Giants Game 4 Recap-"The Disappointment"

Disappointed, as he should be.

Tonight was a tough one to swallow for the Giants. They repeatedly shot themselves in the foot time and time again, but that being said, I will not take anything away from the Philadelphia Eagles. They played a complete game and ended up coming out on top 19-17. The Eagles defense really surprised me tonight and gave Eli a very tough time.

There were a few keys to this game, the first came on the first play of the 4th quarter. The Giants had just picked up a big first down on a 4th-and-1 completion to Victor Cruz for a big gain down to the Eagles 10 to end the 3rd. The following play, Giants quarterback Eli Manning took a shot to the end zone and Eagles corner Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie undercut a fade route for a backbreaking interception. This play totally took the wind out of the Giants sails because at the time they were only down 13-10. The costly pick resulted in New York not getting any points out of the drive, which would have changed the game entirely.

A second key to this game is related to the first, and that was that Eli Manning showed that he was actually human tonight. Everyone who follows the NFL knows it is no secret that Eli shines brightest in the biggest moments. Tonight, that was not the case. Eli made many ill advised decisions that ended up costing the Giants a win.

A large part of this was due to the Eagles stifling defense, but Manning had more than one chance to win this game, specifically at the very end. After receiving a gift of a pass interference call to keep the would-be game winning drive alive, Eli decided to take a shot down the sidelines to wideout Ramses Barden. This simply should have never happened. The clock was on the Giants side, and they were in field goal range. They could have used one or two of their next plays to run the clock down and get into a more comfortable position for kicker Lawrence Tynes to win the game.

We saw how the story really went, as Barden was called for an offensive pass interference that took the Giants out of field goal range. To make matters even worse, on 2nd down on the Philly 36 with 20 seconds left, Eli took another shot downfield. All we needed were some guaranteed yards to get back into field goal range. A quick hitter, or even a draw play. Manning was not fully aware of the situation. With no time outs, you only get two plays before the field goal because if you catch the ball in bounds on 2nd down, 3rd down is used to spike the ball. This mismanagement resulted in no gain and Tynes didn't have enough leg to knock down a 54 yarder.

One Last Thing: The final key to the game was Eagles quarterback Michael Vick finally took care of the football. Vick came into tonight's game with 8 turnovers in 3 games. He didn't have any tonight, and put his football team in a position to win the game. The Eagles defense then rose to the occasion and backed up Vick to get a team victory.

Next week, the Giants head back home to face off against the Cleveland Browns who have looked horrible at times on offense. New York simply cannot lose that game and also, even though I gave the Eagles praise tonight, I just want to make clear that I absolutely hate them.