STINKING FEELING
Three awful defeats leave OBJ & Co. in a Giant hole
PHILADELPHIA — Four years later, Odell Beckham Jr. had a distinct sense of déjà vu as he watched the ball hurtle through the Philadelphia sky. Back in September 2013, Beckham stood in front of a goal post, just behind the gold “S” in the purple LSU end zone at Baton Rouge’s Tiger Stadium.
Ty Long of the University of Alabama-Birmingham boomed a 59-yard field goal try that died at 58 yards. Beckham returned it the distance, a feat so rare in college that even though he sped 109 yards, he was only credited with a 100-yard touchdown.
Now, he stood on the white “L” in the Eagles’ end zone at Lincoln Financial Field. Now it was a Philadelphia kicker named Jake Elliott who was trying to blast a 61-yarder. If he made it, the Eagles would win this most bizarre football game, and the Giants would fall deeper into an 0-3 sinkhole. If he didn’t … “I was hoping,” Beckham said, quietly, but he shook his head, because of all the 69,596 people in the building, of all the 106 players and all the coaches, he could see right away what was about to happen. He had the best view. He knew Elliott had just enough leg. He watched the ball tumble over his head, trickle through the uprights.
And heard what felt like a crowd reaching all the way back to 1960 to unleash a roar for the ages, the Eagles stealing a 27-24 win from the Giants after the Giants had tried to steal it the first time, a bone-crushing loss for the visitors, one that will leave a mark beyond extending a winless start to the season.
“The game continues to teach us tough lessons that we have to learn from, in a hurry, and fix,” Giants coach Ben McAdoo said. “We are all a little irritable right now. And rightfully so.”
It can’t possibly be any more irritable being the Giants than watching the Giants if you happen to have a fan’s investment in them. For a third straight week they were sabotaged by awful penalties and by an appalling lack of discipline, and that helped obscure a 24-point fourth-quarter explosion in which it seemed they might actually rescue themselves after slipping on banana peels all day.
Nobody, of course, is quite as infuriating as Beckham, who reeled in a couple of TD passes and celebrated both times. One, seemingly in keeping with the league-wide mood of the day, was a raised, clenched fist for which he wasn’t penalized; one was an absurd dance in which he mimicked a dog watering the end zone, for which he was flagged 15 yards.
No. Really. He pretended he was a dog, relieving himself.
But it wasn’t just Beckham. The defense allowed Eagles rushers to fillet them, rushing for 4.9 yards every time they touched the ball. They allowed Carson Wentz to march the Eagles 75 yards in only four plays and 92 seconds after the Giants had actually seized a 21-14 lead.
And then, at the end, two killer penalties thwarted the Giants’ last possession, a dreadful 28-yard punt from Brad Wing served as a miniharbinger of the nightmare to follow, and then Wentz found Alshon Jeffery on a crazy out pattern for 19 yards with one second left in the game. And out trotted Elliott. “Everything adds up in this league,” McAdoo said.
You know what adds up fastest of all in this league?
Losses, awful losses especially. That’s three for the Giants now, including two in the NFC East, and they can use as many pleasingsounding platitudes as possible to describe how unified they are, how together they are, how nobody’s quitting, nobody’s giving up, yadda, yadda, yadda ....
Except right now, at 0-3, it seems Beckham’s canine cavorting might actually be a perfect explanation for what the Giants have already done to their season.