For Big Blue, repeating history would spell doom
PHILADELPHIA — The sweat had not yet dried from their pulsating comeback victory over the 49ers when Cullen Jenkins approached Tom Coughlin as the two entered the locker room. Coughlin was about to address the Giants after they rallied for a 30-27 victory last Sunday night before Jenkins called the veteran head coach over.
“I said ‘Coach, we were in the exact same situation last year,’ ’’ Jenkins told The Post. “We’re 3-2 coming off a win on a prime-time game, we went down to Philly, playing Dallas the following week, which is the exact same scenario as this year.’’
Coughlin nodded and reminded his team of Jenkins’ cautionary tale during his celebratory postgame remarks.
Yes indeed, the Giants were 3-2 a year ago, carrying a three-game winning streak into a game with the Eagles at Lincoln Financial Field. The Giants lost Victor Cruz in a 27-0 beatdown, the start of a seven-game losing streak.
Monday night, the Giants take their 3-2 record into the Linc, again riding a three-game winning streak, just like 2014 seeing the Eagles and Cowboys on the schedule in Weeks 6 and 7.
“I always like to observe things and patterns,’’ Jenkins said. “Last year once we lost the first two, we were
MARQUEE MATCHUP Eagles DE Fletcher Cox vs. Giants LT Ereck Flowers
It is a weekly grind for a left tackle in the NFL, and this week for the big rookie it’s Cox, who leads the Eagles with four sacks — three last week against Drew Brees and the Saints. Cox also forced two fumbles in that game as a one-man wrecking crew and deserving recipient of the NFC Defensive Player of the Week award.
Cox is a 6-foot-4, 300-pound force and will line up at various spots. When he’s on the right side, Flowers will have to muscle up to stop him in a battle of firstround picks, Cox in 2012, Flowers in 2015.
“He’s been a player that I honestly think that’s been under the radar the last couple of seasons, but he’s had a couple of great seasons the last couple of years, people just now are starting to notice him,’’ reserve offensive lineman John Jerry said. able to respond with a three-game winning streak, but then we ended up going down to Philly and we lost an ugly game down there and it kinda just had a snowball effect on us and it went downhill from there. I remember it well because I’ve only been over .500, this is just the second time since I’ve been here, so I remember that well and I want to make sure what happened last year doesn’t happen again.
“It’s definitely history repeating itself, giving us a second chance right now to correct what we didn’t do well last year.’’
Jenkins recalled a year ago the Giants “were on our high horse’’ heading into Philly. He does not get the sense his team is thinking or feeling that way this year, not even after the rousing last-second victory last week.
“We just won three in a row but that last game, we could have very easily given up another fourth-quarter lead and lost that game,’’ Jenkins said. “For us, offense played well last game, but defensively there’s no way we should be feeling good about the performance that we had. We have to step it up.’’
The Giants (3-2) are in first place in the NFC East, but there has not been much talk about leading their division.
“Well, we’ve got a lead right now, it’s a long race, but you don’t want to give
PAUL’S PICK
Did the Eagles finally get on track with last week’s 39-17 rampage through the Saints? That question will be answered against a hobbled Giants team that needs Odell Beckham Jr. and Rueben Randle, both dealing with hamstring issues, to be healthy and effective. Might be a case of wrong time, wrong place for the Giants.