Tom Coughlin – Giants coach

Giants at Chargers Game Story and Notes

By Michael Eisen

Dec. 8, 2103

SAN DIEGO – The Giants flew cross-country to play the San Diego Chargers in a must-win game, but got overrun in a dreadful first half that cost them their last final shot at a playoff berth.

They made a month’s worth of mistakes in those first two quarters and left the field at halftime facing a 24-point deficit. By the time they showed a sense of urgency and scored some points, it was too late and the Chargers rolled to a 37-14 victory in Qualcomm Stadium. The loss dropped the Giants to 5-8 and officially ended their postseason hopes.

“I just told the team and anybody in listening distance that the major disappointment here today is to have a chance to get into a game where both teams are 5-7 and have a chance to win a ballgame and try to regain some respectability,” coach Tom Coughlin said. “We had played pretty well five or six weeks in a row and then we came in here today and the first half was just a very, very poor performance. The first half was a major disappointment.

“For some reason this first half, there was no intensity, no emotion,” safety Antrel Rolle said. “I don’t know. It just wasn’t a good football team to be out there that first half.”

In that first half, the Chargers converted seven of nine third down opportunities, had 15 first downs to the Giants’ six and owned the ball for 19:27. The Giants were zero-for-three on third down.

But the numbers tell just part of the story. San Diego had 11 takeaways in its first 12 games; the Chargers had two in the first half, an interception and a fumble recovery. The first was on a tipped Eli Manning pass, the second came after Andre Brown lost the ball on a play in which he was originally ruled down by contact. But the Giants didn’t rush to run another play and when the clock stopped for the two-minute warning, the Chargers coaches got to look at it and head coach Mike McCoy challenged the call – which referee Ron Winter reversed after a review. Winter also put 39 seconds back on the clock, giving the Chargers plenty of time to travel 39 yards.

Philip Rivers threw his third touchdown pass, a six-yarder to Danny Woodhead, and the Giants were in a huge hole with 19 seconds left in the half.

“They scored late on us when we didn’t make a call downstairs that we thought was a fumble,” Coughlin said. “We let the clock run down to two minutes, then they challenged and got the ball back.”

There was more. Early in the second quarter, Nick Novak missed a 41-yard field goal attempt. But Charles James was penalized for being offside, giving Novak a second chance – and he made the 36-yard try to increase San Diego’s lead to 10-0. After Rivers’ second touchdown pass to   rookie Keenan Allen gave San Diego a 17-point lead, Michael Cox returned the ensuing kickoff to the 30 – but the Giants were pushed back 10 yards by Ryan Mundy’s holding penalty. That possession ended with Brown’s fumble.

In the third quarter, linebacker Spencer Paysinger was left to cover wide receiver Vincent Brown and was flagged for pass interference in the end zone. Three plays later, Ryan Mathews scored from a yard out to make it 31-7. Mathews rushed for 103 yards on 29 carries.

Eli Manning’s five-yard touchdown pass to Brandon Myers on the first play of the fourth quarter pulled the Giants to within 31-14; still a big gap, but at least it’s within miracle comeback distance. But on the Chargers’ next third down, Rivers threw a long pass down field that was batted in the air by Jayron Hosley – who then lost a jump ball when Woodhead, who is listed at 5-8, leaped up to catch the ball. San Diego declined the Giants’ offside penalty, one of  four they had (two were declined).

Novak added two late field goals to pad the final margin.

Giants bright spots? Well, there was Justin Tuck, who had two sacks a week after getting four. He forced a Rivers fumble on the second one that Cullen Jenkins recovered, leading to Peyton Hillis’ one-yard touchdown run. But it was hard to find a positive when the Giants, who began the season with high hopes, officially saw their postseason dream end.

“That wasn’t the goal,” Manning said. “Each year this team expects to make the playoffs and to be in contention for championships. To know that with three games to go is disappointing and today’s loss was a tough one.”

So what now? The only tangible goal is to finish .500. To do that, the Giants must win their final three games, two of them against first place teams (vs. Seattle, at Detroit) and the finale against Washington.

Of course, there will be no letup in Coughlin, and he expects the players to follow his lead.

“There’s a lot to play for,” Coughlin said. “There’s pride to play for. There’s the fact that we’re competitors, we play for the New York Giants and we’re expected to go as hard as we can. We created our own situation here. No one else did but us, so it’s our responsibility to finish.

“We have a three-game schedule to go. We have three games to work as hard as we can, prepare as hard as we can and see if we can regain some of the respectability we lost today.”

“You have to win three games regardless of if you’re in the playoffs or not,” Tuck said. “We have to redeem ourselves as football players. What we get paid to do is to go out there and win football games. We won’t worry about where we are in the playoffs. We’ll put the blinders on and we have to go out there and win football games and that’s all we have to be worried about.”

Notes and statistics from the Giants’ 37-14 loss to the San Diego Chargers:

*The Giants lost for the second time in three games, fell to 5-8 and were eliminated from postseason consideration.

*With three games remaining, the Giants can finish no better than .500. This will be their first season without a winning record since 2009, when they were 8-8. They must win their final three games to avoid their first losing record since 2004, when they were 6-10 in Tom Coughlin’s first season as head coach.

*The Giants fell to 2-5 on the road. They finished 1-3 against the AFC West, defeating only Oakland.

*San Diego’s 37 points was the second-highest total allowed by the Giants this season. The Carolina Panthers scored 38 points in a shutout victory on Sept. 22. It was the fifth time this season Giants gave up more than 30 points in a game.

*The Giants trailed at halftime, 24-0. It was their largest halftime deficit since Jan. 3, 2010 (the 2009 season finale), when they trailed after two quarters at Minnesota, 31-0.

*The Giants did not score a point in the first half for the second time this season. On Sept. 22, they trailed Carolina, 17-0, on their way to a 38-0 loss.

*It was the second time in three games they did not score a first-half touchdown. Two weeks ago, they kicked two field goals and trailed Dallas at the half, 14-6.

*The Chargers’ 24 first-half points were tied for the most allowed by the Giants this season. Chicago also scored 24 points in the first half on Oct. 10.

*San Diego rushed for 144 yards, the second-highest total by a Giants opponent this season; Carolina ran for 194 yards.

*The Chargers’ time of possession of 36:56 also ranks No. 2 for a Giants opponent in 2013; Dallas owned the ball for 37:10 in the season opener on Sept. 8.

*San Diego converted 10 of 15 third-down opportunities, the most successes by a Giants opponent since Baltimore had 11 on Dec. 23, 2012 in a 33-14 victory. The Chargers’ 67 percent success rate was the highest by an opponent since Atlanta converted 69 percent (nine of 13) on Dec. 16, 2012.

*The Chargers punted just once, the first team to do so against the Giants since Washington had one punt on Oct. 21, 2012.

*San Diego had a 15-play field goal drive, the most plays on one possession against the Giants since Baltimore had a 16-play drive last year. The Chargers also had three 11-yard drives, two for touchdowns and the third ending in a field goal.

*The Giants committed three turnovers (two interceptions and a fumble) to increase their NFL-high total to 34. The Chargers scored touchdowns after the first two giveaways, increasing to 116 the number of points opponents have scored off Giants turnovers this season. The Giants have committed at least one turnover in every game this season.

*Coughlin is 0-3 against San Diego. The only teams he has not beaten in his 18-year career as an NFL head coach are the Chargers and Indianapolis Colts.

*Eli Manning completed 20 of 32 passes for 259 yards, a touchdown and two interceptions. Manning’s 20 interceptions tie his 2007 total as the second-highest in his career. He threw 25 interceptions in 2010.

*Manning was sacked twice, extending his career-high to 32 sacks this season.

*Hakeem Nicks caught five passes for 135 yards, a 27.0-yard average. It was his second-highest yardage total of the season; he had 142 yards on nine catches vs. Philadelphia on Oct. 6. Nicks still has not caught a touchdown pass this season. He did catch a 43-yard Hail Mary from Manning on the final play of the second quarter, but did so at the Chargers’ six-yard line.

*It was Nicks’ 13th regular-season 100-yard game, tying him with Del Shofner for fourth place on the Giants’ career list.

*Nicks’ 51-yard reception on the Giants’ second possession was his second-longest of the season; he had a 57-yarder on Sept. 8 in Dallas.

*Victor Cruz also had five receptions, for 42 yards.

*Brandon Myers caught four passes for 26 yards and scored a touchdown for the third week in a row, on a five-yard reception.

*Andre Brown led the Giants with 81 rushing yards on 16 carries. Peyton Hillis added 11 yards on four attempts and scored the Giants’ first touchdown on a one-yard run.

*Justin Tuck had each of the Giants’ two sacks of Philip Rivers. That gave him 6.0 sacks in the last two games and increased his season total to 8.5. On his second sack, on the first play of the third quarter, Tuck sacked Rivers and forced a fumble that was recovered by Cullen Jenkins, a takeaway that led to the Giants’ first touchdown.

*Safety Antrel Rolle led the Giants with 10 tackles (eight solo). Cornerback Terrell Thomas was credited with nine solo tackles.

*Defensive tackle Markus Kuhn returned a kickoff 13 yards when the Chargers deliberately bounced a kick after scoring with 19 seconds remaining in the first half.

*Right guard David Diehl played in his 162nd regular-season game, tying him with Hall of Fame tackle Rosie Brown for 13^th on the Giants’ career list.

*San Diego’s Ryan Mathews rushed for 103 yards on 29 carries. He was the second opposing back to exceed 100 yards against the Giants this season; Carolina’s DeAngelo Williams ran for 120 yards on Sept. 22. Under Coughlin, the Giants are 16-26 when the opposing team has a 100-yard rusher.

*Rivers completed 21 of 28 passes for 249 yards and joined Carolina’s Cam Newton and Kansas City’s Alex Smith as players who have thrown three touchdown passes against the Giants this season.

*Chargers rookie Keenan Allen caught two touchdown passes from Rivers. He is the fourth Giants opponent with two scoring receptions in a game this season. Dallas’ Jason Witten did it twice. The others were Carolina’s Brandon Lafell and Chicago’s Brandon Marshall.

*Rookie safety Cooper Taylor left the game in the third quarter with a hamstring injury. He missed three games earlier this season with the same injury.

*San Diego coach Mike McCoy won a replay challenge at what was originally the two-minute warning in the first half.  At the end of a carry that gained no yards, Andre Brown fumbled, but was ruled down by contact. After play was stopped for the two-minute warning, McCoy challenged the ruling, saying the ball was out before Brown was down. After review, referee Ron Winter reversed the call on the field and ruled that Brown had fumbled. Marcus Gilchrist recovered and San Diego took possession at the Giants’ 29-yard line. Because of the change of possession, the clock was reset to 2:35. Giants opponents are 2-1 this season and 29-35 in Coughlin’s 10 seasons as head coach in replay challenges.

*The Giants’ inactive players were defensive end Jason Pierre-Paul (shoulder), cornerback Corey Webster (ankle), running back Brandon Jacobs (knee), tight end Adrien Robinson, linebacker Allen Bradford, offensive lineman Stephen Goodin and quarterback Ryan Nassib.