Giants take advantage of rare Christmas weekend break

This is an unusual time for a break, but the Giants will take it.

Their Thursday night game was scheduled so late in the season that after meetings Saturday morning, players are off for the entire weekend, a rare Christmas Eve and Christmas Day respite for NFL players.

“We’re gonna meet early on and then send them on their way for a few days,” coach Ben McAdoo said. “Give ’em a chance to get healthy. I think it’s important to let them get away from it a little bit, refresh their minds and think about the type of football they want to play moving forward.”

McAdoo clearly was not happy about the football the Giants displayed in their 24-19 loss to the Eagles.

“We got to go down to Washington [on Jan. 1] and take care of business. That’s number one,” McAdoo said of the regular-season finale. “When we turn on the tape, we got to look better than we looked [Thursday] night.”

Eli Manning threw 63 passes, the most ever by a Giants quarterback. McAdoo explained the passhappy approach by saying there were 22 third downs to try to convert and two late two-minute drills skewed the plays toward the pass.

“Sixty-three times is a lot to throw the ball, but situational football, that’s how it went,” he said.

The 63 passes thrown by Manning set a career high and a franchise record ( Phil Simms attempted 62 passes in Cincinnati on Oct. 13, 1985, also a loss). Manning’s previous high was 54 passes against the 49ers last season. Such rapid-fire passing is great for fantasy football but terrible for real football. When the Giants throw 50 or more passes, they are 2-23.

Earlier in the week, McAdoo was hit with a $50,000 fine by the NFL for using a walkie-talkie to communicate with Manning for a handful of plays against the Lions. McAdoo for the first time addressed the fine, saying, “I made the decision in the heat of the moment and I violated the rule. I own that decision. I take responsibility for it. There are no excuses. I deserve to be held accountable for my actions. I accept the penalty and move forward.’’ The Giants had 89 snaps on offense and owned a huge edge in time of possession (34:04 to 25:56) against Philadelphia, the team with the highest time of possession in the league. The Giants amassed a season-high 470 yards and a season-high 24 first downs.

In his first eight games with the Giants, Robbie Gould attempted only four field goals. He attempted and hit four field goals against the Eagles.