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The patient, in this case the New York Giants, is DOA. The Giants' 2013 season is dead. If they were still breathing prior to Thursday night's game, which is debatable, the Chicago Bears delivered the death blow with a 27-21 victory.
Let's go over the remains with our traditional post-game autopsy report. I mean, our traditional 'Kudos & Wet Willies' review.
Kudos To ...
Brandon Jacobs -- Jacobs had a turn back the clock performance Thursday night, carrying 22 times for 106 yards and two touchdowns. He ran hard, harder than he probably has in years, going over 100 yards for first time since a 101-yard performance against the Dallas Cowboys Dec. 11, 2011. I have my doubts that Jacobs can bring that kind of energy and productivity consistently but you have to give it up to him for what he did Thursday. It was a pretty remarkable performance.
Jon Beason --This was an impressive debut for Beason, especially defending the run. He had 12 tackles, 11 of them solo, and seven of those considered "stops." Beason showed more sideline-to-sideline range than might have been expected from a player who has had micro-fracture knee surgery and a torn Achilles tendon in the past three years.
John Conner -- The Giants moved Conner in at fullback and Bear Pascoe went back to his normal blocking tight end role. It was no coincidence that this turned into the Giants' best rushing effort of the season. Conner did an excellent job leading the way for Jacobs, especially in the first half.
Offensive Line -- This much-maligned group played well. There was a push in the running game with good work from pretty much everyone, including the tight ends. Eli Manning was sacked only once, and had adequate time to throw most of the night. There was some noticeably good work from right tackle Justin Pugh, among others.
Wet Willies To ...
Eli Manning -- It really doesn't matter at this point who was at fault for which interceptions, which is something we might delve into in greater detail later. What matters is three more Manning interceptions and a chance to win a game thrown away. Manning has done great things for the Giants, and will likely do great things again in the future. This season, though, nothing seems to be going right.
Pass Rush -- What pass rush? Mathias Kiwanuka actually managed to hit Jay Cutler twice, which amounted to the entirety of the Giants' pass rush. This was another invisible performance for Jason Pierre-Paul and Justin Tuck. Perry Fewell tried, dialing up a healthy number of blitzes throughout the game, but the Giants don't have any linebackers who can get home on those. If third-round pick Damontre Moore can ever get healthy the Giants need to get him on the field and see if he can help.
Secondary --The Giants had no answers for Brandon Marshall (11 catches, 2 TDs), Martellus Bennett (7 catches) and Alshon Jeffrey (5 catches). With no pass rush to speak of, the Bears' receivers were simply too big and too physical for the overmatched Giants to deal with.
Kwillies To ...
Rueben Randle -- If Randle and Manning can ever get on the same page they could be truly exciting to watch, as shown by the 37-yard catch and run for a touchdown that Randle had Thursday night. Unfortunately, too many bad things have happened this season when Manning has targeted Randle. two of the three interceptions Thursday were thrown toward Randle, with Manning and the young receiver clearly not reading the coverage the same way on Tim Hennings' first quarter pick six.
Final Thoughts
There really isn't a whole lot to say at this point, except thank God for the Jacksonville Jaguars. Without them the Giants would be the worst team in the league.
It is painful to watch a quarterback and head coach who brought so much winning, and so much class, to the Giants' organization go through this. There is, however, no end in sight. The Giants will likely be underdogs in all 10 of their remaining games, and there is no cavalry coming to the rescue. As Coughlin said after the game "What changes do we want to make? I don’t see it."
Just about the only change that will help the Giants at this point is for the calendar to turn to 2014 so they can forget this year and start over.