By Matt Jussim
With home field advantage and a first round bye already clinched, the Giants had little to gain by winning on Sunday. The Minnesota Vikings on the other hand could secure the #3 seed and the NFC North division crown by beating the defending Super Bowl champions.
Minnesota came from behind and won the game 20-19 on Ryan Longwell’s 50-yard field goal as time expired. The win gave the Vikings their first division title since 2000, and set themselves for a home playoff game versus the Philadelphia Eagles next Sunday.
Even with the loss, the Giants third in four games, the team was fairly optimistic. The Vikings were the tenth straight team the Giants faced with a winning record, and Eli Manning only played the first half of the game. New York was also without cornerback Aaron Ross, tight end Kevin Boss, and defensive tackle Barry Cofield.
Derrick Ward earned a significant achievement in the game by rushing for 77 yards on 15 carries, finishing the regular season with 1,025 yards. He joined his teammate Brandon Jacobs, who rushed for 1,089 yards, as only the fourth pair of running backs to both total 1,000 rushing yards on the season.
Jacobs sat out the game due to a knee injury. This past season the Giants had the league’s best rushing attack, and the fact that both Ward and Jacobs each eclipsed 1,000 yards is a huge accomplishment for the team as well as both players. “This is a dream come true,” Ward said.
The Giants will have to wait and see who their opponent will be in two weeks. Even though the game came down to just one play, not everyone on the losing side was so optimistic. “You think we are happy because we lost?” linebacker Antonio Pierce said. “No. We are not. But that’s over with. The regular season is over. It doesn’t matter. It’s like talking about last year’s Super Bowl. It’s irrelevant.”
Along with that, the Giants suffered two more injuries. Free safety Michael Johnson left the game with a thigh bruise, but the more serious was to veteran cornerback Sam Madison. He left the Metrodome on crutches after breaking his right ankle. “The doctors told me, ‘Don’t move it, just stabilize it,’ ” Madison said.
John Carney, who was selected to the Pro Bowl this season, hit four field goals of 51, 30, 42 and 20 yards. But Carney neglected an opportunity to put the Giants up by 5 after he missed a 48-yard field goal with a little more than three minutes left in the game. Amazingly that was Carney’s first outright miss of the season. He had two kicks blocked previously, but other than that had connected on all his attempts this year, finishing 35 of 38 on the season.
The Giants trailed by 10-0 early in the second quarter, but three field goals by Carney cut the deficit to 10-9 at halftime. They got their first touchdown and first lead when David Carr replaced Eli Manning at quarterback for the second half and connected with Domenik Hixon on a 23-yard scoring play to give the Giants a 16-10 lead with 9:29 left in the third quarter.
After Carney’s fourth field goal, Minnesota cut the Giants’ lead to 19-17 with 9:26 left in the fourth quarter on a 54-yard touchdown pass from quarterback Tarvaris Jackson to Bernard Berrian, who got behind the rookie cornerback Terrell Thomas when Thomas fell down.
That touchdown was among several worrisome plays for the Giants, but the team did not harp on the negative aspects of the game too much. “It would have been nice to win this game, but it is not the end of the world,” Manning said
Coach Tom Coughlin set the teams sights on the future once the game was over. “We are 12 and 4,” he said. “The regular season is over, and we do have the week off. We will use it wisely.”
Game Notes: With the success Derrick Ward has had this season; chances are the Giants will not be able to retain him after the season. Both Ward and starting running back Brandon Jacobs will be free agents at year’s end. It is unclear if the Giants will be able to keep both players. Much like Ladanian Tomlinson’s former backup Michael Turner, who rushed for 1,669 yards with the Falcons this year, Ward could find himself as a starting running back next season. While Ward is a fine player, I think he is best suited as the secondary back, as he has been this year with the Giants. Ward, along with Jacobs and Ahmad Bradshaw are known as “Earth, Wind and Fire.” I think it would be smart of the Giants to try and keep Ward, due to the success they have had this season. But the demand for a hard nose, strong effort guy like Ward will be high this off-season, and he may leave the G-men for “greener” pastures.
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