A highly anticipated trailer for the upcoming movie “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” aired on ESPN Monday night, a two-minute oasis book-ended by a Pop Warner contest between the New York Giants and the Philadelphia Eagles.
If you’re like me, the Star Wars trailer left the impression that Luke Skywalker might be heading to the dark side in the upcoming movie, which is slated to be released around Christmas. And if you’re like me, the Giants-Eagles game left the impression that the Giants’ season was just frozen in carbonite and shipped to Jabba the Hutt.
In short, what in the wide world of sports was that? The Giants lost 27-7, but honestly it would have been closer to a 41-7 defeat if not for the antihero antics of Eagles quarterback Sam Bradford.
Ahead 7-0 after an opening-game drive that saw the Giants march down the field and cap it with a scoring strike to Odell Beckham Jr., New York looked terrific. Jon Gruden was marveling at the team’s diverse offensive weaponry and said the Giants would have one of the premier offenses in the league when Victor Cruz finally returns from injury.
And then, almost as if the Giants’ entire planet was mysteriously vaporized by some powerful weapon, poof.
Larry Donnell, who had not done something exasperating in several moons, allowed Eli Manning’s 11th pass of the night -- till then Manning had been 10 of 10 -- to get wrested out of his hands by Eagles linebacker DeMeco Ryans for an interception. And from then on, the Giants played like a bunch of ewoks, even as Bradford consistently gifted them opportunities to stay in the game with mind-numbing interceptions.
Yeah, the Eagles are now in first place in the NFC Least. Let’s look at how we got to this point in our lives, people.
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In an interview with Donnell this week on giants.com, Carl Banks took Donnell to task. He said he was one of Donnell’s biggest fans, but that the tight end still does too many head-scratching things. Namely, somersaulting and diving over defenders, which leaves him prone to fumbles.
Donnell explained that last year he was rattled because of some low hits near his knees and that he was going airborne to avoid possible injuries. Provided that is true, I don’t think it was in the best interests of Donnell -- a tight end who makes his living over the middle and will thus be subject to low hits by smaller defensive backs for his entire career -- to admit something like that. That’s catnip to defenders, and when Ryans ripped the ball out of Donnell’s hands on a throw to the flat, all I could think about was that Donnell was so preoccupied with turning his head downfield to gauge the threat of an approaching d-back who might go low that he forgot his first priority: securing the ball.
I know Donnell pulled in the game-winning catch against the 49ers last week, but consider the circumstances -- he was at the back of the end zone and jumping backwards, and thus there was no perceived threat to his knees or legs, particularly from behind. It was like he was doing the Nestea plunge into the safe, welcoming waters of a heated swimming pool. That’s a big difference from catching the ball across the middle in traffic with middle linebackers swarming and defensive backs closing in.
The Giants’ loss was a team effort (more on that in a bit), but the team was clicking on all cylinders until that Ryans play. Could Manning have thrown a better ball? Yes, he could have led Donnell on the pass and not left it on his back hip --- and thus exposed to Ryans, who still had to make a great play. Maybe I’m reading into this one play too much, but I’m just going on Donnell’s history and his own recent comments.
Now, let’s not lay the entire blame on Donnell, because he was far from the only culprit. To wit:
Eli Manning. Coming into the game, Manning had the highest passer rating of his career (100.2) and had only thrown two interceptions. He matched that number with the Donnell throw and then the pick six to Eagles defensive back Nolan Carroll, when Manning hesitated and then threw way too late to the flat. Hesitation was the operative word for Manning all night. In the first series and a half, he was making quick passes that negated the Eagles’ pass rush. But in subsequent drives, he was holding the ball too long, which led to sacks and several laughably bad intentional groundings.
Brad Wing. Welp, the gild is off that lily. With a 26-yard punt and a 37-yard punt, Wing has proven that not all Australians are superheroes.
Tom Coughlin. On the third drive of the game, with the score 7-7, the Giants were subjected to a questionable spot on a third-down run by Rashad Jennings. Instead of challenging the spot, Coughlin called for another run from Jennings, who was stuffed on fourth down. That’s what the challenge flags are for, coach: Close calls in close games. You don’t get to carry them over to next week.
Damontre Moore. Is there anything more idiotic than a player who celebrates an individual play with some asinine dance when his team is getting blown out? With the Giants ahead 7-0, Moore had a crushing roughing the passer penalty on third and 10 that allowed an early Eagles drive to continue -- but that didn’t prevent him from peacocking on subsequent plays, even when the team was losing by several scores. After the game, Moore copped to having a “poor football IQ” in light of that early roughing the passer penalty. This is a professional football player who has presumably been playing the game since he was a kid. If he doesn’t know by now that you can’t bodyslam the quarterback to the ground well after the pass is away, then when is he going to learn? Maybe Moore should bone up on his rulebook and stop worrying about his dance choreography.
