The dream is over. The New York Giants' hopes of becoming the first NFL team to make the playoffs after starting a season 0-6 died on Sunday with a lopsided 37-14 loss to the San Diego Chargers. The loss, combined with Arizona's victory over the St. Louis Rams, eliminated the Giants from playoff contention.
The Giants have now missed the playoffs four times in five seasons.
The Giants imploded right from the beginning of this game, reverting to their season-opening 0-6 form. Turnovers, unforced penalties, coverage mistakes, an inability on the part of the defense to get off the field. All were present.
The Giants were never really competitive. They fell behind 24-0 in the first half, with a pair of turnovers and an offside penalty by Charles James on a missed San Diego field goal helping the Chargers.
San Diego scored seven of the nine times in had the ball.
The Giants are 5-8 now. With games against the Seattle Seahawks, Detroit Lions and Washington Redskins remaining the Giants will be hard-pressed to avoid their first losing season since going 6-10 in 2004, Tom Coughlin's first season as head coach.
Eli Manning went 20-of-32 for 259 yards with a touchdown and two interceptions for the Giants and was booed throughout by Chargers' fans, who still haven't forgiven him for dissing them on darft day in 2004. Most likely, Giants' fans spent a good chunk of the day booing their own team. Manning, incidentally, now has 20 interceptions this season.
GAME BALL: Tough to really single out any Giants for praise, but you have to give a nod to defensive end Justin Tuck. He followed up his four-sack Defensive Player of the Week performance against the Washington Redskins with two sacks, a forced fumble and six tackles.
NEXT WEEK: The Giants host Russell Wilson and the Seattle Seahawks in a 1 p.m. ET start.
Discuss the carnage of both Sunday's game and the Giants' season right here. More coverage to come later this evening, and 'Kudos & Wet Willies' in the morning.