GIANT NOTES
OAKLAND – As the Giants braced for last night’s regular-season finale and what they hoped would be a New Year’s Eve celebration of the NFC East title, they looked ahead toward the playoffs wondering how their second-year quarterback would respond to the heightened pressure.
Eli Manning this past week was bombarded by questions about his readiness for the first postseason action of his NFL career and in typical fashion he downplayed the magnitude of the moment.
“You have to play well,” he said. “You don’t have to try to do anything different, you don’t say I have to make plays here. You have to execute your game plan, be accurate, manage the game and try to be a consistent football player.”
Manning’s teammates have come to respect his cool demeanor on and off the field but many of the veterans admit he is an unknown when the playoffs commence.
“I think he’s a very resilient guy; however, he goes into the playoffs nobody knows how he’s going to react once he gets there,” Amani Toomer said. “I have confidence that he’ll be a game manager like he has been during the season. I think a lot of people put a lot of blame on him.
“If the offense does well he gets a lot of credit and if the offense doesn’t do as well he gets a lot of the blame, it’s just kind of goes with the position of quarterback, but I don’t think he’s letting our team down in any way.”
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Stiff wind and heavy rain in the Bay Area knocked out electricity and caused flight delays. The Giants’ charter arrived a few minutes late Friday night but the team awakened yesterday morning to no power in their hotel near San Francisco Airport.
The team was able to eat breakfast and have their morning meetings without any problems with the aid of a generator. The harsh weather guaranteed a sloppy field at McAfee Coliseum, which is usually damp even when there’s no rain.
“It takes a lot away, you can’t really work on moves because you’re going to be slipping all over the place,” said Osi Umenyiora, a noted speed-rusher. “You have to make sure the studs on the cleats are a little bit longer. If we don’t have good footing they won’t have good footing either.”
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RB LaMont Jordan, who sat out the game with a toe injury, led the Raiders in rushing (1,025 yards) and the former Jet was tied with Porter for the team lead with 70 receptions. Far less-explosive Zack Crockett (181 rushing yards this season) took Jordan’s place last night . . . After nearly two weeks with the Giants, veteran LB Roman Phifer said he was more comfortable with his surroundings. After not playing on defense in nearly a year, Phifer filled a reserve role in the revamped defensive alignment forced by multiple injuries at linebacker. “It’s a lot better than last week,” the 37-year old said. “It helps with repetition and extra days of getting work” . . . There are 29 different possible scenarios in the five NFC games this weekend with playoff implications.
