Minnesota Vikings 41 – New York Giants 17

Giants Crushed by Vikings as Manning Hands the Vikings 28 Points: It doesn’t get much worse for a quarterback than this.  Eli Manning all but handed the Vikings the game today as the Giants were blown out 41-17 by the Minnesota Vikings at the Meadowlands.  The Giants fell to 7-4 while the Vikings improved to 5-6.

Manning threw four interceptions, three of which were returned for touchdowns.  Another interception gave the Vikings the ball on the Giants’ 8-yard line and the Vikings scored on the very next play.  In effect, Manning handed the Vikings 28 points.  All of this against the League’s worst pass defense.

In his two games against the Vikings (the first being in 2005), Manning has thrown eight interceptions.

The defense didn’t exactly help set the tone either against one of the NFL’s worst passing attacks.  On the game’s second offensive play, the QB Tarvaris Jackson hit WR Sidney Rice for a 60-yard touchdown, beating CB Aaron Ross.  Jackson finished the day a near perfect 10-of-12 for 129 yards and a score, though nearly half of those yards came on that first passing play.

The Giants did respond with an 8-play, 65-yard drive on their first possession to tie the game a 7-7, with HB Reuben Droughns scoring from 1-yard out.  But that was the high point of the game for the New York.  It was all down hill after that.

On the Giants’ second drive of the game, Manning was picked off by safety Darren Sharper at the Giants’ 20-yard line.  Sharper returned the interception 20 yards for the score.  Vikings 14-Giants 7.

On the ensuing offensive possession, the drive stalled when Manning’s 4th-and-5 pass to WR Amani Toomer fell incomplete and the Giants turned the football over on downs at the Minnesota 35-yard line.  When New York got the ball back, Manning was intercepted by safety Dwight Smith at the Giants’ 27-yard line.  Smith returned the football 19 yards down to the Giants’ 8-yard line.  On the very next snap, HB Chester Taylor scored.  Vikings 21-Giants 7.

The Giants went three-and-out on their next drive.  The Vikings drove 37 yards in nine plays to set up a successful 46-yard field goal effort to take a 24-7 advantage.  The Giants could not move the ball on their final two possessions of the first half.

After halftime, the Giants received the ball first and moved 48 yards in 10 plays to set up a successful 48-yard field goal by PK Lawrence Tynes.  Vikings 24-Giants 10.  But the Vikings responded with a marathon 14-play, 69-yard drive that not only burned 9:24 off of the clock, but it set up another field goal to extend the Vikings’ lead back to 17 points.

All hope of any miracle comeback collapsed on the Giants’ next possession.  After driving to the Minnesota 11-yard line early in the 4th quarter, Manning was picked off for the third time, again by Smith.  Smith returned this pick 93 yards for the touchdown and a 34-10 lead.

Back out onto the field came Manning.  After a 6-yard completion to Toomer, Manning was picked off again by LB Chad Greenway at the Giants’ 37-yard line.  Greenway returned that interception for a score.  Vikings 41-Giants 10.

The Giants added a late score to make it Vikings 41-Giants 17.

“I wish there was some simple explanation for this game, but there isn’t,” said Head Coach Tom Coughlin after the game. “We played very, very poorly. In the National Football League, you obviously cannot wrap it up and hand it to the guy across the field and we did. I did not, in my worst moment, ever think I would be standing here talking about history repeating itself, but it did. We talked about this during the course of the week with regard to the last time Minnesota came here. The interceptions for touchdowns, there is no excuse for it. You are not going to be able to win a football game when you give away the points that we did with the three scores and then the ball on the eight yard-line.”

“Obviously, I did a very poor job of getting them ready to play, and we could not at any time overcome the deficit that we presented to Minnesota,” continued Coughlin. “Give them credit, they played smart and they didn’t turn the ball over. As I said, I would have liked to have seen how, as I told the players, this game would have played out had we not provided them with a gift-wrapped win. We set our defenses to stop the run, they did obviously have some passes, but it was very, very competitive that way. I thought after we opened the second half and kicked the field goal and they drove it all the way down and kicked another field goal, I didn’t think that was a very good sign. We needed to get the ball back right there and we weren’t able to do that. There is no excuse for today and there is no explanation for it, and I started the year off with ‘talk is cheap, play the game,’ and obviously there is not a lot to talk about here.”

When Coughlin was asked how disappointed he was with the players’ performance, he responded, “No, disappointed is not a strong enough word, but it is not about just the players. We are all in this together, we are one, I feel very badly for the guys that didn’t play well. I feel badly for them. I wish I could tell you why. Again, we had a good week, the energy level was high, the enthusiasm was good, last night was good, we came to the stadium today with every intention of playing our best game, it just didn’t happen.”

“There were too many big plays and not enough execution on our part,” said CB Sam Madison. “It was in all three phases of the game. We let Eli down, our defense let us down. This was a total team effort, unfortunately. This was pretty much on all of us as a football team. It wasn’t on just one guy; it was on all of us.”

“You have to create your own opportunities, and that is what they did today,” said DE Michael Strahan. “There is a lesson to be learned from it. This is a tough, tough loss. We started out on the wrong foot in this game and it just kept going in their favor.”

“Obviously things didn’t go the way we wanted them to,” said LG Rich Seubert. “We just couldn’t get it turned around. This is on all of us. It is probably the worst game I have been a part of as a New York Giant. I’m embarrassed, and I’m sure a lot of other guys are here, too. We have to find a way to turn it around. We are still 7-4. We have five big games left.”

Post-Game Notes:  RT Kareem McKenzie and LB Antonio Pierce left the game early.   “I don’t have a lot to tell you about the injury situation,” said Coughlin. “We have a few guys that obviously came out, I think Antonio had an ankle and McKenzie was rolled up on the back of the leg and I don’t know how that is going to be. It will probably be tomorrow before I have anything further on those lines.”

Inactive for the Giants were HB Brandon Jacobs (hamstring), HB Derrick Ward (groin/ankle), WR Steve Smith (hamstring/scapula), CB Corey Webster, OT Adam Koets, OG Kevin Boothe, and DT Manny Wright.  QB Jared Lorenzen was the third quarterback.