EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. -- The New York Giants have won their division and are going to the playoffs, but that doesn't mean they shouldn't be worried.
They should, and Sunday's 20-14 loss to Philadelphia is why.
While the game marked the second straight contest the Giants played without star receiver Plaxico Burress, who was suspended for the season, it offered a remarkable contrast of what their future could look like from last weekend's demolition of Washington.
Essentially, the Eagles controlled the game -- and the Giants -- from beginning to end. They ran effectively. They threw efficiently. They controlled the lines of scrimmage. They controlled the clock
In short, they were the New York Giants of the past 13 weeks.
Those Giants suffocated opponents with a relentless rushing attack, a precision pass attack and ball control. But that was before Burress bowed out, leaving Eli Manning a choice of Steve Smith, Amani Toomer and Domenik Hixon as his go-to receivers and opponents like the Eagles a choice of whom to double-team.
Of course, they did what you might have expected -- they didn't double-team anyone all that much, concentrating on stuffing the run instead. Result: The Giants were reduced to 88 yards rushing, had no receiver with more than 47 yards in catches and didn't score an offensive touchdown until 15 seconds remained.
Go ahead and call it an aberration, but the Giants better be careful here because Philadelphia might have authored a blueprint to defending New York for the rest of the season and into the playoffs.
"Listen," said Eagles safety Brian Dawkins, "I understand that you want to say the correct thing like 'We'll plug in this guy and we'll move on.' And that's all well and good. But when you have the type of player that Plax is and the attention you have to pay to him ... and you have to pay attention to him. You can't allow a corner to play one-on-one with Plax the whole game.
"I'm not saying you're not going to win a lot of the battles, but he's going to win his share. So you have to have defenses rotate his way from time to time. Now that he's not there we don't have to rotate like that. We can play straight-up defense and just play."
|
|
| Eli Manning will find life after Plaxico Burress very tough. (AP) |
But he dropped it.
Manning looked frazzled and failed to complete 50 percent of his passes for the first time this season. More important, he couldn't produce a big play, with the Giants failing on 8 of 11 third downs and all three fourths.
Contrast that to the Giants' 36-31 defeat of Philadelphia a month ago, a game where Burress caught a touchdown pass and the G-men rushed for 219 yards, and maybe you can appreciate what the NFC's best team might be up against.
Yes, there was a 21 mph wind that played havoc with the football, but that wind was there for both teams -- and only one struggled to make things happen. Welcome to the New York Giants' world, sans Plaxico.
"We probably played a lot more roll-up coverage to his side, no question about it," said Philadelphia defensive coordinator Jim Johnson. "He's always been a big-play guy against us, and we always felt because of the matchup we had to roll the coverage to his side. So that makes you play a little bit more of seven people in the box.
"But when he's not there you say, 'Hey, we can play a lot more of eight people in the box.' We probably would've done it a little bit more anyway because we didn't do a good job against the run last time, but still it was a comfort thing.
"Remember, Burress -- especially in the red zone -- is such a great player who comes up with big plays. It gave us a little more chance of playing safeties up in the box."
More people meant more bodies attacking an offensive line that, suddenly, couldn't open holes for backs like Brandon Jacobs and Derrick Ward. Jacobs shredded the Eagles for 126 yards on Nov. 9, but on this afternoon he was reduced to 52 before bowing out with a knee injury.
And that, in turn, forced the Giants to break from character. On fourth-and-1, for instance, early in the fourth quarter the Giants lined up in the shotgun at the Eagles' 38. Normally, you'd expect them to hammer the middle of the line with Jacobs or Ward or Ahmad Bradshaw, but Jacobs was sidelined, and a run wasn't called.
Instead, Manning rolled to his right, was pressured and, in desperation, tried to make a quick flip to wide receiver Sinorice Moss. Sinorice Moss ? You have one yard, and that's your go-to receiver?
Uh-oh.
"Definitely having the extra guy in the box helped," said Philadelphia defensive end Victor Abiamiri. "We could still cover guys out there and commit a guy to the box to help us stop the run."
And that, essentially, is what the Giants should get used to facing. It's nothing more than simple math. Eight is greater than seven, so it makes sense to commit an extra defender to pitch in against the run if you're not concerned about double-teaming outside receivers.
And the Eagles were not. I smell a trend.
"They weren't going to sit there and do the same thing they did three weeks ago," said Giants' coach Tom Coughlin. "They were going to play it differently. Three week ago there were 219 yards (rushing), so do you expect them to just stand there?"
No, I don’t, but there's a subtle difference from that Nov. 9 game: Then, Burress was on the field. Now he is not. Nor is he coming back. And that could make a big, big difference -- not only for the teams that had to cover him but for the Giants themselves.
