PHILADELPHIA – No apologies from the Giants for being here instead of where every other 8-8 team in the NFL is and should be, which is home watching.
No “We’re sorry” for extending their season and prolonging the agony of fans who have endured a wild and often contentious ride through the heights and the depths and the turmoil. The Giants take the field this afternoon at Lincoln Financial Field defiant in their insistence that they belong and intent on proving that very point to the high-flying Eagles in an NFC wild card playoff game pitting two bitter rivals.
“We didn’t get here the way we wanted to,” Tiki Barber said, “but we’re here.”
How they got here defies logic and reasoning. Losers of six of their last eight games, stripped of the swagger they wore at mid-season, reminded endlessly about their humiliating playoff flop one year ago. The scuttlebutt is Tom Coughlin almost definitely needs to win this game to keep his job, and the Giants have the look and feel of a one-and-done postseason interloper.
After so much blather in the preceding months, the Giants haven’t said much this week to counter any of that. They insist the product they hit the Eagles with is all the statement they’ll need.
“It is us against the world, and when we conquer the world we don’t want anybody back on the bandwagon,” linebacker Carlos Emmons said. “Everybody can stay off and it’s just gonna be us and we’re gonna sit on the mountaintop by ourselves.”
Or else, they never get close to reaching the peak. The Eagles, left for dead when Donovan McNabb tore up his knee, surged to the NFC East title by ending the season with a five-game winning streak, riding backup quarterback Jeff Garcia’s 36-year old arm, coach Andy Reid’s rock-solid demeanor and a rejuvenated defensive fury. They are the heavy favorite, playing at home, surging with momentum, a trendy pick to advance deep into an NFC tournament not exactly filled with heavyweights.
Despite the weak NFC field, there’s little or no fanfare surrounding the Giants chances of doing much of anything, not with a porous defense and a quarterback in Eli Manning that does not have the look and feel of a confident leader.
“The Cowboys were on a run and everyone anointed them the champs,” fullback Jim Finn said. “Now everyone is anointing Philadelphia the champs. The only way to find out is to play the game. We’re gonna try to be the champs.”
The flip side, of course, is to become the chumps. If that happens, team owners John Mara and Steve Tisch must quickly determine if Coughlin stays or goes, and a loss severely diminishes his chance of returning. Most playoff teams are not on the verge of firing the head coach, but the Giants aren’t most playoff teams.
“We’re all in it together, we all know we’ve got to do our jobs,” Plaxico Burress said. “If we don’t, nobody’s job is secure. We’ve got to go out, not so much worry about our job, just go out and do it.”
Characterizing the Eagles as unbeatable is ill-advised. Despite their snarl, they can be run against and Burress has often been able to beat them through the air. Garcia is on a roll but can be knocked around if he’s contained in the pocket. If Brian Westbrook is nullified – a tall order – the Eagles can be grounded.
Can the Giants find a way?
“This game, it’s easy to turn things around,” Manning said. “It can fall for you as quickly as it goes well. We struggled, but we found a way to hang in there and win some big games and make it into the playoffs. Now everything gets washed away. It doesn’t matter what your record is now, or what’s happened. It is a new season and we’ve got to find ways to win games.”
Finding a way to win this one game will be difficult enough.
