What I’ve never seen in 29 years covering the Giants is an encouraging precedent for this Eagles test

What I’ve never seen in 29 years covering the Giants is an encouraging precedent for this Eagles test

In my 29 years of covering and chronicling the Giants, the recently completed 2022 regular season is the 10th time they qualified for the playoffs. That has not made for enough sustained excellence to satisfy team ownership or the fan base. The past decade was a disaster. But there were always a few rays of sunshine, when times were darkest, to keep everyone interested.

In all those 29 years and those previous nine postseason appearances, the Giants never have won their first playoff game and failed to advance to a Super Bowl.

Six times the Giants were one-and-done, losing in the first round. This took place after the 1997, 2002, 2005, 2006, 2008 and 2016 seasons. Three times, the Giants won their playoff opener — after the 2000, 2007 and 2011 seasons — and kept on winning all the way into the Super Bowl, losing it after the ’00 season and winning it in their other two appearances.

The six losses in playoff openers came in different shapes and sizes. Jim Fassel, like Brian Daboll, completely exceeded expectations in his first year as the head coach in 1997, when the Giants won the NFC East at 10-5-1 (the last season the Giants had a tie until Daboll’s team got one this season). All the positive vibes from that resurgent campaign came crashing down, however, when the Giants, playing in front of their home fans, blew a nine-point lead in the final 90 seconds and lost to the Vikings, 23-22.

The next one-and-done, also under Fassel’s watch, was one of the most hyperactive and frenzied postseason games in NFL history. The Giants blew a 38-14 lead at Candlestick Park and were overtaken by the 49ers, 39-38, amid a chaotic final scene: a botched field goal attempt, courtesy of a terrible snap, and a non-call in the end zone when Giants offensive lineman Rich Seubert — an eligible receiver — was hauled down with the ball coming his way. It would be accurate to qualify this collapse as epic.

San Francisco 49ers Julian Peterson, #98, Dana Stubblefield, #94, and Andre Carter, #96, attempt to cover New York Giants holder Matt Allen, #12, after Allen bobbled a snap in the fourth quarter in San Francisco on Sunday, January 5, 2003. The 49ers won 39-38.Holder Matt Allen’s last-ditch effort on a botched field goal sealed the Giants’ 39-38 Wild Card loss to 49ers in Jan. 2003 after they had led by 24 points.MediaNews Group via Getty Images

Tom Coughlin was in charge for the next two quick playoff exits. In 2005, Eli Manning, in his first year as a full-time starting quarterback, was not quite ready for the big stage. He threw three interceptions in a 23-0 loss to the Panthers at Giants Stadium, prompting star running back Tiki Barber to proclaim, “We got outplayed and outcoached.’’

One year later, the Giants’ season came to an end in Philadelphia with a 23-20 first-round loss. Manning found Plaxico Burress for a touchdown that tied the game at 20, but the Giants did not get the stop on defense they needed and were beaten by David Akers’ 38-yard field goal as time expired. Barber rushed for 137 yards in what would be his last NFL game. The loss stung, but it was clear the Giants, and Manning, were on the rise.

The first-round loss after the 2008 season — also coming at the hands of the Eagles — was especially wasteful. The Giants were the best team in the league that season, rolling to a record of 10-1, when Burress accidentally shot himself in the leg in a Manhattan nightclub over Thanksgiving weekend. Although the Giants won their first game without Burress to climb to 11-1, they were never the same team, sagging to the finish and bowing out in a desultory 23-11 loss.

The most recent first-round loss, after the 2016 season, was a 38-13 beatdown by the Packers at Lambeau Field, a painful ending to Ben McAdoo’s surprisingly effective 11-5 debut as a head coach and a harbinger of the bad times to come.

New York Giants wide receiver Odell Beckham (13) drops a sure touchdown catch during the NFL NFC Wild Card football game between the Green Bay Packers and the New York Giants on January 8, 2017 at Lambeau Field in Green Bay, WI.Odell Beckham Jr. and the Giants were thoroughly outplayed at Lambeau Field in a Jan. 2017 Wild Card loss, which marked the last playoff appearance for the franchise until this season.Icon Sportswire via Getty Images

The three Super Bowl runs were not created equal.

The Giants in 2000 were Fassel’s best team, 12-4 and the No. 1 seed in the NFC heading into the playoffs. In their first game, they dispatched the Eagles without scoring an offensive touchdown — Google “Jason Sehorn interception’’ and be amazed — and then obliterated the Vikings 41-0 in a party-like atmosphere at old Giants Stadium in the NFC Championship Game as Kerry Collins tossed five touchdown passes. Two weeks later, the Giants could not solve the Ray Lewis-led Ravens defense, Collins firing four interceptions in a terribly one-sided 34-7 loss in Super Bowl XXXV.

The next two Super Bowl runs followed similar scripts: Decent but not great regular season, little or no expectation to get very far in the playoffs, one astonishing upset road victory after another. There is a reason why Coughlin, Manning, Michael Strahan, Justin Tuck, Osi Umenyiora, Amani Toomer, Brandon Jacobs, Ahmad Bradshaw, Lawrence Tynes and so many other players from those championship teams are hailed whenever they appear at MeLife Stadium.

Fast forward to now. The Giants trashed the meager expectations placed on them in Daboll’s first season as head coach. They qualified for the playoffs as the No. 6 seed in the NFC, and eliminated the No. 3 seed Vikings, 31-24, on the road in the wild-card round.

Given what has gone down with the Giants in Januarys past, is this the beginning of another playoff run that reaches Super Bowl LVII in Glendale, Ariz. — where, it so happens, they defeated the Patriots in Super Bowl XLVI to claim the fourth Lombardi Trophy in franchise history? After all, the Giants in the past 29 years have either been bounced quickly or stayed for the duration. Sure, they can lose Saturday night to the No. 1 seed Eagles in a divisional playoff game at Lincoln Financial Field — the Giants are more than a touchdown underdogs. Using history as a guide, though, this may only be the next step on a path that leads to a title game appearance.

Jason Sehorn of the New York Giants races to the endzone for a touchdown after intercepting a pass during the Giants 20-10 NFC Divisional playoff game victory over the Philadelphia Eagles at Giants Stadium in East Rutherford, NJ.Jason Sehorn’s 32-yard interception return for a touchdown helped the Giants notch a 20-10 win over the Eagles in their Jan. 2001 Divisional Playoff duel.Icon Sportswire via Getty Images

If Daboll’s team is able to knock off the top seed in the conference, there will be no reason to believe the Giants cannot advance even further, no matter who they would face (49ers or Cowboys) in the NFC title game. If the Giants do not make it out on top in Philadelphia this weekend, they will have made it out of the first round but not made it into a Super Bowl, a rarity for this franchise the past 29 years.

Revolving door

Wink Martindale earlier this season said that in his career as a defensive coordinator he had never used more situational substitutions than he has in his first year with the Giants. He wasn’t kidding. From one week to the next, Martindale employed a plan that had some certainties — safeties Julian Love and Xavier McKinney play every snap, when healthy, as does cornerback Adoree’ Jackson. Dexter Lawrence and Leonard Williams up front play around 85-90 percent of the snaps. There are also wild swings in playing time for many players, depending on how the coaching staff evaluates their strengths or weaknesses based on that week’s opponent.

New York Giants safety Xavier McKinney (29) and Minnesota Vikings wide receiver Justin Jefferson (18) reach for a pass during the third quarter of a wild card game at U.S. Bank Stadium.Xavier McKinney’s presence in the Giants’ backfield has been one of the few a staples of Wink Martindale’s defense.USA TODAY Sports

Take a look at the usage in the playoff victory over the Vikings. Martindale put 22 different players on the field for at least one snap on defense. That’s a whole lot — for comparison, the Vikings used 17 players on defense. It was impressive that Jackson, after not playing for nearly two months because of a sprained knee, was able to log 55 of the 57 snaps. It is also apparent that Martindale sees rookie Kayvon Thibodeaux (53 snaps) as indispensable. Some of the other snap counts show just how unpredictable Martindale can be and how one game can have little to do with the next, as far as who plays and who watches from the sideline.

In an apparent plan to deploy the best coverage option against the potent Vikings passing attack, Landon Collins, who averaged 33 snaps over the last four regular-season games, got only 11 in the playoff opener. Rookie safety Dane Belton played a total of 15 snaps in five late-season games (this does not count his 73 snaps when the backups started in the finale against the Eagles) and then was on the field for 10 snaps in Minneapolis. Newcomer Jarrad Davis, signed Dec. 28 off the Lions’ practice squad, made his Giants debut with 70 snaps in Philadelphia with the other reserves and did enough to earn real snaps at inside linebacker in the postseason, recording 32 of them against the Vikings. And how about Cor’Dale Flott? The rookie cornerback was out of the rotation with the return of Jackson, logging only three snaps on defense. Martindale trusted Flott enough to have him on the field for the final defensive series, and on a third-down play, Flott completely blanketed receiver K.J. Osborn for a textbook pass breakup.

Up next: A third game against the Eagles. The only sure thing is that Martindale will unveil a few surprises in who plays a great deal and who does not.

One of one

Daniel Jones #8 of the New York Giants throws a pass during the first quarter.Daniel Jones made NFL history in playing perhaps his best game as a Giant in Sunday’s win over the Vikings.Charles Wenzelberg/New York Post

Sometimes, grouping a bunch of stats together to form a “first-time’’ combination can be a bit misleading, but in his first postseason game, Daniel Jones put his versatility on full display. He became the first quarterback in NFL history with 300 passing yards, two passing touchdowns and 70-plus rushing yards in a postseason game (Jones finished with 301 passing yards, 78 rushing yards and touchdown passes to Isaiah Hodgins and Daniel Bellinger). If not for the quirkiness of how the NFL tabulates its rushing totals, Jones would have been credited with 80 rushing yards: He lost two yards on two kneel-downs to end the game.

What might have been

The Cardinals hiring Monti Ossenfort as their new general manager did not exactly reverberate around the league — after all, it is the Cardinals — but it is impossible to hear the name and not think of Joe Judge and what might have been with the Giants.

There once was speculation Ossenfort could come to the Giants to work in tandem with Judge, based on a relationship forged in their many years together with the Patriots. It was no secret Dave Gettleman, the Giants’ general manager since 2018, was on the hot seat and was not seeing eye-to-eye with Judge last season. There was no serious thought that Judge would last only two years as coach until the 2021 season completely unraveled down the stretch. Before that, it was reasonable to connect the dots and wonder whether Gettleman would retire, Judge would remain and the Giants might hire a new general manager with ties to Judge.

Monti Ossenfort speaks after being introduced as the new general manager of the Arizona Cardinals NFL football team during a news conference in Tempe, Ariz., Tuesday, Jan. 17, 2023.Monti Ossenfort, recently hired as Cardinals GM, once was a buzzy name for the Giants’ job because of his ties to Joe Judge.AP

Ossenfort, the director of player personnel for the Titans, did interview for the vacant GM job with the Giants, but all the interviews for the position came after Judge was fired. Joe Schoen got the job, and it did not take long before he recommended to ownership that Daboll become the new head coach.

Asked and answered

Here are two questions that have come up recently that we will attempt to answer as accurately as possible:

The Giants have a short week before their Saturday night playoff game in Philadelphia because they played Sunday in Minneapolis. The Eagles are coming off a two-week layoff. How is this fair?

There is a reason why teams fight so hard to secure the No. 1 seed and the reward of a first-round bye. Rest at this time of year is like manna from heaven, and the Eagles earned the right to throttle down as the Giants were gearing up for their first-round game. Would the Giants have preferred if the NFL schedule makers — make that the NFL television broadcast schedule makers — had the Giants play this Sunday to give them a full week between games? Sure. Is playing six days apart a big deal? Not really. This is the grind of the postseason. At least the Giants get a break in that this is the shortest road trip they can possibly take — as long as there is no construction on the New Jersey Turnpike.

Once again, Azeez Ojulari is dealing with a physical issue that will limit him in practice heading into a big game. Is the guy simply injury-prone?

Azeez Ojulari #51 of the New York Giants runs out during introductions against the Dallas Cowboys at MetLife Stadium on September 26, 2022 in East Rutherford, New Jersey.After a promising rookie season, Azeez Ojulari has been unable to stay on the field in Year 2 due to an array of injuries.Getty Images

When Ojulari played just eight snaps against the Vikings before he got a knee to his thigh and had to come off the field, it was the continuation of a theme for the second-year outside linebacker. Athletes despise the label, but when they are prone to injuries, then, yes, they are injury-prone. Ojulari was a revelation as a rookie, leading the team with eight sacks, but Year 2 has never taken off. He missed time in training camp due to a strained hamstring that kept him out of the first two games. He hurt his calf in Week 3 and missed the next seven games. He enjoyed a healthy stretch and produced 4.5 sacks in a four-game span before a sprained ankle put him out again. When Ojulari said after his premature departure from his first career playoff game, “It’s just so terrible, I can’t ever finish the game,’’ you had to feel for him. The early news this week is fairly encouraging that Ojulari may be available to play against the Eagles. Once the season is over, Ojulari is going to have to take a long look at his approach to conditioning and training to see if he can figure out why his second NFL season was marred by one injury after another.