I got off the phone with my father this morning, and his question for me was this:
"“Are the Giants mentally tough enough to win this game”"
The rationale is simple — this is as close to a playoff atmosphere the Giants have been faced with yet this year. This matchup with the Eagles represents the most interesting debate in football: offense vs defense. The Eagles have perhaps the best offense in the league and they’re coming off a record breaking game in Washington. The Giants dropped a big game at home against a 1-7 Dallas team that many believe point to weakness within the team. So why shouldn’t we be questioning the mental toughness of the Giants right now? Sunday’s game is no doubt a litmus test for who the Giants really are – mentally, physically, offensively and defensively. So here is my answer to the question posed above, unpacked for your enjoyment:
Yes, the Giants are mentally tough enough.
The Giants have shown consistently that they can go on the road and come away with decisive victory. I’m not talking about the “road warriors” of 2007 either. Houston, Dallas #1, Seattle – all on the road, all in hostile territory, all complete victories with both offensive and defensive mental toughness on full display.
Remember, the Giants were only favored to win in the Seattle game. NO ONE thought they’d beat Houston, they dominated on both sides of the ball. Few thought they would go in and trounce the Cowboys like they did, especially after the deficit they created for themselves off two early interceptions. The Giants battled back and sustained one of the biggest offensive surges I’ve ever seen Eli Manning put together. TOUGHNESS. Seattle, facing a tough home crowd the Giants went in and dismantled the 12th man. Try as you might, but I challenge you to argue that these three games don’t show conclusively that the Giants are mentally tough. They’ve shown they can travel into hostile territory in an almost businesslike fashion, even with the chips stacked against them, and put up some of the most complete victories in recent Giants memory. So why shouldn’t they have a shot in Philadelphia?
Ohh… but what about last game against the Cowboys? How could they have lost so badly to that team?
Look, I’ve heard all week in the media how “bad” that loss was, how the Giants got beaten “so badly” by the Cowboys. Well, I’ve got news for the people that only look at the scoreboard and stat lines — that’s not the game I saw. I saw a game that was basically given to the Cowboys by a few costly mistakes on the part of the Giants. I went over it in detail earlier in the week, I won’t do it again. But even yesterday, Kevin Gilbride basically agreed with everything I had to say on the matter when asked about Eli Manning’s frustration after that loss. And this is not an ‘I told you so’ moment, I bring it up to simply point out that a simple false start by a rookie offensive lineman can spell DISASTER for a team. Touchdowns get nullified, and the next play goes 100 yards the other way for an even bigger deficit to overcome.
But the larger point I want to make is even so, make no mistake about it — the Giants didn’t quit. They showed once again that mental toughness. They battled back and had the game within 6 points with all kinds of momentum until a bogus holding call came on a critical 45 yard strike, nullifying the TD. It was the back breaker for sure. But with 6 minutes left the Giants got in position and Eli delivered. What more can you ask of this team? If you remember the feeling at the time, the Giants defense had all kinds of momentum going for them at that point, they showed the RESOLVE you were looking for. Some people stopped watching at half time, they didn’t catch that drift. Well I did, and I’m telling you there is more to this Giants team than a stupid unfortunate loss to the Cowboys at home.
Are the Giants mentally tough enough? Not only do I believe they’ve shown repeatedly that they are, but I’m guaranteeing they show some grit, some mental toughness in Philadelphia this weekend much to everyone else’s surprise.
Yeah you heard it here first — the Giants have a shot to win Sunday night.