DEEP BREATH
THE JACKALS won’t be howling Friday at Tom Coughlin, the vultures won’t be circling. Eli Manning can listen to talk radio and read The Post.
These Giants, 3221 winners over the Redskins, won’t be anywhere near a fifth Lombardi Trophy.
But at least they have managed to give themselves a season, some kind of season.
“We won — so smile!” Coughlin said, and smiled.
Manning made no mistakes, with his arm or with his head, didn’t tell Andre Williams not to score in the first quarter, was grateful Rueben Randle finally showed up, hammered the nail in the Redskins’ coffin when he reconnected with old friend Odell Beckham Jr. for a 30yard TD against Bashaud Breeland early in the fourth quarter.
You read that right: the FOURTH QUARTER.
The quarter when the 2015 Giants had turned to midgets.
“Coach challenged us to win the fourth quarter,” Manning said.
Challenged them to raise their level in crunch time moments.
“If you start dreading ’em, it’s gonna get worse,” the quarterback said.
They played defense with guys named Selvie and Wynn and Unga and Casillas and Bromley and Hosley, hardly your Big Blue Wrecking Crew.
They played offense with the same franchise quarterback they’ve been playing offense with since 2004. That’s enough quarterback to beat Kirk Cousins.
“He was very, very much under control tonight,” Coughlin said of Manning.
Never mind for now that the explosive offense we were promised has been a myth.
Never mind for now that the pass rush too often leaves you wondering if too many Giants are wearing 20pound weights in their feet. Doesn’t matter right now. All that matters is the Giants didn’t leave MetLife Stadium Thursday night on life support. 12 is a hell of a lot better than 03. Thank you, schedulemaker. Thank you for Cousins and the Redskins stepping off that bus.
Thank you for the bus driver getting them there safely.
How do you spell relief? REDSKINS. And EL I. “I thought we had a good day,” Manning said.
Give Manning’s Giants this: they showed some fight and pride and toughness.
They played with the kind of desperation they will need to overcome their many injuries and their own failings.
If a bad team shows up at your house, beat them.
And maybe, just maybe, Victor Cruz makes the trip to Buffalo a week from Sunday.
And maybe, just maybe, Steve Spagnuolo’s imprint is beginning to show itself.
Manning’s fantasy football owners were ecstatic when he lofted a 41yard Garbage Time TD pass to Randle.
“I told him I thought he would have a big game tonight,” Coughlin said, “and obviously he did.”
Giants fans have been spoiled. You haven’t had to wait since the Vietnam War for a Super Bowl championship. You know longsuffering Jets fans who have, longsuffering Jets fans who may or may not have been alive when Broadway Joe won Super Bowl III. Never mind Spygate — that was before Watergate! But that was then. And this was now. And you were tired of it getting late early around here.
It has been this way from the second you stopped cheering when Manning and Coughlin hoisted the Lombardi Trophy on their Cloud Nine float through the Canyon of Heroes. And maybe it will be that way again. In the meantime, sudden life for your Giants, however fleeting. Stay the execution. “It’s a long season,” Manning said. At least it’s a season.