Giants Win but Don’t Get Help They Need

LANDOVER, Md. — With heads hung low and some players speaking in barely a whisper, the Giants walked quietly into the locker room at FedEx Field after beating the Washington Redskins, 17-14, Sunday. They looked nothing like a team that had just won its 10th game of the season. “This is the most somber winning locker room you’ll ever see,” defensive tackle Barry Cofield said. “Because we fell short of our goals.”

The Giants did all they could to save their season on Sunday. But in the end, even a victory could not help them earn a wild-card spot in the playoffs. Because of the Chicago Bears, who did not oblige the Giants with a victory over the Green Bay Packers, the Giants failed to make the playoffs for the second year in a row. To clinch a wild-card playoff spot, the Giants needed to beat the Redskins and for the Bears to beat the Packers. And they did not. In the waning minutes of the Giants’ game, the Bears lost, 10-3. http://www.wdalaw.com/
Coach Tom Coughlin called the results disappointing, but said he was proud of how his team played. He said he could not help but feel badly that the team’s season had come to an end before it should have.

“I told them to enjoy the win and not worry about the other part of it because they earned it,” Coughlin said. “It hurts. It hurts a lot.” To add to the Giants’ heartbreak, the Redskins fans at FedEx Field began chanting, “Green Bay won!” with just more than two minutes left in the game. Some Giants said they heard it, others said they did not. Either way, they would soon figure out that the Packers had won. They were told the bad news as soon as they walked into their locker room.

“I compare it to the way the season ended last year,” Cofield said. “Just having a bitter taste in our mouth, just being disgusted.” After a hard-played game and an end of the season filled with stress and urgency, the Giants had nothing to show for their efforts. Just two weeks ago, before their second consecutive late-season collapse, none of them had even dreamed that they would be packing up their uniforms for the season right now.

At that point, the Giants were poised to take sole possession of first place in the N.F.C. East. But consecutive demoralizing losses — by 38-31 to Philadelphia and by 45-17 to Green Bay — kept a playoff berth tantalizingly out of reach. “We proved that we are one of the best teams, but unfortunately we squandered our opportunities,” linebacker Keith Bulluck said. “When you’re in a position to close it out and you don’t do it, you have no one to blame but yourself. The Philadelphia Eagles game and the Green Bay games were must-win games, and we didn’t close it out.”

On Sunday, the Giants started out slowly, scoring just 3 points in the first quarter. With 3 minutes 6 seconds left in the first half, they finally looked energized, marching down the field to score on a 2-yard run by Brandon Jacobs.

But Washington, with no chance of making the playoffs yet again, did not appear to be daunted. Quarterback, Rex Grossman led a seven-play, 80-yard scoring drive that ended with tight end Fred Davis steamrolling into the end zone in a 1-yard run to make the score 10-7.

The Giants quickly scored at the start of the third quarter, making it into the end zone in two plays and 57 seconds, on a 92-yard touchdown pass from Eli Manning to Mario Manningham.

But a 17-7 lead was not enough to ease the Giants’ worries. Just after the start of the fourth quarter, the stadium’s big screen television showed the Packers scoring a touchdown against the Bears to go up by 10-3. On the field, the Giants players appeared to be dumb-struck as they looked at Green Bay celebrate. The Redskins fans here rubbed it in and cheered.

Manning said he had looked up to see that play on the Jumbotron. His heart sank.

“We did everything we could this last week,” he said, trying to sound positive despite the disappointment. “But to win 10 games in the N.F.L. season is not easy.”

For the Redskins, who finished the season with a 6-10 record, the loss to the Giants was the final, disappointing blow in a season filled with upheaval. Their new coach, Mike Shanahan, did not breathe new life to the team in his first season in Washington, as some fans — and Shanahan himself — had expected.

Instead, the Redskins ended their season in the same situation they were in at this point last year: without a winning season, a playoff berth or a franchise quarterback. Donovan McNabb, signed by the Redskins last spring, is not likely to return next season, and Grossman, who started the Redskins’ final three games, is not likely to be the team’s go-to quarterback any time soon, either. Grossman showed some bright spots Sunday, including throwing a 64-yard touchdown pass to Anthony Armstrong to make the score, 17-13, with less than six minutes left.

For many of the Redskins, though, the game was less about winning than it was about performing well in their final try-out for Shanahan. They were playing to keep their jobs, said Redskins running back Clinton Portis, who isn’t likely to return to the team after playing in Washington for seven seasons.