PHILADELPHIA It was the kind of laundry list that Tom Coughlin usually rattles off while standing in the sunlight in Albany, N.Y.: Poor tackling. Lack of communication. Special-teams lapses. Getting off blocks. Holding on to the ball.
Those are training camp problems, not November problems. At least that's the case with teams with aspirations to be playing beyond the 16-game, regular-season schedule. But there was Coughlin Sunday lamenting the very basics, pointing out what should be the obvious after the Giants crumbled for the third week in a row in a 40-17 loss to the Eagles.
"You can look at all the stats you want, but that's not the story of the game," Coughlin said. "The story of the game, in reality, is fundamentals."
When a defense allows a team without its starting running back to run for 180 yards, allows a player who burned the tape with big plays a week ago to get open for another big play and allows a fullback to average 9.4 yards per carry, well, those are glaring gaps.
And when a quarterback turns the ball over twice and completes barely half of his pass attempts, those are not blueprints for success. Not in August, not in November.
"Those are fundamentals that certainly we should be built up to at this point in time, but obviously we're not," Coughlin said. "We're going to have to focus on that."
How did such basics become a problem?
"I don't have the answer for that right now," he said.
The Giants don't have many answers these days. It was three short weeks ago that they were 5-0, sitting atop the NFL hierarchy. Now, with a tailspin that shows no sign of letting up, the Giants have lost their grip on the division and are a half-game behind the Eagles and the Cowboys.
In the world of "ifs," the most worrisome for the Giants is this one: If the season ended today, after Week 8, the Giants would not be in the playoffs, depending on the outcome of the Saints-Falcons game tonight.
"The record is an afterthought. That's not what's important," center Shaun O'Hara said. "What's important is the way we play football. If we had started off the season 0-3 and rattled off five wins, we'd be feeling pretty good right now. But the reason why we'd be feeling good is because we'd be playing good football. Right now, we're not. That's the issue."
Things got out of hand rather quickly for the Giants. The Eagles scored on a 41-yard run by fullback Leonard Weaver (season totals coming in: 16 yards on four carries). Then, after Eli Manning threw the first of his two interceptions, the Eagles scored on a second three-play drive, this one capped by Donovan McNabb's 17-yard pass to tight end Brent Celek for a 13-0 lead (the second extra point was blocked).
As much as the opening moments whiplashed the Giants, the closing moments of the first half were even more abrupt and devastating.
Manning connected with Kevin Boss for an 18-yard touchdown that made it 16-7 with 1:54 remaining, and it seemed as if the game were back under control. But Ellis Hobbs returned the ensuing kickoff to the Eagles' 46, and on the first snap, McNabb hit a wide-open DeSean Jackson for a 54-yard touchdown pass that made it 23-7.
Manning was intercepted two snaps later, and two plays after that, the Eagles struck again, this time on a 23-yard pass from McNabb to rookie Jeremy Maclin with Corey Webster draped on his back to make it 30-7.
The Eagles scored 13 points in the first 3:45 of the game and 14 points in a span of 52 seconds late in the second quarter. The remaining 55 or so minutes of play essentially were rendered inconsequential.
"We give ourselves a little sign of daylight," Coughlin said, "and then to cover the kick the way we did, giving them the ball at midfield and having them score on the very first play, and then turn it over and let them again be in a position to score, you're not going to win games like that."
The Giants have been proving that premise the last three weeks.
"From start to finish, we didn't deserve to win this game," Mathias Kiwanuka said. "I don't think there was one point in the game where we stood up and said: 'Enough is enough.' "
(c) 2009, Newsday.
Visit Newsday online at http://www.newsday.com/
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.
PHOTOS (from MCT Photo Service, 202-383-6099): giants
Those are training camp problems, not November problems. At least that's the case with teams with aspirations to be playing beyond the 16-game, regular-season schedule. But there was Coughlin Sunday lamenting the very basics, pointing out what should be the obvious after the Giants crumbled for the third week in a row in a 40-17 loss to the Eagles.
"You can look at all the stats you want, but that's not the story of the game," Coughlin said. "The story of the game, in reality, is fundamentals."
When a defense allows a team without its starting running back to run for 180 yards, allows a player who burned the tape with big plays a week ago to get open for another big play and allows a fullback to average 9.4 yards per carry, well, those are glaring gaps.
And when a quarterback turns the ball over twice and completes barely half of his pass attempts, those are not blueprints for success. Not in August, not in November.
"Those are fundamentals that certainly we should be built up to at this point in time, but obviously we're not," Coughlin said. "We're going to have to focus on that."
How did such basics become a problem?
"I don't have the answer for that right now," he said.
The Giants don't have many answers these days. It was three short weeks ago that they were 5-0, sitting atop the NFL hierarchy. Now, with a tailspin that shows no sign of letting up, the Giants have lost their grip on the division and are a half-game behind the Eagles and the Cowboys.
In the world of "ifs," the most worrisome for the Giants is this one: If the season ended today, after Week 8, the Giants would not be in the playoffs, depending on the outcome of the Saints-Falcons game tonight.
"The record is an afterthought. That's not what's important," center Shaun O'Hara said. "What's important is the way we play football. If we had started off the season 0-3 and rattled off five wins, we'd be feeling pretty good right now. But the reason why we'd be feeling good is because we'd be playing good football. Right now, we're not. That's the issue."
Things got out of hand rather quickly for the Giants. The Eagles scored on a 41-yard run by fullback Leonard Weaver (season totals coming in: 16 yards on four carries). Then, after Eli Manning threw the first of his two interceptions, the Eagles scored on a second three-play drive, this one capped by Donovan McNabb's 17-yard pass to tight end Brent Celek for a 13-0 lead (the second extra point was blocked).
As much as the opening moments whiplashed the Giants, the closing moments of the first half were even more abrupt and devastating.
Manning connected with Kevin Boss for an 18-yard touchdown that made it 16-7 with 1:54 remaining, and it seemed as if the game were back under control. But Ellis Hobbs returned the ensuing kickoff to the Eagles' 46, and on the first snap, McNabb hit a wide-open DeSean Jackson for a 54-yard touchdown pass that made it 23-7.
Manning was intercepted two snaps later, and two plays after that, the Eagles struck again, this time on a 23-yard pass from McNabb to rookie Jeremy Maclin with Corey Webster draped on his back to make it 30-7.
The Eagles scored 13 points in the first 3:45 of the game and 14 points in a span of 52 seconds late in the second quarter. The remaining 55 or so minutes of play essentially were rendered inconsequential.
"We give ourselves a little sign of daylight," Coughlin said, "and then to cover the kick the way we did, giving them the ball at midfield and having them score on the very first play, and then turn it over and let them again be in a position to score, you're not going to win games like that."
The Giants have been proving that premise the last three weeks.
"From start to finish, we didn't deserve to win this game," Mathias Kiwanuka said. "I don't think there was one point in the game where we stood up and said: 'Enough is enough.' "
(c) 2009, Newsday.
Visit Newsday online at http://www.newsday.com/
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.
PHOTOS (from MCT Photo Service, 202-383-6099): giants
