Giants-Eagles: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

Well, it looks like the last week was a distraction, after all. How else do you explain losing to the sad-sack Eagles, 20-14?

The Giants didn’t play as poorly as they did in Cleveland, but were terrible all game long just the same. The Eagles did have to huddle up an extra couple of minutes after the game to explain the rules to Donovan McNabb—the team that scores the most points wins.

The Good

Ummm...nobody shot themselves today. That’s good.

The Giants remain in first place and can still clinch the division title with a Dallas loss against Pittsburgh. "Distraction Week" is over.

They blocked two field goals, with Kevin Dockery returning one for a score.

I have a lot of vacation days left this year, so I will be taking a lot of days off in December. That’s good. (And I still have a job, which is also good.) And that about wraps this section up.

The Bad

Here we go: The offense looked terrible and out of sync. The Giants were rolling on the first drive of the game, and then called that ill-fated reverse to Mario Manningham for no reason. They really don’t need to resort to using trick plays. They shot themselves in the foot (no pun intended), and lost the ball on downs. They were 0-for-3 on fourth-down attempts.

Domenik Hixon dropped a wide-open pass on a bomb on the first play of the second quarter. It looked like he was trying not to spill his drink while reaching for the gun sliding down his pants instead of concentrating on the ball. Steve Smith dropped a pass while he was open on a fourth down in the second quarter.

Eli Manning was only 13-for-27, with 123 yards, and the one late-game touchdown pass to Darcy Johnson. He wasn’t on the same page with any of his receivers the whole damn game. Their league best ground game only managed to rush for 88 yards. And Brandon Jacobs left the game with an injury.

The defense couldn’t stop Brian Westbrook, and they barely touched McNabb all game long. Justin Tuck had the only sack (and blocked the field goal that led to the TD). The Eagles converted third downs at will (12 for 18), while the Giants’ offense was feeble (3 for 11). Philadelphia also controlled the ball the whole game.

The two teams looked like they switched places. Antonio Pierce led the Giants with 15 tackles but committed a delay of game penalty and a pass interference on the same drive. He shadowed Westbrook the whole game but needed help and often didn’t get it. He was probably just glad he was able to play a football game instead of dealing with police and the media.

The Giants did a poor job of tackling all afternoon. And they were even offsides on the onside kick at the end of the game. They couldn’t do anything right. It looked like their plan was to let the bumbling Eagles beat themselves, but they waited too long. That last touchdown was easy. Maybe they should have pretended it was the last two minutes of the game the whole second half.

The Ugly

The whole game was ugly for the Giants. The whole week was ugly. There’s no statistic or mathematical formula to prove the Giants were distracted by the Burress incident, but I’m sure they’re all glad the week is over.

Is it just a bump in the road? Probably. But their seven-game winning streak is over, and it was their first loss at home all season. And they’ll need to get themselves together and back on the same page if they’re going to beat Dallas next Sunday night.

And please, Giants, stay away from the Latin Quarter this week. Just stay home and watch Christmas specials. Charlie Brown is on tomorrow night, and so the whole evening will be tied up yet again explaining to my four-year-old daughter that, no, Peppermint Patty is not a boy. That’s one way to stay out of trouble.