East Rutherford, NJ – The Giants had good reason to be optimistic that this would be the week that their fortunes were reversed. However, the great week of practice so many players said they had this past week failed to transfer over to the playing field as the Giants let a 21-20 decision slip away from them with less than 30 seconds left in the game.
The defense played a little better this week, largely due to the shakeup in the lineup which saw the return of LB Michael Boley, who finished second in tackles, at weakside linebacker, the addition of Chris Canty, who returned from a calf injury, and the benching of safety CC Brown, who was often at the heart of several miscommunications on defense.
The offense also did a slightly better job with protecting the ball as it only lost one turnover this week and was able to sustain drives to the point where New York dominated the time of possession 37:47 to 22:13.
But there were still enough of the recurring problems that contributed to sinking the Giants’ ship this week such as another botched field goal attempt, this one in the first quarter, which in retrospect would have been the difference in the game.
There were also nine penalties, four by the offense, including a big one called against RG Chris Snee on the Giants second to last possession of the game. That penalty, wiped out a Brandon Jacobs run to the San Diego one and the Giants never recovered from it, having to settle for three points instead of making it a two-possession game with 2:07 left in regulation.
“We had the ball in the Green Zone twice at the end and we kicked the field goal,” said LG Rich Seubert. “That is how you lose games.”
Although the defense seemed to clean up a lot of its communication problems and made more plays this week than it had since the losing streak began – the Giants picked off San Diego QB Philip Rivers twice while DT Fred Robbins recorded his first sack of the 2009 season -- in the end it was a back-breaking 18-yard catch-and-run by WR Vincent Jackson that gave the Chargers the 21-20 win.
“The receiver and the quarterback made a great throw-and-catch,” said CB Corey Webster, who was beaten on the touchdown down play. “(Rivers) just the ball in position where his guy could make a play on it.”
With their fourth loss in a row, the Giants limp into the bye week at 5-4 with a long laundry list of things to address in the next two weeks.
“All we can do is go back to the drawing board and keep working hard,” Webster said. “We have a lot more football to play and we have a bye week this week, so hopefully we’ll just keep getting better.”
