PHILADELPHIA – The ball was up there – Lord, was it up there.
“Forever,” Michael Strahan said.
All that hung in the balance was the game, the season, all that talk about staying in the playoff hunt. The ball was sent skyward by a defensive replacement named Christian Peter, who smacked a pass attempt by Doug Pederson into the air, where a star named Michael Strahan was there to deliver the play that legitimized the Giants’ season.
Legitimized it with a stunning 23-17 comeback win over the Eagles on Strahan’s 44-yard interception return for a touchdown 4:24 into OT.
“I’m glad the ball was moving in slow motion and I was moving quick enough to get it,” Strahan said.
One lightning bolt later, Strahan’s 268-pound frame was in motion – legs, arms chugging, the trademark gesture with his head serving as a signal to his teammates: Start the celebration. Strahan plucked the deflected interception out of the air, thrust his head back and was not going to be caught by guard Lonnie Palelei.
The Giants were about to win a game they were absolutely going to lose.
“Once I saw his big old head go back I knew he was going in,” Jessie Armstead said.
“When he leans that thing back he’s a Ferrari,” added Jason Sehorn. “He’s not getting caught.”
No one caught Strahan yesterday on his 44-yard touchdown return that allowed the Giants to sprint and soar into their bye week with an outlandish comeback overtime victory.
Down and seemingly out, trailing 17-3 after three quarters, the Giants leaned on that devilish defense of theirs and somehow got the results they desperately needed.
They scored the final 20 points – greatly helped by causing a fourth-quarter Duce Staley fumble on the Eagles’ 5-yard line – reversing a flat performance with a flourish and ending with Strahan’s heroics.
“I don’t know if I have ever had the emotions in a game that this one took on,” a flushed Giant coach Jim Fassel said afterward.
The range went something like this: Frustration, disgust, fear, hope and ultimate jubilation.
It was at times so bleak for the Giants that, when asked if he was familiar with the infamous 1978 play and game (see Joe Pisarcik for details) that the Giants call The Fumble and the Eagles call The Miracle at the Meadowlands, Fassel said, “I definitely am. I think it was reversed today.”
Advancing to 5-3 in time for their bye week – with the Cowboys loss to the Colts, the Giants are alone in second place in the NFC East, trailing only the Redskins (5-2) – was critical, and the Giants achieved their goal the hard way.
They were lackluster and ineffective in a first half that saw them do a predictable disappearing act on offense and an uncharacteristic swoon on defense.
They were ripped for 83 tackle-breaking yards by Staley, shocked when Torrance Small beat a stumbling Sehorn for an 83-yard touchdown reception and humbled by a 17-3 deficit at halftime. They were laid into by Fassel, who dared his team in the second half to at least play as if it wanted to win.
“Things were looking pretty grim,” Strahan said.
No kidding. The offense, once again, was a mess, with no running game, a dismal showing by the line and Kent Graham struggling to make anything happen.
“We were non-functioning in so many ways it was incredible,” Fassel said.
The swing was gradual, but definite. Graham (26 of 42, 240 yards, 1 TD) settled down on a 16-play, 83-yard drive that knocked 8:59 off the clock, capped by a LeShon Johnson run that trimmed the deficit to 17-10 with 13:07 left in regulation.
On defense, the Giants clamped down on Staley, who finished with 93 yards but had just 14 yards on 11 carries after halftime. Still, the way the Giants were meandering on offense, something dynamic was needed to push the Giants forward.
That something happened with 2:43 remaining in the fourth quarter and it happened, naturally, on defense.
“We love it when it’s in our hands,” Keith Hamilton said.
The Giants caught a break when Brad Maynard’s punt for some reason was not caught by Allen Rossum at the Eagle 10-yard line, allowing it to roll to a stop on the 3. The defense smelled blood. Staley, one-yard loss, hauled down by Sehorn. Pederson nearly caught for a safety by Sam Garnes, sacked by Armstead. Staley up the middle for three yards before disaster struck the Eagles and breathed life into the Giants.
“You can call it human error, you can call it defense playing hard, I call it a miracle from God,” Strahan said. “He definitely gave us a gift on that play.”
The gift was wrapped by Hamilton, who stuck his left arm out and made a clean strip of Staley, allowing rookie Andre Weathers to land on the fumble on the Eagle 5. Even the Giants on offense could not blow this opportunity.
Charles Way lost two yards before Graham found Pete Mitchell, who beat safety Tim Hauck for a seven-yard TD strike. Before OT, the Giants had to survive a missed 59-yard field-goal attempt by David Akers and then had a miserable three-and-out in overtime before the defense got the winning points.
On third-and-8 from the Giants 44, Peter – who earlier had a blocked field goal – completed a magnificent game by applying heavy pressure inside, smacking Pederson’s pass into the air, where Strahan was waiting.
“It was incredible,” Fassel said. “For them to do that in the end was incredible. We developed an attitude of, ‘Find a way to win the game.’ That’s been our theme for a long time. The toughness, the belief this team shows right now, not amazes me, because I know what they’ve got inside of ’em, but they never stopped.”