Both Tom Coughlin and John Carney insist the stand-in kicker getting another start yesterday had nothing to do with incumbent Lawrence Tynes’ premature proclamation. Either way, if Big Blue’s 29-17 win was Carney’s last game as a Giant, the venerable veteran made it a memorable one.
Carney had a third-quarter field goal attempt blocked and returned for a TD – his first miss of the year – but redeemed himself with a 48-yarder in the fourth to help ice the win, kicking under strange and unsure circumstances.
On Wednesday, Tynes had said he was back from his injury and would start. The next day Coughlin issued a terse statement reminding everybody that he makes the decisions; and yesterday his pregame decision was to go with the 44-year-old Carney.
“Those are gametime decisions. That’s all I know about that,” said Carney.
Both he and Coughlin were asked if Tynes’ faux pas influenced the decision, and both responded with a single word: No. Carney said he had no idea until this weekend if he’d start and still has no clue if he’ll be back next week.
“Yeah, it’s odd,” Carney said. “I did this twice last year with Jacksonville and Kansas City; you blend in as well as you can and take it day by day.”
Yesterday – kicking for a 17-point lead late in the third – Carney saw 6-foot-5 Manny Lawson leap over the offensive line for the block. DB Nate Clements scooped the ball and ran 74 yards to cut the lead to 24-17.
“They just made a great play. It was a great athletic move by their player, and it’s hard to do what that guy did; but he pulled it off,” Carney said. “I started hitting all my gears chasing him, but he was 10 yards ahead and I wasn’t going to catch him.”
