Re: Giant meltdown
You guys have covered more Eagles-Giants games than you probably care to admit, Mike as a columnist for the New York Post and Bob as an NFL columnist for Newsday. You've been around Coughlin, Manning, and the Giants for a long time. They came into the game against the Eagles having lost two straight. Still, could you possibly have seen this blowout coming? And what does it say about the Giants and Eagles that this happened?
From: Glauber, Bob
To: Fox, Ashley; Vaccaro, Mike
Re: Giant meltdown
I did not see this one coming, although their play over the last two weeks certainly indicated the Giants were capable of a performance like this. But they've shown a pretty remarkable ability to bounce back under Tom Coughlin, and I expected they'd show more than they did. Defensively, that's as bad as I've seen this team in a long, long time. Certainly as bad as at any time since Coughlin has been the head coach. The Eagles? They looked absolutely superb, especially without Brian Westbrook. The versatility on offense was as good as I've seen it.
From: Vaccaro, Mike
To: Fox, Ashley; Glauber, Bob
Re: Giant meltdown
I never saw it. Never. The Eagles lost to the Raiders, for crying out loud. The Raiders! That should count for two losses. But as Tom Coughlin said, that doesn't mean a thing, and didn't mean a thing yesterday. The Giants tried to be convincing that the Eagles aren't in their heads. I think the evidence definitely contradicts that.
From: Fox, Ashley
To: Glauber, Bob; Vaccaro, Mike
Re: Giant meltdown
Do you really think the Eagles are in the Giants' heads? The Eagles hadn't beaten the Giants in a regular-season game at the Linc since 2004. If anything, the Giants had owned them here. But a couple of those wins were Plaxico-driven. Maybe it was Plax who was the Eagles killer.
Is it safe to say they haven't forgotten about those two games at Giants Stadium last year?
From: Vaccaro, Mike
To: Fox, Ashley; Glauber, Bob
Re: Giant meltdown
To me, that's where the inroads into their heads are. Think about where the Giants were when the Eagles beat them at the Meadowlands in the regular season last year: They felt damn near bulletproof and practically unbeatable. The Eagles dismissed those notions. And then to walk into Giants Stadium and knock them off in the playoffs a few weeks later - it was devastating.
In fact, if you take the Giants' 5-0 start for what it was - the fruit of a ridiculously easy schedule - I would argue they still haven't gotten over it. To me yesterday just underlined the point.
From: Glauber, Bob
To: Fox, Ashley; Vaccaro, Mike
Re: Giant meltdown
I'm not sure the Eagles are in the Giants' heads, and that stat about winning at the Linc is a perfect example. While it's true they haven't forgotten about those games last year, I think this performance was driven more by the Giants' own ineptitude and self-doubt than by the Eagles having a psychological advantage. What happened out there was much more a physical advantage, and a schematic one. Marty Mornhinweg and Sean McDermott pushed all the right buttons for Philly, and Kevin Gilbride and Bill Sheridan - particularly Sheridan - pushed the wrong ones. The Giants' defense was just overmatched by a physically superior Eagles offense, one that was able to impose its will the entire game.
From: Fox, Ashley
To: Glauber, Bob; Vaccaro, Mike
Re: Giant meltdown
That's why I love this division. Best in football. We'll do it again in six weeks.
