By Steven Panzarella
Well, it wasn't pretty, and it seemed somewhat strange, but the Giants got beaten badly by the Philadelphia Eagles Sunday afternoon and still found a way to clinch the NFC East title. The Giants looked sluggish on both sides of the ball. Antonio Pierce, the guy who has been in the news a lot for his involvement in the Plaxico Burress scandal, made several big mistakes including a misread on a long Brian Westbrook touchdown. Eli Manning looked off target and out of sync, and it didn't help that the Giants wide-outs dropped many of his big passes.
Dominick Hixon dropped the best pass I'd seen Eli Manning throw all year, which would have been a huge touchdown. They were inconsistent, unable to get the run game going, and the offensive line looked like they had no clue as the Eagles were able to rush the QB and stop Brandon Jacobs. This was as bad as their loss to the Browns on Monday Night Football in week six.
To put it bluntly, the Giants were bad in all facets of the game. The only positive was the blocked field goal they returned for a touchdown at the end of the first half. It was a great block by Justin Tuck and a brilliant return by Kevin Dockery and it looked like the Giants would come into the 2nd half and be able to take control. It didn't happen as they came out just as flat in the 2nd half as they were in the 1st. The Eagles left the Giants with the attitude of an angry mother to a complaining son saying
"YOU'LL GET NOTHING AND LIKE IT!!."
The only thing that the Giants got from this bad performance, other then more distraction talk, is well...the NFC East title. The title comes courtesy of a strange source, the QB the Giants passed on when they drafted Eli Manning. That's right, "Big" Ben Roethlisberger, one of the 2 QB's the Giants passed on in the 2004 draft (the other being Phil Rivers). Big Ben quite literally propelled the Giants to an NFC East title as he lead the Pittsburgh Steelers to victory over the Dallas Cowboys with ten 4th quarter points. The Steeler defense then put Dallas away thanks to a Tony Romo interception taken in for a touchdown.
The Giants, with a win, could have clinched the division and a first round bye. Instead they just clinched the division which of course takes the sting away from the loss to the Eagles. The Giants were however, in no mode to celebrate and left the stadium upset, with Eli Manning saying "No party hats" referring to the NFC East champion hats and T-shirts the team will get. The Giants say they won't break open the boxes until they win one more game themselves which would signify clinching a first round bye and home field advantage. The most important game left on the schedule will be when the Carolina Panthers come to the stadium on the 2nd to last week of the season. The Giants can signify their readiness for another playoff run if they can find a way to knockoff the Panthers who beat down division rival Tampa Bay on Monday night. The Giants have a somewhat important game coming up as they take on the Cowboys at Dallas this Sunday. If the Giants win this one they can all but knock the Cowboys out for the 2nd straight season, taking them out of playoff contention.
With only 3 weeks to go in the season only 3 playoff spots are set with the Titans and Cardinals also clinching spots with wins this past week. The Titans won their division as well as a first round bye making them a top 2 seed in the AFC. The Cardinals won their game after 2 straight losses giving them the NFC West. Since I don't think I will be getting in another article before the end of the year here are my picks for the playoffs and Super Bowl. In the NFC, the division winners will be the afore mentioned Giants and Cardinals as well as the Panthers and Vikings. The wildcards will be the Buccaneers and Falcons but look out for the Bears or Cowboys in that final spot as both teams remain in contention. The AFC division winners will be the Titans, Broncos and Steelers. The AFC East is so difficult to call but as of now I'll say the Pats will take that one even though I wouldn't be surprised if the Jets or Dolphins took that division. The wildcards will be the Colts and Ravens, making only one east team eligible for the playoffs. The Super bowl isn't an easy one to call. Right now I'd predict the championship games will be Colts against the Steelers and the Giants versus the Cardinals. In the Super Bowl I would love to see a Colts-Giants game with Manning vs Manning, making that the 3rd straight season a Manning would win the Super Bowl. I don't think it will happen however as I'll say the Giants will take on the Steelers in the big game. For the Super Bowl itself I'm not willing to make a final prediction just yet.
I'd like to thank everyone in the sports department for allowing me to write these articles and thank all of you for reading. Enjoy the rest of the season and I hope to see you next semester.