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Jobu reviews the Giants for the final time this year, as they go out with a win against the Philadelphia Eagles.

If you didn’t see this one coming, you’re not a real Giants fan. Actually, there were a couple of ways this could have gone. In one scenario, everyone the Giants needed to lose would have done so, but so would have the Giants. The other possibility was a huge Giants win, but the other things they needed to go right wouldn’t. We got the latter, as the Giants drubbed the Eagles 42-7, but the Bears beat the Lions to officially eliminate the G-Men. It would have been great if the Giants hadn’t completely crapped on the field the two weeks before, wouldn’t it have? That being said, two Super Bowls in five years means that, as a fanbase, we’re good for a while, so I wasn’t too upset by the happenings.

The Giants won this game with solid defense, great running and timely passing; a perfect recipe for success. They dominated this one from the jump too, scoring 21 points in the first quarter to set the tone for the game. Manning hit WR Rueben Randle on passes of 3 and 38 yards for the first two scores, and David Wilson caught the third one from 15 yards out with about a minute to go in the quarter. After the Eagles scored first in the second quarter, the Giants defense shut the door on them the rest of the way. Eli threw for two more scores, a 24 yarder to Victor Cruz and a 1 yarder to Henry Hynoski, while Ahmad Bradshaw ran one in from 1 yard out as well. The result was a 42-7 smashing that, while fun, just wasn’t good enough.

As we mentioned last week, the Giants needed the Lions to beat the Bears, the Vikings to lose to the Packers and the Redskins to beat the Cowboys. Only one of those actually happened. The Lions almost overcame a 20-3 deficit, but ended up losing by two points, while the Vikings beat the Packers 37-34. There were some notable individual happenings in those games too. The Lions, who haven’t had much to play for lately, watched Calvin “Megatron” Johnson break Jerry Rice‘s single-season receiving yards record last week, but he came up 36 yards short of being the first man to catch for 2,000 yards in a season by only putting up 72 against the Bears. Either way though, he walks away from the season with a new record 1,964 yards receiving. Not bad for a Decepticon.

Eli and the Giants waived goodbye for the 2012 season. (SportingLife)
Eli and the Giants waived goodbye for the 2012 season. (SportingLife)

Vikings running back Adrian Peterson, meanwhile, needed 208 yards in the final game of the year to break Eric Dickerson‘s 28 year old rushing yards record. It seemed like a really tall order, but Peterson put up 199 yards on the day and fell just 9 yards short of the mark. Interestingly enough, he had 409 yards against the Packers in their two matchups this year, so you can bet Green Bay isn’t too happy to see that these two teams will play each other again in the first round of the playoffs.

Anyway, back to the Giants. Even before the Sunday night matchup between the Cowboys and Redskins, we knew they weren’t going to make it into the post season. As I said, it’s definitely a bummer. This team battled through injuries this season, but should have been good enough to win the division and make a deep run in January. It wasn’t meant to be, however. At least they went out with a bang, and they sent Eagles coach Andy Reid to unemployment with a big win. It’s been a tough year for the long time Eagles coach, but it’s about time they can him too.

We’ll be back in the next couple of weeks to wrap up the season a bit more and possibly look into what will become of the Giants in 2013, but we’ll say goodbye for now. Not a bad season, guys, but not a good one either. With the emergence of the Redskins and RGIII this season, it’s not going to get easier, either.

Most Valuable Giants

Yes, we actually have some this week!
Eli Manning: 13-21, 208 yards, 5 TDs, 0 INTs
Ahmad Bradshaw: 16 carries, 107 yards, 1 TD
Rueben Randle: 4 catches, 58 yards, 2 TDs

Boxscore – 12/30/2012

Martin Stezano

About Martin Stezano

Uruguayan born and American raised with a unique perspective on the domestic and international sports scenes. It will both tickle your funny bone and enlighten your mind. Love it or hate it...just read it.