Colts 27 – Giants 19
My fault. My fault. My fault. In so many corners of the Giants’ locker room yesterday, players stood up and blamed themselves for what had just happened.
My fault, said Pete Mitchell. No, my fault, said Brandon Sanders. No, my bad, said LeShon Johnson. No, my fault, said Phillippi Sparks.
This was all quite heart-warming and gallant, which should not be confused with desirable. Teams that make enough plays, like the Colts, share the credit. Teams that do not, like the Giants, sift through the reasons they lose.
“We can’t go into big games like this every time and lose them,” safety Sam Garnes said.
The Giants will come up short in the rest of ’em, too, if they repeat the sins that led to yesterday’s 27-19 loss to the Colts at Giants Stadium — a game that was full of some nice numbers and moments, creating the mirage that this was a fight to the finish.
What it was, in reality, was a shining example of how a step up in the class of an opponent brings all those Giant blemishes to the surface.
What evolved out of a rugged first-half battle into a potential Colt runaway at 24-6 entering the fourth quarter finished up as a final scramble that fittingly put an end to the Giants’ three-game winning streak.
Only because they live in the downtrodden NFC East are the Giants, at 5-4, still clinging to a share of first place, along with the Redskins (who lost) and the Cowboys (who won) heading into next Sunday’s game in Washington.
There is no truth to the rumor that the NFL is considering bypassing the division entirely when sorting out the conference playoff pairings.
“We could have been in a worse situation,” Tiki Barber said.
But they also could have been alone on top, if only the Giants did not break down in all aspects at various times.
Their offense, as per the norm, along with Kent Graham, was atrocious in the first half and ended up giving up four turnovers to a team that has trouble swiping the ball from anyone.
Their defense, focused on not allowing big plays to the high-flying Colts, could not deliver, allowing a pair of Peyton Manning-to-Marvin Harrison touchdown passes — Sanders said both were his responsibility — and a 72-yard run by Edgerrin James that led to a key fourth-quarter field goal.
Their special teams, while getting a boost from Barber on punt returns, gave up a back-breaking 39-yard punt return for a touchdown to Terrence Wilkins that buried the Giants at 24-6.
And, as an added insult, the same Giant offense that rallied after halftime coughed up the ball and the game when it mattered most. Graham fired fourth-quarter scoring passes to Amani Toomer and Mitchell to set up two ghastly turnovers. Trailing by eight points, with a shot to force overtime, the last two Giant drives ended with fumbles inside Colt territory.
The first came after a 17-yard run by Johnson put the Giants on the Indy 40-yard line with 4:47 remaining before Johnson was stripped from behind by Chad Cota.
“By me getting to the hole so clean I didn’t feel there was anybody close behind me,” Johnson said. “That’s the first time something like that happened. Being a pro, you have to be aware of that stuff and I wasn’t.”
The second fumble was especially disturbing, as the Giants were in striking distance, on the Colt 18 with 1:21 left when Graham hit Mitchell, his most dependable target, but as the sure-handed tight end fought for yards he was separated from the ball by linebacker Cornelius Bennett, with former Giant safety Tito Wooten recovering to end the comeback bid.
“I saw him [Bennett], I was trying to avoid him,” Mitchell said. “I didn’t have the ball covered up like I should. You can’t fumble like that. They bring you here to do something and you let guys down like that, it’s tough.”
The multitude of mistakes, lowlighted by the turnovers (Graham tossed two interceptions) ruined what could have been a promising step forward by the offense.
The Giants dominated in first downs (26-13), outgained the potent Colts (384-342) and got a season-high 147 rushing yards. They also got at least one penalty on all five of their offensive linemen and those killer turnovers.
“The things I thought we needed to accomplish to win this game are the things that kind of bit us,” coach Jim Fassel said. “We didn’t deserve to win that game based on our mistakes.”
Later, when asked specifically about the four turnovers, Fassel added, “You think I play it close-to-the-vest for stupid reasons? No. You open it up and we fumble the football. You can’t do that. I don’t care how many yards we gain, you can’t turn the ball over.”
The vaunted Giant defense had its hands full with the gifted Colt offensive trio. Manning (20 of 35, 237 yards, 2 TDs, 1 INT) was brilliant, was not sacked and took full advantage of Sanders’ inexperience at free safety. Harrison (6-109) foiled man and zone coverage in getting the better of Sanders on TD catches of 19 and 57 yards. James (16-108) was contained, other than his 72-yard outburst, managing only 36 yards in his 15 other rushing attempts. Still, he was a factor.
As for Graham, he ended up 27 of 50 for 253 yards, shaking off an awful first half to go 20 of 32 for 215 yards after halftime. But he set a moribund tone with his shoddy early play.
“We never felt like we were out of it,” Fassel said. “It’s just too bad we weren’t able to do something right at the end.”
