Tennessee Titans 24 – New York Giants 21

Comical Giants Surrender 21-Point 4th Quarter Lead, Lose 24-21: This franchise is a freaking joke and never fails to find new ways to lose. How many times over the past ten years have Giants’ fans had to put up with catastrophic late-game collapses? It never ends.

Up 21-0 in the fourth quarter, the embarrassing, poorly-coached, quarterback-deficient, leadership-deprived, passionless, and stupid team found a way to surrender 24 points in the last 13 minutes of the football game. It was the type of loss that ruins a season and gets both players and coaches fired. It is quite possible that the Giants will be unable to emotionally recover. The surging, first-place Dallas Cowboys come to town on Sunday.

“It’s a terrible shock,” a befuddled Head Coach Tom Coughlin said after the game. “I don’t have the words to talk about it right now, and I probably won’t when I see it. We’re going to be sick about this one forever.”

The Titans’ comeback started with an interception thrown by QB Eli Manning with just over 13 minutes to go in the 4th quarter. The coaching staff inexplicably had Manning throwing a deep pass on 2nd-and-4 and the ensuing interception was returned 26 yards to the Giants’ 46 yard line. It looked as if the Giants’ defense was going to hold as Titans’ QB Vince Young was stopped short of the first down marker on 4th-and-9, but CB Frank Walker committed an incredibly stupid personal foul penalty on Young, giving the Titans new life. “That was stupid, it was a bad play,” said Coughlin. Three plays later, the Titans scored to cut the lead to 21-7 with just under 10 minutes to play.

Three-and-out went the Giants and the Titans returned the ensuing punt 23 yards to the Giants’ 36-yard line. Six plays later, the Titans had cut the score to 21-14 with more than five minutes left in the game.

The Giants’ offense managed one first down and then the Giants were forced to punt. It looked as if New York had staved off a collapse when, on 4th-and-10, DE Mathias Kiwanuka had the quarterback wrapped up for what should have been a game-ending sack, but Kiwanuka for some reason thought Vince Young had gotten rid of the ball and let the quarterback go. Young then scrambled for 19 yards and a first down. “Thank God for letting me loose,” Young said.

Young then completed four straight passes, culminating with a 14-yard touchdown strike to tie the game with less than 50 seconds to play.

Manning capped the disaster by throwing his second interception of the day with 23 seconds left. “A bad decision on my part,” Manning said the pass that he attempted to force to WR David Tyree. “There’s no way you can throw an interception under that circumstance at the end of the game,” said Coughlin. “If you don’t like what you see throw it out of bounds. Go to overtime. Don’t turn the ball over.”

The Titans then completed two short passes and hit the 48-yard field goal to win the game.

Post-Game Notes: TE Jeremy Shockey dislocated a ring finger in pre-game workouts, but played.

Inactive for the Giants were CB Corey Webster (toe), CB Sam Madison (hamstring), LB Brandon Short (quad), DE Michael Strahan (foot), DE Osi Umenyiora (hip flexor), LT Luke Petitgout (back), WR Sinorice Moss (quad), and QB Tim Hasselbeck (third quarterback).