Giants come up small after Sandy

Playing in New Jersey the week of the Superstorm Sandy that ravaged the area, this home game was supposed to be an emotional lift for the home crowd. Instead, the New York Football Giants laid an egg against the Pittsburgh Steelers.

There was no reason for the Giants to play so poorly this week. With some of the ceremony before the game, this should have been a motivating 9/11, Hurricane-Katrina-like return to the field. Not only was it a home game, and a travel game for the opponent, the Steelers traveled in the same day. Kind of last minute. And not just that, they were without their star brightest defensive star Troy Palomalu and their top two running backs. And not just that, their blazing kick returner got hurt during the game as well as one of their top wide receivers. All the advantage should have been with the Giants.

And in the first half, all the advantage was with the G-Men. Without a doubt, the home team got every call. In their only offensive touchdown drive of the game there was a very questionable pass interference call, an even-more-questionable personal foul called in the end zone on third down on a helmet-to-helmet hit that was more accurately a shoulder to the ribs, and a touchdown run that could have been spotted short of the goal line. Four plays later, the Giants knocked a ball loose from Roethlisberger that sure looked like a Tuck Rule contestant (an incompleted pass), and during the return there was an obvious block in the back hit that was not called. It was the weakest 14 points I’ve ever seen. I’m a Giants fan and I couldn’t even get excited about all the scoring.

There were times that the defense looked really good. They did a pretty good job containing Big Ben, especially in the first half. Jason Pierre-Paul had one of the best individual defensive plays you’ll never see a replay of when he busted through a double team and sacked Ben Roethlisberger on third down in the second quarter. Justin Tuck had two sacks and batted down a pass. Corey Webster picked off a pass. Osi Umenyiora knocked that ball out of Big Ben’s hand that Michael Boley returned for a touchdown. Towards the end they sniffed out a fake field goal attempt to preserve the lead. The defense did enough to put the Giants in a position to win.

But then again, they didn’t. The defense looked like Swiss cheese on every other play. Third stringer Isaac Redman had a field day carving up the Giants like a pumpkin for 147 yards, including rushes in the first half for 7, 11, 11, 12, and 17 yards. In the fourth quarter he busted through for an 8 yard gain on third down in the redzone followed closely with a touchdown run, and then when the Giants had one final opportunity to get the ball back, Redman ran off for 28 yards. Mike Wallace turned a short catch across the middle into a 51-yard touchdown sprint that would make Usain Bolt proud. The special teams coverage was dreadful too, allowing three long returns of over 50 yards.

On the flip side, the Giants did absolutely nothing on offense. Nothing. The only big plays the whole game were two pass interference calls. Eli finished a miserable 10-24 passing for 125 yards, no touchdowns and an interception. Those are Mark Sanchez numbers. The rushing game was also a complete non-factor. The Giants are taking all the opportunities provided by the defense and turning them into field goals. Justin Tynes leads the NFL in field goals, and by a significant margin. That is not a statistic I want my team to lead.

And all those certainly weren’t the only mistakes, as Coach Coughlin surely noticed.

“This is as disappointing loss as we’ve had in a long time. Two illegal procedures [penalties] take us out of field goal range, offsides on third down, covering kicks and punts was terrible, was awful. Offensively, for a couple games in a row we didn’t play well, we didn’t appear to be very aggressive, sure didn’t appear to get any first downs. We didn’t tackle well, we didn’t stop the run well… We wanted emotionally so badly to win the game for obvious reasons, for all of our neighbors who are struggling and need some type of inspiration and of course, we didn’t provide it for them. That was not the type of game we planned to play.”

(Other than that, it was a good game...)

Three weeks ago the Giants looked like the best offense in the NFL, a unit that could turn up a big play almost at will. Since then they have been shut down twice in a row. In the fourth quarters after that huge Eli-to-Cruz missle against the Redskins, the Giants got two field goals and four straight three-and-outs. I nearly proclaimed Eli Manning the best quarterback in the league but now he can’t even convert a single first down in crunch time.

For the last couple years the Giants have really struggled at home. Fortunately, next week is a road game against a Bengals team that is laboring mightily. But after a bye, Big Blue faces the Packers, Saints, Falcons, Ravens and Eagles, perhaps the toughest final stretch of any team. This was a game they needed to and should have won. The season is too short to give up games like this.

The good news is that the rest of the division is underachieving tremendously and after Monday Night the G-Men will still have a 1.5 or 2.5 game lead over the Eagles that should be safe. The Giants are still an elite offense coupled with a defense that makes big plays and has an elite pass rush. They can beat any team any given week. And in a game where they looked like a team whose mind was elsewhere, they had a fourth quarter lead and only lost by 4 points. Even the Patriots and Packers have 3 losses. But for the game as its own individual entity, as Tom Coughlin said, this was a very disappointing game for the New York Giants and their fans. Eli Manning needs to regain his mojo and the defense needs to find a way to stop the run.