It sounds as if no remotes were hurled through the air and no flat-screen TVs suffered any damage as the Giants endured a No Help Sunday.
“Absolutely not,’’ Antrel Rolle said. “Every team is accountable for their own actions. Whatever Dallas does or Washington does or Philly does shouldn’t have any effect on us, although we know it does, but we have to go out there and take care of our own business. We can’t rely on anyone else.’’
At some point, the Giants are going to need some help from “anyone else,’’ but they got into this mess alone, and for the time being, they are going to have to get out of it by themselves.
Before their six-day, bye-week respite, the Giants were fresh off a 15-7 victory in Philadelphia, their second straight triumph after a 0-6 start, and the fact every other team in the NFC East lost that weekend buoyed the spirits of a team that, when the dust settled, was only two games out of first place.
Well, when a team loses its first six games it is going to need a ton of help and the Giants didn’t get any this past weekend. They were pushed back even further into last place in their division, as the Cowboys (5-4), Eagles (4-5) and Redskins (3-5) all won, some in dramatic fashion, some in spectacular fashion.
“The pressure’s on but I don’t think it took the wind out of our sails at all,’’ center Jim Cordle said.
“It’s all about us,’’ Eli Manning said. “Some weeks a team might lose for us. Sometimes they all might win, they all might lose. All we can worry about is, hey, if we’re winning, then we’ll keep in contention and give ourselves a shot.’’
Manning, though, did concede the way the division games transpired teased him into thinking it was going to be another good day for the Giants. The first-place Cowboys, playing at home, were on the fringe of getting beat by the lowly Vikings (1-7). The Vikes led 23-20 and Dallas’ first attempt at a comeback was halted by a Tony Romo fourth-quarter interception. Romo got the ball back on his own 10-yard line with 2:44 remaining and engineered a 90-play touchdown drive, hitting Dwayne Harris with 35 seconds left to lift the Cowboys to a 27-23 victory.
The Redskins seemingly were done, as Danny Woodhead dived at the pylon and his apparent touchdown run with only 21 seconds left sure looked as if it would lift the Chargers to a 28-24 road victory. The touchdown was overturned after a replay booth review and the Chargers had first-and-goal at the 1-yard line. They failed to get the yard needed to win the game and settled for a field goal with three seconds left. The Redskins got the ball first in overtime and never gave it away, winning 30-24 on Darrel Young’s 4-yard TD run.
“I felt in the Dallas game and the Washington game the opposing teams had great opportunities to win the games,” Manning said, “and it didn’t quite come through for us.’’
There was no drama in Oakland, just the relentless array of touchdown passes from the right arm of Nick Foles, who subbed for injured Michael Vick and led the Eagles to a 49-20 thrashing of the overmatched Raiders. Foles tied an NFL record by firing seven touchdown passes as he threw for 406 yards. Manning takes aim at the Raiders Sunday at MetLife Stadium.
“It was tough,’’ cornerback Prince Amukamara said. “It was a lot of close games in our division and a lot of games that didn’t go the way we wanted it to go. But our division is kind of shaky right now, so I feel like it’s up for grabs.’’
As his team finally stopped losing and put together victories over the Vikings and Eagles, coach Tom Coughlin made sure to mention the sub-par records in the NFC East put the Giants only two games off the pace. Coughlin said he did not point out to the team on Monday about losing ground on all three division rivals.
“No, we’ve got to take care of our business,’’ Coughlin said.
At some point, the Giants are going to need help, plenty of it, but unless they extend their winning ways into December, what others do around them will not matter.