The Week That Was

NYC has gone Big Blue Bonkers. When McQuarters intercepted Romo's pass in the final minute to seal the win for the Giants, I heard a fan outside my window shouting for joy. Repeatedly. The thing is, I don't live on a street with a bar or even an avenue that's frequently populated. I think it was one of the garage attendants but it could have been a random passer-by, or even a neighbor with an open window (it was cold, so probably not). I paused the broadcast (Tivo, so necessary) and listened.

When was the last time New York had a surprise team go this deep into the playoffs? After making it to the Super Bowl in 2000, the Giants fell apart a little bit. Tiki Barber hadn't become the great player that he was in his final two seasons, Ron Dayne was, well, Ron Dayne, and Kerry Collins never recovered from his Super loss. Collins stayed with the team through the 2003 season then left for Oakland to help Al Davis change his Depends.

And thus began the Eli era.

Or, if you prefer, the Coughlin era.

What's funny about both of those statements is that until a couple of weeks ago most New Yorkers wouldn't have been able to say them without sarcasm. Eli was OK, not great, but he showed signs of possibly becoming a solid enough quarterback. Maybe he would never justify the price Ernie Accorsi paid for him, but hey, you pays your money, you takes your chances.
Coughlin was another story. He was old, annoying, and just not a very good coach. He led the Jaguars to a championship game. So what? He couldn't handle this team and generally came off as a befuddled old man on the sidelines: arms flapping at the frequent penalties (interesting for a guy who preached “discipline”), stamping his feet at officials' calls, not knowing how to handle increasingly egotistical players (Tiki, Strahan), many of whom seemed to make game-changing mistakes more frequently then they made even halfway decent plays (Shockey). The coach had “lost the team,” he had certainly lost the fans, if he'd ever had them. At the end of the second straight first-round playoff exit, many screamed that Coughlin should be canned (and maybe even caned). But Mara gave him a one-year extension. This way he wouldn't feel like a lame duck coach, just biding his time until his eventual firing.

After a fairly dull pre-season, where most pundits predicted the team would win 4, maybe 5 games all year, the Jints seemed to be proving everybody right with two straight embarrassing losses. The defense gave up 80 points in two games. 80 points! What were we, the Browns? Or worse... the Jets? We had Tiki, who had retired from running his mouth in the locker room to take a less dangerous position of running his mouth on national television. The guy's been retired for a few months and he picked up right where he left off, calling out his former quarterback and saying that he didn't know how to lead the team. Eli, who usually didn't respond to much of anything (his nickname of “Easy Eli” was about to be replaced with “Mute Manning”), surprised everyone by (politely) telling Tiki take his talk and shove it.

Then came Week 3. The Giants came back from a 14 point deficit and then held the Redskins out of the end zone in the final minute. Suddenly Steve Spagnola was Superman. Coughlin was still a kook but he had seemed to calm down on the sidelines. The penalties had dropped. When Brandon Jacobs got hurt, we found out that rookie General Manager Jerry Reese had drafted a pretty nice group of young players, especially at running back. Jacobs is hurt? OK, let's try Derrick Ward. Oh, he's hurt? Well, we can go back to Jacobs. Season coming to an end, need to win some games, and Jacobs is a little nicked up? How about Ahmad Bradshaw, who now looks like he might be the best of the bunch? Screw Thunder and Lightning. This was Cerberus, the three-headed dog that guarded the gates of hell.

We all know what happened in Week 16. Coughlin, in a surprisingly ballsy move, decided to play to win. And they came extremely close, essentially giving the game back to the Pats in the fourth quarter. That's not a Wade Phillips-esque “the best team lost” routine – the Patriots could very well be the best team ever, Tom Brady is much better than Eli, and Belichek is much better than Tommy C – but if you watched the game, it felt like New York ran out of steam at the end. But somehow, even though there are no moral victories, this was as close to one as you were ever going to see. Something happened in that game that gave the team a spark that they've carried with them into Tampa, beating the Bucs as they should have. Then they beat Dallas, which they probably shouldn't have, but Wade appears to be a so-so coach at best, and Eli is actually a more experienced quarterback than Romo.

The Quote of the Week on Giants.com is this:
"That was the first time we actually all played together. We came out and showed what we’re made of. … We knew if the score was close in the fourth quarter, we were going to be alright. In the previous game [vs. Dallas] we had too much focus on keeping him in the pocket. This game, we just let him bounce around, but we kept him contained. We knew we were going to get pressure on the quarterback, no doubt.”- DE Osi Umenyiora on the Giants defense after Sunday's win over the Cowboys

Think about that first sentence. “The first time we actually all played together.” Clearly there were specific differences. Eli wasn't making bad throws to empty spots on the field. He wasn't throwing interceptions the way Jessica Simpson tosses her hair. The penalties had dropped dramatically. The defense, from Strahan to the growing core of rookies that were taking over the roster, was playing aggressive and smart football. But Osi is right – the most important thing was that they were playing together. No more Eli throwing a pass and finding that Shockey was somewhere on the other side. No more missed blocking assignments. Eli seemed less nervous, and the team wasn't giving up so easily. Think about it: that drive in the final minute of the first half against Dallas, where the Giants did in 30+ seconds something that it took Dallas 10 minutes to do, was something that probably wouldn't have happened in the regular season. Coughlin and Gilbride would have had Eli take a knee. But this is the playoffs. Screw it, let's go after these guys. That attitude started in Week 16 when they lost to the best team in the league.

The last time New York went this nuts for a team on an unexpected championship-type run was in the mid-90's, when the Yankees started winning regularly. But after they made the playoffs year after year, it wasn't enough for us anymore. We expected, needed, a World Series. Not just an appearance, but a win. Sure, the race for first in the division was fun. So was beating the Red Sox in the ALCS. But getting to first round, only to be knocked out by a Cleveland or a Detroit team? Please.

This Giants team wasn't supposed to do a damn thing this year. Except lose. And they won. Bizarrely, columnists (well, Lupica) are saying things like “even if they lose to Green Bay, it doesn't matter. This team achieved something great.” As stupid as that sounds, it's true. New York fans already won this year.

Now let's go disappoint Favre and a bunch of freezing cold cheeseheads.