This Nor’easter had a tail even longer than the one tucked between Jeremy Shockey’s legs after he said the Giants got outcoached in Seattle. Either that or the football gods were passing wind, too, on Tiki Barber’s retirement.
Whatever, there was some serious bloviating (to borrow a Barber word) going on at Giants Stadium yesterday, enough to make retirement still a topic, even if it had nothing to do with Tiki or even brother Ronde pondering such after twice being embarrassed by Plaxico Burress.
Huh-uh, the Giants won this game last summer, when Jeff Feagles reconsidered his short retirement.
“I thought it would be better for my family to move back to Phoenix,” he said. “I have older kids, one already in high school and I wanted to get them all on the ground floor, not have to uproot them.
“They decided they wanted to come back. They liked New Jersey. I decided to keep playing until the Giants kick me out.”
That’s a little punter humor there, in case you don’t get it, or have never gotten how a punter can win a game.
With winds of 25 mph, gusting up to 50, it was a day fit for neither man nor offense, particularly the beastly Buccaneer brand. At this time of year Giant football is supposed to be about running the ball and kicking the ball. But until Brandon Jacobs accounted for 37 of the 54 yards toward Jay Feely’s putaway field goal in the fourth quarter of the 17-3 win, the Giants were trying to win with only half the formula.
They remained fine largely because of Feagles. In the first quarter, after Tom Coughlin had decided against a Feely 50-yarder, Feagles cornered one into the swirl that Kevin Dockery ran down at the five. It put the Bucs in so deep that an answering 57-yard punt, with the help a bounce, by counterpart Josh Bidwell, couldn’t save Tampa Bay from a short field and, eight plays later, a one-handed touchdown snatch by Burress.
In the second quarter, Feagles angled one from the Giant 50 that bounced straight up and settled into the hands of David Tyree at the 4. The offense couldn’t take immediate advantage of a Buccaneer three-and-out, falling on a fourth down at the Tampa Bay 28, but Fred Robbins recovered a Bruce Gradkowski fumble to set up a short drive to the second touchdown.
Feagles wasn’t done, later barely grazing the goal line on a 37-yarder he bounced backwards inside the 5, then rescuing a bouncer from Ryan Kuehl to save what could have been a Buc possession inside the 20. In the end, The Maestro had punted nine times for 37.3 perfectly-aimed yards and should have left the field to a standing ovation. Instead he was surprised to see five reporters at his locker.
“Usually this is when something bad happens, like a blocked kick,” he said. “But I appreciate it.”
Chicks just don’t dig the coffin corner, for some reason. After that San Francisco playoff fiasco, Giant fans learned a new appreciation for the long snap, but why is it that everyone who loves a good iron shot to the pin doesn’t get off on those beauties out of bounds inside the five?
“Well, I know that I really enjoy watching a ball land on the one and bounce backwards,” Feagles smiled. “On a day like this you talk about the wind but can’t really make an excuse of it. So I welcome the challenge.
“We have the advantage of practicing here but you still can’t account for the gusts. You adjust your drop, that’s everything, and today I got them off in two steps instead of two-and-a-half. Ryan really has the hard job that he did nine times today. The one that bounced was coming fine when a gust knocked it down.”
Feagles got the punt off anyway for the 1474th time in 295 games over 19 years. About time somebody noticed.
