The Sports Xchange

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. — Just when New York Giants head coach Tom Coughlin thought he had his team on the right track, along comes a stink bomb such as what they laid in Monday’s 27-7 loss to the Philadelphia Eagles.

Perhaps even more upsetting to Coughlin, who was notably frustrated when he spoke to reporters a day after his team’s embarrassing 27-7 loss in Philadelphia, was the way in which his team slowly imploded after putting together solid efforts on their opening drives offensively and defensively.

The Giants committed 12 penalties in the game, a new season-high that topped their 11 penalties in a Week 4 win over the Bills. They also turned the ball over three times, all three of which the Eagles were able to convert into points on their ensuing drives.

The biggest surprise? The Giants, who actually won the turnover battle against the Eagles, 4-3, were unable to score any points off the Eagles’ miscues.

“We had played our way into three wins, and had gotten ourselves into a position we wanted to be in,” Coughlin said of the Giants having a chance to increase their lead in the NFC East if they had turned in a solid and winning effort against the Eagles.

“I was confident that our team was going to play hard and to play in the same style and fashion that we had been. The number of things that occurred in the game just weren’t anything that we had been doing.”

With one self-inflicted wound after another, the Giants were their own worst enemy in a big game that they needed to win, perhaps the biggest disappointment of all.

“We’ve got to be able to handle the big games. The games where things don’t go our way, we’ve got to handle them better,” Coughlin said.

With a short week ahead for the Giants to prepare for another big NFC game, this one against the Cowboys at home, Coughlin didn’t plan to spend a lot of time reliving the horror show his team put on the field Monday night.

Instead, the plan is to move ahead with some tweaks and hope that the little things like dropped passes, penalties, missed tackles, and poorly thrown balls that all added up, diminish.

“You’re going to try and make the players understand how different this could have been had some things been taken advantage of, had we been able to score the second time we marched down there,” Coughlin said.

“Just the little teeny things that happen that each play becomes so monumental when you’re playing against a good football team. The third-and-1, the fourth-and-1, the opportunity to catch the ball, put it away and not let someone take it from you — all those things add to the winning and the losing and the ebb and the flow that take place during the game.”

REPORT CARD VS. EAGLES

–PASSING OFFENSE: C-minus. The pass protection was at its worst all season, as quarterback Eli Manning barely had any time to throw the ball behind a leaky offensive line that allowed three sacks and seven hits. Manning didn’t help himself either with two intentional grounding penalties and an inability to connect with receiver Odell Beckham Jr. at least once in the second half of the game.

–RUSHING OFFENSE: D. The Giants had some success with Rashad Jennings running the ball early on, but for some reason decided to move away from Jennings — and it probably wasn’t in response to his lost fumble — and go with Andre Williams, who managed six yards on five carries. The run blocking wasn’t bad to begin with, but when the Eagles began stuffing the gaps and forcing the Giants to bounce things outside, why New York didn’t give the ball to the quicker-footed Shane Vereen, who’s probably the most capable of hitting those outside runs, is a mystery.

–PASS DEFENSE: C-minus. The Giants’ continued absence of a pass rush is simply killing this team. Add to that the fact that they were missing their starting cornerback (Prince Amukamara), their best pass rusher (Robert Ayers, Jr.), and their starting slot cornerback (Trumaine McBride), and the lack of personnel is likely what forced New York to try to get home with a four-man rush instead of tossing in a blitz every so often. Unfortunately for them, Eagles quarterback Sam Bradford had all kinds of time to throw the ball, even if he wasn’t always on target with it.

–RUN DEFENSE: B. Although the Giants allowed an opponent to finish with a second straight 100-yard rushing performance, the bulk of those yards came in the second half with the Eagles having a comfortable lead as they tried to chew up the game clock. When the score was closer, the Giants’ run defense actually held up better, allowing 41 yards on 12 carries at the half.

–SPECIAL TEAMS: C. For the first time this season, the Giants lost the starting field position battle, averaging their 25 to the Eagles 27. Punter Brad Wing had a rough night, placing two punts inside the 20, but failing to hit any touchbacks. He finished with a net average of 39.3 yards on eight punts.

–COACHING: F. It might be time for offensive coordinator Ben McAdoo to go back and review some of Vince Lombardi’s practices, namely sticking to what works until the opponent stops it. McAdoo opened the game with a 12 personnel set that put together the Giants’ best drive of the season, but then went away from that in response to adjustments the Eagles put on the field instead of continuing to challenge them. The other thing he did that was a head-scratcher was trying to run the ball outside against the Eagles quick-footed linebackers, a surprise for sure considering that the strength of the Giants’ running game is to go behind its offensive interior. Defensively, coordinator Steve Spagnuolo was missing one of his starting corners (Prince Amukamara) and his slot cornerback, but when a four-man pass rush just isn’t getting it done, it might behoove the defense to once in a while throw a blitz in there, especially against a mistake-prone quarterback like Sam Bradford.