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Jobu reviews the Giants’ week four loss to the Philadelphia Eagles.

The Giants came literally inches away from a huge divisional win against the Eagles in Philly in week four. Unfortunately, Lawrence Tynes’ second attempt at a game-winning 54 yard Field Goal came up just short, and the Giants fell to 2-2. At least his kick ended the terrible game everyone was witnessing, so thanks either way, Lawrence. The Eagles snuck by the Giants 19-17, and here’s how it went down.

While this wasn’t a very pretty offensive game for the Giants, they had a great chance to put the game almost out of reach with the clock running down, and failed to capitalize. The culprit here was Eli Manning. As wonderful as Eli has been in the fourth quarter over the last few seasons (and he was actually pretty good in this game too), he made one killer mistake. With the Giants down 13-10, Eli marched them down to the eight yard line, seemingly poised to give his team a late lead. Instead, he committed what is probably the biggest sin an NFL QB can commit. He was intercepted by Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie in the End Zone. The Eagles then marched down and kicked a Field Goal to extend their lead to 16-10. While the Giants ended up taking a lead anyway, those three points pretty much cost them the game.

The Eagles would add a Field Goal with a little under two minutes to go to take the 19-17 lead. With Eli at the helm and two minutes on the clock, I know I was feeling pretty good about things. However, for the first time in a long time, Eli couldn’t complete the comeback. That was probably the most shocking part of the entire night. Really Eli didn’t lead the winning drive? Is the Russian finally cut? Is he a man? Is he not a piece of iron? Let’s just call it a bad day at the office.

This pretty much sums up how this game ended. Kudos to whoever put it together.

Defensively, things went pretty well for the G-Men on Sunday night. While the offense struggled mightily in the first half and only managed to put up three points, the defense only allowed seven to the Eagles offense. Michael Vick finally threw a TD pass with less than two minutes to go in the half. While late TDs have been an annoying trend for the Giants so far this year, it’s not so bad if it’s the only TD you give up in the half, right?

The Eagles managed a couple of field goals in the third, and then a field goal and a TD in the fourth. The TD came with, you guessed it, less than two minutes left on the clock. Does Perry Fewell only plan 22 minutes of defense per half? Should we get him some more printer ink? Is the rest of the scheme being lost to the fickle fiend that is the deskjet cartridge? We’ve all been burned by that demon, Perry. Let’s get you to Costco in the morning.

All kidding aside, this really wasn’t a terrible game for the Giants. First of all, they were playing the eagles, who are supposed to be one of the best teams in the league. Secondly, it was at Philly, where the Giants lost last year (note, they also lost at home to the Eagles on their way to the Super Bowl Championship). Thirdly, they came only a couple of feet shy of winning. If Tynes had eaten a couple more wheatie flakes Sunday morning, the Giants might be the ones with the 3-1 record and the Eagles would be 2-2. Oh well. At least the Cowboys got embarrassed on Monday Night Football.

Most Valuable Giants

Eli Manning: 24-42, 309 yards, 2 TDs, 1 INT
Domenik Hixon: 6 catches, 114 yards
Victor Cruz: 9 catches, 109 yards, 1 TD
David Wilson: 6 KR, 217 yards, Long of 53 yards
Chase Blackburn: 8 Tackles, 1 Sack, 2 Passes Deflected

Featured image courtesy of: Getty Images/Alex Trautwig

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.