GIANTS 7
For the first time since 1987, the New York Giants can say these words: 0-4.
It has been about a generation since Big Blue started a season winless after a month of football action, and it is easy to look at the remainder of this already hideous 2013 season and wonder if the Giants will ever win a game this year? And when they do win, how many will they have?
The Giants entered play Sunday knowing that a win combined with a Eagles loss would put them into second place in the weak NFC East. Unless the Cowboys, Eagles and Redskins continue to stink it up, it is getting harder and harder to envision that New York can come back in their own division. Forget the wild card, that was washed away after last weeks 38-0 smackdown to the Panthers.
The culprit the past three weeks has been the Giants suspect defense. On Sunday, the issue was the Giants offense which was listless from pillar to post. The Giants couldn't convert on third down (1-for-12), and its receivers were truly invisible. Every time Eli Manning put up the football, nobody could hold onto the football.
Case in point, Victor Cruz was targeted 15 times, and only had nine catches. Of those eight catches, only one of them had an impact on the game, when Cruz hauled in a 69 yard touchdown strike to tie the game at seven.
Yet, the Giants defense kept Big Blue in it. They forced the Chiefs into three turnovers, and kept running back Jamal Charles in check, and flustered quarterback Alex Smith.
However the turning point of this game came late in the third quarter with New York facing a difficult third and 17. Manning hit Cruz down the middle of the field, but the wide out was tackled a yard short of the marker. The ruling, which was initially first down Giants, was overturned into a fourth and one. The Giants were forced to punt.
On the punt, Kansas City's speedy Dexter McCluster took it to the house on a 89-yard punt return to give Kansas City a 10-point advantage, 17-7.
The Giants were officially toast. It was as if they knew the game was over, even with a whole quarter to play, and they played like it.
The Chiefs pounded the Giants in the fourth quarter. Alex Smith engineered a 14 play 80 yard drive that ate up more than nine minutes of clock, culminating in a 2-yard touchdown run by Charles iced it.
Smith's 34-yard touchdown strike to Dwayne Bowe put salt in the Giants wounds.
At 0-4 the Giants are basically toast. Any dwindling playoff hopes for the Giants are now gone, and the calendar hasn't even changed to October! Changes have to be made to this Giants squad. They are a decaying lot with veteran players who don't have the desire they once had. They bicker and snicker at each other; while the coordinators of this group can't seem to put anyone in a position to succeed.
It is time for the Mara/Tisch family to think about a shake up. The New York Giants are on the clock for 2014.
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