PHILADELPHIA — They hugged one another and clasped hands, fully aware that some of their brothers will no longer be Giants next season.
“Well,” Brian Daboll said after Eagles 38, Giants 7, “crash-landing here.”
The Giants weren’t supposed to be here, trying to shock the Eagles and shock the world and carry their fan base to within 60 minutes of the Super Bowl. But they got here, and they refused to stop dreaming a dream they never thought improbable, or even impossible, even if everyone else did.
They believed. They believed in each other. They believed in their coaches. They believed they could do this. They believed they could be one of our forever Giants teams. They believed they could place a fifth Lombardi Trophy inside the glass case in the lobby of 1925 Giants Drive.
“I really thought we’d be playing either the Niners or Cowboys next week. … Yeah, it sucks,” Jon Feliciano said.
Except the Eagles wasted no time knocking the belief out of them.
“To go out like that,” Xavier McKinney said, “is just not a good feeling.”
Daboll told his players how proud he was of them, and some of them vowed they would hold their head high for how far they had come.
But a bus ride up the Turnpike into next season was waiting outside for them.
Daniel Jones is pressured by Haason Reddick during the Giants’ 38-7 blowout loss to the Eagles in the NFC divisional round. Charles Wenzelberg“Probably later tonight or tomorrow, when I step back, there probably will be some pride there,” Darius Slayton said, “but it’s hard to not be frustrated right now.”
The Eagles showed up as the team the Giants aspire to be one day.
“We’re just looking to build more, we’re not there yet, and we know that,” Xavier McKinney said.
The Giants simply didn’t show up. They could not stand up to the one team that had bullied them back on Dec. 11.
Outplayed and outcoached again.
Fly, Eagles, Fly.
Cry, Giants, Cry.
“I think — I don’t think, I know we’re a better team than the score showed tonight,” Slayton said.
The Giants were so outclassed you wondered whether the Replacement Giants who put up a better fight here two weeks ago might have had a better chance.
“Our Way”?
Try “Sour Way.”
Or, given the way the Eagles jumped on them, “Cower Way.”
“This is one of my favorite teams of all time,” Saquon Barkley said. “That’s the sad thing about the NFL. No matter what, the locker room is not gonna be exactly the same next year.”
Curses to the Linc, where the Giants needed to play their best game of the season, and could not. Where the Giants needed to summon every last ounce of fight, of resilience, of poise, of mental toughness that had served them so well and sustained them.
They could not.
Daniel Jones needed to again impose his will on the Linc, fire heat-seeking missiles into tight windows, rampage through defenders with his crazy legs, be the franchise quarterback field general he has grown to be under Daboll and offensive coordinator Mike Kafka.
He could not. He needed to be better than Jalen Hurts.
He was not.
Jones telegraphed a pass that James Bradberry intercepted in front of Slayton not long after Daboll had gone unsuccessfully early for fourth-and-8 at the Philly 40, and just like that it became 14-0 on its way to 28-0 at the half.
The Eagles wouldn’t let him run. Or hide.
Jones at halftime: 6-for-10, 57 yards, one interception, 3-for-13 rushing.
Saquon Barkley runs for a small gain during the Giants’ loss. Corey Sipkin“We didn’t play well enough today, and we are certainly disappointed by that,” a glum Jones said.
Barkley needed to be the 230-pound Barry Sanders, be a weapon in the passing game, if not the best player on the field.
He was not.
The Eagles welcomed him to the City of Smotherly Love.
Barkley at halftime: 4-for-7 rushing, 1-for-2 receiving.
Dexter Lawrence needed to be the biggest bully of them all.
He was not.
Eagles’ rushing total at halftime: 140 yards.
Daboll had told the Giants that he needed everyone. When it mattered, he didn’t get anyone.
“I didn’t really feel like we were playing with enough urgency,” McKinney said. “We just seemed real slow. Our energy wasn’t to our standard today, and I think we all know that.”
Daboll restored pride to a franchise that only last January was a laughingstock.
That pride was nowhere to be found on Saturday night.
“I wish I could have done a better job,” Daboll said. “I feel like crap.”
A bad day that began with no water to shower under because of a burst pipe at the team hotel only got worse when the Giants stunk up the field.
And so regret was their unwanted passenger on the bus back home on the Turnpike. Slayton was asked what he expected the ride back to Jersey to be like. “Probably quiet,” he said.
Sometimes, ya gotta bereave.
