GIANT NOTES

PHILADELPHIA – Tucked into yesterday’s 26-23 victory over the Eagles were two head-scratching decisions by Giants coach Tom Coughlin.

In the closing seconds of the first half, the Giants once again allowed Mike McMahon and the Eagles to march down the field. Then, Coughlin made a truly strange call.

With 26 seconds left before halftime, the Eagles had the ball on the Giants’ 24 when on third down tight end L.J. Smith was called for pass interference. If the Giants accepted the penalty, the Eagles would have faced a third-and-14 from the Giants’ 34, making a field-goal attempt by David Akers 52 yards. Instead, Coughlin declined the penalty and Akers trotted in and easily nailed a 42-yarder to make it 17-17. In effect, Coughlin handed the Eagles a gift field goal instead of entrusting his defense to stop McMahon on third-and-14.

“It was my decision, based on the fact I really didn’t want to give them another down,” Coughlin said. “It was a 42-yard field goal into the wind, if I knew he was going to strike the ball so well, obviously I’d have taken the penalty. Those are the kind of things, a yard here, a yard there, make a difference in the game.”

In the third quarter, a Michael Strahan sack for a seven-yard loss would have given the Eagles a second-and-17 on the Giants’ 30. There was a holding penalty on fullback Josh Parry on the play. For some reason, Coughlin accepted the 10-yard penalty, which only gained him three yards, gave the Eagles an extra down to work with and nullified the Strahan sack.

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The Giants had six sacks, including two by Strahan and 1 ½ by Osi Umenyiora . . . Tiki Barber (32-124) surpassed 100 yards vs. the Eagles for the fifth consecutive game . . . The Giants scored a touchdown on their opening possession for the first time since Oct. 2 vs. the Rams . . . WR Willie Ponder was back after getting benched the last four games despite averaging 27 yards per kickoff return. Ponder did nothing special, averaging 19 yards on five returns.

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What was the big problem containing Eagles RB Ryan Moats (11-114, 2 TDs), who repeatedly burst free attacking the left side of the Giants defense?

“We finally realized they’re not going to cut back, with [Brian] Westbrook he’s a cutback runner, we really didn’t know too much about Moats,” LB Nick Greisen said.

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The Eagles were coming off a 42-0 loss to the Seahawks.

“Everyone was embarrassed about Monday night,” Eagles coach Andy Reid said. “They were not going to let that happen again.”