Giants Battle Patriots to the End, but Could Lose Three Starters to Injuries

First of all: congrats to Tom Coughlin and the Giants for not laying down against the Patriots last night. They had absolutely no reason to play their starters, and could've used the extra week's rest to prepare for their wild-card matchup against the Buccaneers next week. Instead, New York almost upset the previously unbeaten Patriots.

But in the harsh light of day, these are some stark realities for the Giants: three starters were injured on Saturday night, and if you believe in such things, the team expended a lot of emotional energy in the loss. Center Shaun O'Hara and linebacker Kawika Mitchell left the game with knee injuries, and cornerback Sam Madison was sidelined with an abdominal strain.

Now the question becomes: how serious are the injuries? Followed closely by: when will the Giants play their first-round game? The New York Times' Fifth Down blog offers a hint:

The Giants do not know when they will play the Buccaneers, and probably will not know until Sunday evening. NBC, a Giants official said, has first pick for the Saturday night game and may choose whatever opponent that Pittsburgh hosts. That would put an NFC game on earlier in the day.

It would probably be the one in Seattle, for this reason: If Tampa Bay hosts the afternoon game on Saturday, and Pittsburgh hosts the night game, it leaves two West Coast teams (Seattle and San Diego) to host the games on Sunday. One of those is at 1 p.m. Eastern, or 10 a.m. Pacific. That won't happen. So one of the West Coast games has to go on Saturday, when the start times are later.

Shorter Fifth Downs: if the Giants don't play on Saturday night, they will likely play Sunday at 1 p.m. As for whether it was worth it -- to go all out in a meaningless Week 17 game and risk injury -- um, hell yeah. Who's to say O'Hara, Mitchell or Madison don't get hurt during the first few minutes of the Bucs game. It's football; people get injured. At least the Giants can say they didn't roll over for the Pats.

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)

12-30-2007 @ 11:30AM

T said...

Oh well, that's what happens when you play dirty. Don't get me wrong, the Giants played an amazing game and keeping the score close only added to the thrill. But lets face it,some of the players where doing some dirty things and as a result, they lost several more players due to injury and lost the game. God don't like ugly.

12-30-2007 @ 11:34AM

Me Too said...

Kinda funny that someone would accuse the Giants of playing dirty. Must be a Pasterics fan doing the talking. Wilfork will be fined heavily, and possibly suspended for his "dirty" play. What evidence can you see of Giant dirty play? Thought so.

12-30-2007 @ 11:40AM

ciawhite2006 said...

one and done

12-30-2007 @ 11:46AM

Some of the players for the Giants were antagonizing, pushing, trash talking and trying to start fights. Unless we were watching different games, to me that was playing dirty. It was not necessary for them to carry on like that. It wasn't the Super Bowl.

12-30-2007 @ 12:23PM

I am really looking forward to the Steelers 2nd. Revenge tour. I am sure your "perfect" season will make you feel all fuzzy all over when the Steelers are accepting the Lamar Hunt Trophy at the Razor.
Man, that is giving me the warm fuzzys just thinking about it.

12-30-2007 @ 11:51AM

Your right. We weren't watching the same game then :)

Seems to me like Pasteric fans are all dilusional.
Too bad that the delusions are gonna come crashing to the ground shortly. Karma has a way of busting your but, and man, is Karma circling your team right now.

12-30-2007 @ 11:54AM

JG said...

So Dan....what happened to your dire forecasts about the "majority" of Giants fans selling their tickets to Patriot fans? Admit you were full of hogwash and that the Giants fans did indeed show up and were a definite boost to the team.

12-30-2007 @ 1:21PM

Manny said...

More like when the Steelers lose by 20 points again.

12-30-2007 @ 1:23PM

FootballOnuts said...

Name me one New York team that has any class? Thought so.....there isn't one. NewYork base fans can't lose with any grace, it's always someones fault. The Refs, the weather, the sun was in my eyes.....call the Waaa waaaa wambulance.....

12-30-2007 @ 1:42PM

mel said...

Great game Giants!

This was one of the best games I watched all season, and I have to say, that the out come could have been different if the offense pass interference was called in first quarter (Randy Moss), or the late hit in the second quarter. But who knows. Could be that the Giants got nasty only after they got sick of the low blows from the Patriots. Wilfork should be suspended, and Rodney Harrison should be fined.

12-30-2007 @ 2:43PM

me said...

I guess it's easy to be "perfect" when you CHEAT. Maybe more teams would be if they did so. "Perfect Pats"??? NOT, I DON'T THINK SO. For me, a team can't be "perfect" if they've admitted to CHEATING. As for the GIANTS, GREAT GAME, you guys almost pulled it off. At least it's nice to see an honest team play the game. GO GIANTS!!!!

12-30-2007 @ 2:47PM

GFF said...

Giant's played dirty????? WHAT???? I think you got the teams mixed up. What I saw was the COMPLETE OPPOSITE. I saw a Pats playing POKING A GIANTS PLAYER IN THE EYE & not get called on it. I saw lots of plays the Pats didn't get penalized on. I guess the officials wanted to see a team go undefeated, even though they're CHEATERS. I hope the Pats lose in the playoffs or the Superbowl. They don't deserve to win anything. CHEATERS!!

12-30-2007 @ 2:51PM

NYF said...

NY FANS ARE THE BEST WITH THE MOST CLASS. AT LEAST WE DON'T SUPPORT A TEAM THAT CHEATS TO WIN. YOU HAVE NO CLASS. I BET THE COWBOYS WILL KICK YOUR SORRY BUTTS INTO THE GROUND. YOU DESERVE TO LOSS. CHEATERSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS. THE GIANTS PLAYED A GREAT GAME, AT LEAST THEY PLAY BY THE BOOKS, LOL ,LOL.

12-30-2007 @ 2:54PM

IHATEPATS said...

PATS SUCK. PERFECT, NOTTTTT!!

12-30-2007 @ 2:55PM

ihy said...

FOOTBALLONUTS, YOU'RE A SCUM BAG. NOBODY'S MAKING EXCUSES BUT YOU, FOR YOUR SORRY ASS CHEATER TEAM. GFU BUTT HEAD.

12-30-2007 @ 2:57PM

CNE said...

FOOTBALLONUTS, GFU!! YOU'RE TALKING ABOUT YOUR FANBASE. GTH!!!

12-30-2007 @ 4:16PM

nickstoli said...

I'm no Coughlin fan at all, but he did the right thing in playing to win that game. If the game was meaningless, why did so many people want to watch it?

12-30-2007 @ 4:34PM

Tyhesha said...

Ugh...once again people only choose to see what they want to see. There was a lot of pushing and shoving going on mostly by the Giants and it was way before that eye poke thing. He was probably pointing out that he had some sleep crust in his eye.

12-30-2007 @ 5:17PM

Bill said...

The Giants won an incredible moral victory. The way they played was phenomenal. The fact they lost 3 starters to injuries doesn't matter as they weren't getting to the Super Bowl this year anyway, so sacrificing a shot at a Super Bowl to beat the Pats was the smart thing to do.

Whoever wins the Super Bowl would be nice to symbolically share the honor with the Giants as a sign of appreciation from the league and the millions of Pats hating fans praying the Pats would lose.

The Giants killing their own chance to advance in the playoffs was the ultimate Christian thing to do.

Bill

12-30-2007 @ 5:59PM

bob said...

Ummm. You this site is truly full of dimwits. Perfect is perfect, and 16-0 is it. Admitted to cheating, do your homework. What was admitted to was a differing opinion on the rule, which obviously the league won and the team paid a hefty price.

And the biggest dimwit of all who prognasticated a Steelers super bowl win.... that's a good chuckle. I remember another idiot who guaranteed victory over the pats...

Get over it everyone, the Pats are 16-0 and will be the heavy favorite in any playoff game no matter who they play for a reason. They are the best team. They don't play dirty, they don't cheat (outside of the taping incident of course), they don't get more breaks than other teams from the refs. They simply play harder, want it more, and are better coached than any team in the league right now. That can easily change, but I see no evidence of that happening over the next four weeks.

Looking forward to the playoffs.