GO ahead and call it Tomfoolery. Go ahead and ask Tom Coughlin what he was thinking when he summoned Jay Feely – who had missed a 33-yarder and hit a 46-yarder – to attempt a 52-yard field goal into the wind that would have cut Big Blue’s deficit to 24-23 with 11½ minutes left in the game.
Go ahead and ask Coughlin what he was thinking when rookie Devin Hester played possum in the end zone when he fielded the short kick and then raced down the right sidelines escorted by a convoy for a 108-yard touchdown that buried the Giants.
Go ahead and call it Em-Bear-assing.
With a capital E.
Coughlin’s gaffe was a dagger in his team’s heart.
Because Eli Manning wasn’t going to bring the Giants back from 31-20 on this night.
Manning promptly overthrew Tim Carter and was intercepted by safety Chris Harris.
Coughlin thought about punting, and pinning the Bears inside their 10 with Lethal Weapon Jeff Feagles.
He should have thought harder about it.
“That was my decision to go for it,” he told his team afterward.
Then he told the media the same thing.
“It was my decision to go for the field goal,” Coughlin said.
A few minutes later: “Again, that’s my call and no one else’s.” And after that: “It’s a disappointing loss. The responsibility falls on me.” The field goal unit relaxed. “For a split second I got mesmerized,” Bob Whitfield said.
Coughlin admitted that his field goal team is not adept at covering missed field goals.
“That’s one of the risks you take,” Coughlin said.
Someone asked about Feely’s kicks in pregame. “It falls right back to me,” Coughlin said. “I chose to go for it. That ended up being the determining factor.” Someone asked if he wrestled with the decision.
“I wrestled with it, yeah,” he said glumly.
Feely pointed a finger at himself.
“I told him I could make it,” he said. “Part of the blame definitely lies upon me. When I hit it I thought it was gonna be good. I knew I had to drive it. It just fluttered and died.” Manning (14-32, 121 yards, 2 INTs, 3 fumbles, one lost) was going to give the Giants this big edge over Rex Grossman. He was going to get the Giants into the end zone early, if not often, or at the very least keep battered Big Blue off the field.
And here is how the night turned out for Coughlin, for Manning, for the Giants:
Em-Bear-assing.
“It wasn’t his best night tonight,” Coughlin said of Manning.
Grossman was the better quarterback, and the Bears were the better team. The depleted Giants lost left tackle Luke Petitgout to a fractured fibula, and a five-game winning streak is now a one-game losing streak after Bears 38, Giants 20 and New York is advised to immediately cease and desist from all Super Bowl talk.
They needed a big game from Manning to help Tiki Barber (19-141 rushing) and didn’t get it.
Plaxico Burress (4-48) talked the talk … but could not walk the walk.
None of them could.
The Monsters in the Meadowlands were Bears.
Em-Bear-assing.
Manning was out of sorts from the start. He threw high for Burress on third-and-5 on his first possession. He underthrew Burress and was intercepted by Charles Tillman. He threw low for David Tyree on third-and-eight. He threw low again for Tyree on third-and-six before Feely’s 46-yard field goal made it 10-3.
On and on it went, while people named Kiwanuka and McQuarters and Torbor tried to fight the gallant fight on defense.
And where, pray tell, was Jeremy Shockey (115)?
Manning looked rattled when Alex Brown fought through a Whitfield hold and stripped the ball away and Adewale Ogunleye recovered at the Giants 21.
A 13-3 lead was now a 24-20 deficit, when Manning, so often at his best in the fourth quarter, was sacked by Brown, causing a fumble that rolled out of bounds by the Giant bench, for a 14-yard loss. Manning rolled right on third-and15 from the Bears 34 and fired incomplete for Burress. The quarterback had left the game in the hands of his head coach.
The rain had stopped. The field was soggy.
Here came Feely. There went the game, and NFC supremacy.
Em-Bear-assing.
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NOT FIRST CLASS
Thomas Jones and the mighty Bears aren’t alone when it comes to beating Big Blue in a big game. The Giants have now played three teams that are in first place in their respective divisions. They lost to all three:
DATE — OPPONENT — RESULT
Sept. 10 Indianapolis L, 26-21
Sept. 24 Seattle L, 42-30
Nov. 12 Chicago L, 38-20