There are no freebies in the NFL. Just ask the Chiefs, who saw any chance of making the playoffs end Sunday with a loss to the previously winless Chargers. So give the Giants credit for wasting the Cardinals as efficiently as they did, dominating the game on both sides of the ball en route to a 31-7 romp in Phoenix Sunday night.
It helps to be playing against a team with a revamped offensive line, a banged up defensive front and Dave Brown as the starting quarterback. Still, the difference between winning and losing against even the weakest of opponents can come down to attitude, which is what Giants coach Jim Fassel wanted to see as much as execution against the hapless Cards.
“What I was looking for was an attitude, a confident level of play and an aggressive level play,” Fassel said yesterday. “I thought the team did that. I thought we played the game smart and aggressive.”
Everything looks great when you beat a team by 24 points. The Giants offense outgained the Cardinals, 371-267, and held the ball for 34:43. The defense sacked Brown, a former Giant, five times.
“We looked like we were coming out of the huddle, getting set, shifting and moving sharp and just playing at a tempo we wanted to,” Fassel said. “We needed to get our team in an upbeat tempo. We were playing at a good pace.”
Certainly, they performed far better than in their consecutive losses to the Rams and Lions the previous two weeks. But we still don’t know if the Giants have really elevated their game in response to Fassel’s playoffs-or-bust guarantee made last week or whether they were merely flexing their muscles against a weaker foe.
That’s what we’ll find out Sunday in Washington. Despite an 8-4 record, the Giants are still searching for the kind of bravado you can’t get from a coach’s guarantee. You can only earn it on the field with a quality win against a quality opponent. The Eagles (9-4) gained a huge measure of respect, along with the NFC East lead by beating the Redskins 23-20 at FedEx Field Sunday. Now it’s the Giants turn to step up and show they belong, too.
So far, Fassel’s team has been disappointing when it comes to this kind of game. They lost to the defending AFC Champion Titans 28-14 at Tennessee, lost 38-24 to the defending Super Bowl champion Rams, lost 31-21 to the resurgent Lions, and were beaten by the Redskins, 16-6, in Week 4. The losses to the Rams, Lions and Redskins were all at Giants Stadium. Aside from their two-game sweep of the Eagles, the Giants have little to strut about.
Fassel admitted during his weekly press conference yesterday that beating the Redskins (7-5) would mean more than just a win. It would be the kind of confidence builder that would heighten their post-season aspirations. It also would show the Giants ability to overcome adversity, something they haven’t really done since beating the Eagles in Philly on Sept. 10.
One stat offers a glimpse of the Giants questionable resilience. They are 7-0 in games where they’ve scored first. They are 1-4 in games when they don’t. When all goes well as it did against the Cardinals, the Giants look unstoppable. But offer them some adversity to overcome and they usually fold.
Without the ability to overcome deficits against good teams, the Giants are merely teasing us by beating on the Cardinals.
“I’ve never watched an NFL team that doesn’t have penalties that hurt you or an incompletion or an interception or something,” Fassel said. “You just gotta keep grinding your way through all that stuff. It’s harder against good teams cause they expose everything. We’ve got to play our style of game in our mental frame of mind.”
The players had the day off yesterday after landing on New Jersey soil at 6:15 a.m. While they headed to their respective homes, the coaching staff went to work on the Redskins, who handed the Giants their first loss of the season after a 3-0 start.
The Redskins have lost three of their last four games and might be without running back Stephen Davis, who missed Sunday’s game with a hairline fracture to his forearm. Brad Johnson (knee) could be back at quarterback ahead of Jeff George.
As much as they are wobbling, the Redskins have a favorable schedule. After playing the Giants, they face road games at Dallas and Pittsburgh before ending the regular-season against Arizona. The Giants final three games are home against the Steelers, at Dallas and home against the Jaguars.
“It’s going to be a tight race,” Fassel said. “The bottom line comes down to what we do. That’s all you can ask if you get to this point. I’m not nearly as concerned about the other teams and how they stack up as I am about playing our games one at a time.”
