POSTED: Monday January 12th 2009
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

GIANTS NOTEBOOK, JANUARY 12, 2009

By Michael Eisen

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. – It might be a while before the Giants have as clear a path to the Super Bowl as the one before them when they arrived for work yesterday.

 

The previous evening, the Arizona Cardinals – 0-5 on the East Coast in the regular season – had upset the Carolina Panthers in Charlotte. The top-seeded Giants needed only to defeat sixth-seeded Philadelphia to secure the home spot in the NFC Championship against a Cardinals team not known to enjoy cold weather. But the Giants fell to the Eagles, 23-11, ending their bid for a second consecutive championship. The Giants were simply unable to duplicate last year’s great ride to and through the Super Bowl.

 

Now the Giants need only look at who has won to emphasize how much they’ve lost.

 

The four teams who will compete in this week’s conference championship games – Philly, Arizona, Baltimore and Pittsburgh – all fell to the Giants in the regular season, three of them in their home stadiums.

 

“You look at the teams in the playoffs - we played a bunch of them and we have beaten a bunch of them, so we knew we had a good shot,” quarterback Eli Manning said. “We were a good team. It was a fun year. We played really well this year for most of the season. These last weeks and yesterday we didn’t play as well as we had been. And that is what is frustrating.”

 

“We beat a lot of good teams,” guard Chris Snee said. “It was a tough stretch we went through, but it doesn’t really mean anything at this point. I don’t think it ever will. We’re in a position with home field and I would have loved to have Arizona come here next weekend. I think the forecast is for about 15 degrees.”

 

It wasn’t the weather that sent a chill through the Giants, but the game. The offense never got untracked and couldn’t score a touchdown. The Giants converted only three of 13 third-down attempts and came up short on two critical fourth down tries in the final quarter. All three of their trips inside the Philadelphia 20-yard line ended with field goals. To the Giants, the game was a three-hour long missed opportunity.

 

“It is disappointing,” Manning said. “You look at the film and you see some opportunities. We played pretty good for most of the game. Just at times when we got down in the red zone we didn’t execute our best and we didn’t convert those third-downs to give us opportunities to score touchdowns. So that is what it came down to. The early interception (by Asante Samuel) obviously hurt us, also. But we didn’t play our best. We had some opportunities, we did some good things, we just didn’t play our best.

 

“I know we have to get better in the red zone. And that is something – we were down there a bunch this year. I would say top of the league at getting down there (the Giants did top the NFL with 69 rd zone trips). We just didn’t score that many touchdowns (35) as we should have. That is something that we have to improve on - getting seven points.  And obviously sometimes they are going to stop you, but we have to score more points when we get down there.”

 

Yesterday, they couldn’t do that, which turned today into the solemn year-end ritual of cleaning out lockers, stuffing belongings into boxes and bags and saying goodbye. The Giants had a team meeting this morning, took care of some medical and procedural requirements and had mostly cleared out of the locker room by 10:30.

 

“It’s a rough feeling,” linebacker Danny Clark said. “I wasn’t expecting to be packing up my locker, I’ll tell you that. We didn’t get it done yesterday and we understand that we have to go lick our wounds and bounce back. We have a little time to do that, but there is no question we will be back and we have a group of resilient guys in this locker room. We have a core of guys that will come back and continue to try and be successful in this league.”

 

For now, there is just disappointment. The players expressed regret at not having capitalized on the advantages they worked so hard to earn. They gave the Eagles credit but made it clear the responsibility for the defeat lay with the inability to play to their potential. Their words were laced with frustration, because the Giants had proven they could compete with the teams still playing. 

 

“It is tough, but you have to earn that right and we didn’t earn that right yesterday,” defensive end Justin Tuck said. “Philadelphia came in here and they played a great game, they beat us, and they earned the right to go on and play Arizona. Obviously, we feel as though if we play our game, no one can beat us and I am sure every other team feels that way, too. It is kind of disheartening to know the talent that we have on this football team and all the good things we did this year to come up short like we did.”

 

“It’s difficult when you have such a great team and you’re around guys with great character who wanted to win and had such a great opportunity in front of us to go take advantage of going back to the Super Bowl,” running back Brandon Jacobs said. “We came out and we didn’t play like we wanted it. We didn’t execute and this is what you have to go through and this is what you have to be able to face and you have to clean your locker out the Monday after.”

 

Some players expressed surprise at how different this season was to last year. In 2007, the Giants tumbled at times during the season, but won five of their last six games, including four in a row in the playoffs. This year, the Giants started 11-1, but finished with four losses in their last five games.

 

“We were able to play our best football at the end of last year and for whatever reason we weren’t playing our best football at the end of the season,” tight end Kevin Boss said. “That makes it tougher to swallow.”

 

While the players will scatter until the offseason conditioning program begins in March, the coaches and front office have already cast an eye toward next season. The Giants have several unrestricted free agents, including Amani Toomer, John Carney, James Butler and R.W. McQuarters. Perhaps most notably, the contracts of both Jacobs and Derrick Ward, who combined for 2,114 rushing yards this season, are expiring.

 

Both players reiterated that they want to stay here, but they understand the limitations imposed by the salary cap might make that impossible.

 

“I don’t expect anything to happen until March,” Jacobs said. “I want to be here as much as anybody else. I hope we can get something lined out and get something done, but I don’t have any control over that. I’ve done all I can do all year long and I hope that’s enough to bring me back. If not, there are 31 other teams. But this is where I want to be.”

 

Jacobs was asked if he is resigned to playing without Ward next season.

 

“I’m not ready to face that, but the reality of the business and the nature of the business is probably going to keep us apart,” Jacobs aid. “So I am emotionally preparing myself for that departure with me and Derrick. But like I said, I don’t know what’s going to happen with that.”

 

Ward also has a cloudy vision of the future, but he knows what he’d like to see when everything clears.

 

“I would love to be back a New York Giant,” Ward said. “This is what I consider home.  I have been here for five years. It is a great organization. We are a Super Bowl caliber team every year, so it would be great to come back. But it is a business.”

 

*Every player who spoke to the media today was asked if he would welcome Plaxico Burress back. Burress was wounded in an accidental shooting on Nov. 29 and placed on the reserve/non-football injury list. He still has many legal and personal issues to deal with. But if those can be resolved satisfactorily, Burress’ teammates would be happy to have him join them.

 

Do you want Burress back?

 

Manning: “Sure, sure. Plaxico is a tremendous player and we will just have to see what happens there.”

 

Tuck: “I think (Burress would be welcomed back). I think I said when the incident happened that it is not for us to judge a circumstance when a guy made a mistake. To answer your question, yes, I think we would.”

 

Snee: “I’d certainly love to have him back. He’s a guy that showed up every weekend and busted his butt on the field for us. We’ll take all those guys that we can get.”

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