Giant confidence New York not worried about slow start
EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. — Getting off to an 0-2 start in the NFC East isn’t causing the Super Bowl-champion New York Giants to hit the panic button. Far from it. While being either 3-1 or 4-0 would obviously be better, the Giants can deal with 22 after their 19-17 loss to the Phila delphia Eagles (3-1) Sunday. There are still 12 games left in the regular season, including four in the division.
Don’t’ forget this was a team that started the 2007 season 0-2 and went on the win the Super Bowl.
“I’m not concerned about any of that,” running back Ahmad Bradshaw said. “We have a great team and we believe in each other. We’ve been down this road before. There’s nothing we can’t handle. There’s nothing we’re not preparing for. Like I said, we played a great game. It’s just how it ended, we didn’t finish.”
If there is a concern, it’s the schedule. Besides the Eagles, Cowboys and Redskins, the rest of the Giants’ slate features games with the 49ers, Steelers, Bengals, Packers, Saints, Falcons and Ravens.
Of the 11 opponents left in the regular season — the Giants have two games left with Washington — only Pittsburgh (12), winless New Orleans and Cleveland have losing records. The Browns will be at MetLife Stadium on Sunday looking for their first win.
“Hey, we’re 2-2 right now,” quarterback Eli Manning said Monday afternoon. “It’s not the ideal situation, but you could be a lot worse. Philadelphia is 3-1, we’re not far out. There’s a lot of football to be played. We’ve still got four more divisional games. It’s a lot of football left and we’ve got to worry about Cleveland and get back to winning and there’s no point in getting down now. Everybody knows we’re going to see Philadelphia again the last game of the regular season.
“I have a feeling that’s going to be a big game
Tynes was wide left on his first attempt, but got a second try when the Eagles called timeout.
In hindsight, Giants coach Tom Coughlin said he would have run one more to try to get the ball closer for Tynes. He didn’t do that with 15 seconds left because he was afraid that if a play was run and the Giants could not get out of bounds, the game would have ended with a chance to kick a game winner.
“If I were to do it over, would I be as conservative with 15 seconds? Not this morning,” Coughlin said. “This morning I throw it to the sideline, something of that nature, take a chance on that. What happens if you get a sack there? What happens if you try to fit one in tight and it gets, whether you catch it or not, you get tackled in bounds? Game’s over. Would I be that conservative? Not today.
“Last night I chose to do that knowing full well that the clock was not in our favor.” Continued from page D1 for us.”
The loss on Sunday night was tough to swallow because the Giants had a chance to stage another memorable fourth-quarter win after Alex Henery kicked a 26yard field goal with 1:49 left to put the Eagles ahead.
A 37-yard kickoff return by rookie David Wilson and two pass interference penalties gave New York a first down at the Eagles 27 with 49 seconds to play and no timeouts.
A 1-yard run by Bradshaw on first down inched the ball closer but Ramses Barden was called for offensive pass interference along the right sideline trying to prevent Nnamdi Asomugha from intercepting a pass around the 10-yard line.
The flag pushed the ball to the 36 and it proved crucial two plays later when Lawrence Tynes came up roughly a yard or two short on what would-have-been a career best 54-yard field goal.