams: P Rodney Williams’ punted poorly. His punts went for 32, 28, 47, 45, 17, 49, 27, and 41 yards – and most of the longer punts were the result of good rolls. Punt protection was also not so hot as the Eagles got close to blocking punts a few times.
Owen Pochman’s kickoffs landed at the 11, 6, 7, 12, and 12. What was dismaying was that he couldn’t get the ball into the endzone even when the wind was at his back – unlike his counterpart on the Eagles. Kickoff coverage surrendered returns of 18, 37, 25, 24, and 21 yards – an OK job except for the 37 yarder. Brian Mitchell never returned a punt as Williams’ punts were not fielded or fair catches resulted.
Jonathan Carter did a decent job of returning two kick-offs for 32 and 23 yards. Omar Stoutmire returned one kick-off for 24 yards and looked pretty good doing so. Tiki Barber was able to break punt returns of 17, 13, and 15 yards – not bad production at all.
Four Yards Short
by David Oliver
Or three seconds short, or any other way you look at it, it comes out short. Not only the game, but the entire season has gone this way. The “if…but” syllogism reigns supreme in Giants land, and now our season is three weeks short. So how do you view the game? It was everything Sam Garnes said it would be last week. It was a backyard brawl, a memorable contest. Kenny Holmes told me that it was “a hard fought game. We said it was going to come down to the wire, and it did, it came down to the last second with Dixon running…” The mood in the locker was somber, but in many senses philosophical. Kenny went on, “Two good teams out there fighting, and we were on the short end of the stick this time.”
It wasn’t so much that the Giants lost this one. The Eagles went out and won it. Give credit where credit is due. The Giants have a couple of “stars”; the Eagles have one “Superstar”. Donovan McNabb came into his own on that playing field, and it is he who is the budding legend, the Elway factor. I hope Ernie Accorsi was watching real close. As Giants fans, we know, from watching LT for an era, that a superstar can elevate the play of a good team to greatness. And Donovan McNabb possesses those qualities. The Giants harried him, harassed him, chased him all night, all over the turf at the Vet. In the end, he just flat out was the difference.
The Giants will have a long off-season to think about it and I don’t want to get too far ahead of myself, but there are a few drums that just have to be beaten a little more. They are simple: you can’t win with TWO – 2 – dos, zwei, duo, ROOKIE cornerbacks in your lineup. Potential is wonderful, but it is just potential until it is actuated. I know – I am one of yesterday’s bright young men. Also, it is difficult to win if you replace half of the starting lineup and one third of the linebackers playing in front of those rookies. So I will say it now and move on, until the season wrap up – I don’t know what the management was thinking last off- season and I fear this coming off-season. I will say it here and now – it is very difficult to win when you replace three- fifths of your offensive line and switch positions for the remaining two linemen.
One more tribute to McNabb and we’ll talk Giants. I finished up with Kenny Holmes on McNabb and he told me, “Everything around him is a piece to his puzzle, and he is the main piece…getting out of the pocket and throwing to those guys, running the ball, 10, 15, 20 yards, it carried the team.” McNabb is a Rubic’s Cube for defenses and defensive coordinators. Last year’s Giants defensive team was ideal for stopping the McNabbs of the League, and proved out the adage that teamwork and experience are invaluable. This year’s defense has more potential, maybe by a factor of 5, but it will be home for the playoffs.
The game itself was a war, following the first quarter in which the Giants were listless. Why would the Giants start so slowly in such an important game. Well here’s one piece which I have heard and not seen discussed elsewhere. When the Giants’s team arrived in the locker room, the heat was up to, as one player said, “about 120” in there. Remember, war isn’t always what it seems and the little psywar pregame activity often plays a part. Could it be that the Eagles were so incensed at the Giants stealing their plays last year, that they turned up the heat, literally, this year? (grin) And then, of course, calling the bomb squad on yours truly and cutting open my bag must have had something to do with the bad karma pervasive to the vet. I guess they never heard of dogs, unless they were roasting them all on the grills in the parking lot (grin).
So the Giants came out flat, while the Eagles actually practiced an extra 15 minutes outside before the game. Whenever I see activity like this, I wonder what’ s up. It struck me as quite noticeable and I felt that the Eagles would come out like Mike Tyson, which they did. I also felt that if the Giants weathered the early storm they would come on to win the game. But the contest was more like the Shannon Briggs-George Foreman fight. After the first quarter, it was a see-saw affair, with the Giants throwing rope-a-dopes, flea flickers, ends around, the whole playbook that was designed for Sean Bennett came out, but the Eagles had an answer for everything – the answers name was Thrash, a mediocre wide receiver by way of Washington, who beat Mr. Potential as if he were beating a sword into a PlowShare.
There were the usual imponderables and inexplicables, like running 20 seconds off the clock with 1 minute left and giving the ball to Mr. McNabb and Company; like going into the prevent victory defense following said offensive goofiness, like putting Emmanuel McDaniel (EMac) on the field and having him spy McNabb on the flank instead of dropping into coverage. I could go on and on, but let’s look at it position-by-position, or at least some of them.
Management: So as to send a message on scape-goating, this game, and several others were lost in the off-season by not signing key reserves and investing everything in the corner position.
Coaching: Hard to assess for this game. The team wanted it, so they were motivated. Sean Payton opened it up and called a very good game. John Fox used his tools as best he could. The only fault I could see was playing soft with under one minute left. Without pressure, there was no way to stop McNabb or force him into a mistake. Three men cannot contain liquid mercury. We can debate this one for the next six months, but the game was coached about as well as it could be, given the circumstances.
Kerry Collins: All in all, a pretty good game. He made his reads and he looked off his receivers. He made some nice quick decisions when the primary receivers were covered. He missed a TD to Campbell when he overthrew him in the end zone, but he began to find Campbell and work out a relationship. Kerry was talking in the locker room and told a few of us that he was excited about next year, that he believed the Giants offense is not that far off, that he loves Ike “that’s why I went to bat for him last week.” Kerry said, if he’s here, he wants Ike here, and he “wants to lead this team.” Kerry is finally starting to sound like a QB who wants it, so I guess that means he will be gone next year. Kerry was 22-of-39 for 303 yards and a rating of 89.8. (McNabb, incidentally, was 21-of-39 for 270 and a rating of 90.8).
The Receivers: Amani dropped an early one which could have been big and established some tempo. He only had 3 catches on the night, with the 60 yard reception of the flea-flicker for a TD. Ike was also quiet with 3-for-19 and Campbell had 2-for-31. Tiki had a big night with 10-for-87 and was constantly available over the rush. JJ, Rivers and Comella rounded out the group. On the whole, take away Tiki and the Amani bomb and the group did not make its’ presence felt. Oh, dare I forget that Dixon’s romp is included in the 303 yards – he went 62 yards although not the primary receiver, on a play called the Lambuth play because it is barely practiced. It was a Tiki reception and back flip, over his head which Dixon took down the sidelines and almost into history. But, sigh, the history part only happens to the Giants, not for them.
Rushing: A nice combo. Tiki carried 16 times for 71 yards and Ron Dayne carried the mail 59 yards on only 8 carries. The big back rumbled 30 yards on one carry. Savor it, for if the rumor mill is correct, he will be lugging the leather elsewhere next year.
The Offensive Line: Gave up 2 sacks, one to Jeremiah Trotter, who again was everywhere with 15 tackles, and one to Hugh Douglas. There were some nice holes on the Dayne runs and Tiki had some decent blocking for his. For all the abuse these guys take, they have done the job over the past four games. Jason Whittle filled in almost three quarters for Ron Stone, and there wasn’t any noticeable drop off. Dusty Zeigler had a very active afternoon and Lomas Lomas was fighting tooth and nail with Douglas for the entire game.
Defense: Barrow appeared to be feeling ill, yet he had 9 tackles and 0.5 sacks. He also had a pass defensed, a forced fumble and a fumble recovery. But he was beaten in the end zone for a score. Jessie had 7 tackles and a pass defensed. Michael Strahan had 3.5 sacks with 6 tackles. He constantly forced McNabb out of the pocket, but McNabb did quite a bit of damage on his scrambles. Short had three tackles and almost got to McNabb on the final long pass to Thrash – almost, but not quite. Hammer had a very quiet night and Griffin had only two tackles although he was in McNabb’s face all night. EMac had 3 tackles and Holmes added 4. All in all, the Giants had 9 passes defensed, with 4 by Allen, who also had an interception. So he had a very busy night.
The margin of difference between this year and last, in both games, was the inability of the Giants to contain McNabb. Holmes got a lot more pressure than CJ, but CJ did not allow McNabb outside. Similarly with both Griffin and Short. This can all be worked out by experience, but this year it was costly. This year, many games came down to this for the defense – inability to stop the tight end and the inexperience of the corners. It may be a fine line, but it is the difference between playing and watching during the playoffs.
The Giants had the ball15 times, time of possession was slightly in favor of the Giants. The first half ended 7-0 Eagles and the Giants went punt, punt, fumble, punt, punt, punt, end of half. I guess they lowered the heat in the locker as the Giants went TD, punt, FG, punt, FG, TD and the f-o-u-r-y-a-r-d-l-i-n-e.
What more can be said? It was a gutsy performance, the team gave it all they could – but the karma wasn’t right. Victory has 100 mothers; defeat is an orphan. I was down, I was up, I was disappointed, I was happy, I felt the Giants would win, I actually thought Dixon had scored. I picked up my torn bag, went into the locker, watched Jim Fassel present Mayor Guiliani with a token of appreciation from the team, talked to my buddies in the locker room, and walked out into the cold Philadelphia night thankful I had been here. It was and is the story of the Giants, and my own life, almost, wait until next year, walk proud for effort.