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Giants news, 9/14: Everyone agrees -- Coughlin, Manning messed up

New York Giants headlines for Monday, 9/14

By Ed Valentine
Everyone agrees -- this should not have been the scene at the end of Sunday's game
Everyone agrees -- this should not have been the scene at the end of Sunday's game
Tom Pennington/Getty Images

Good morning, New York Giants fans. Reaction to Sunday night's 27-26 loss to the Dallas Cowboys, and criticism of the way the Giants handled the end of the game, is pouring in from several directions. Let's get right to it.

Bob Sturm of the Dallas Morning News felt the way many Giants' fans felt about the third-and-one play:

I found it pretty bizarre. The idea, at that juncture, with a team that has no timeouts, I respect trying to end the game there with a TD. But I would probably have done it in a way that in the worst-case scenario keep the clock running, which means a running play or a quick pass in the flat and my receiver gets in the end zone. But to have a slow developing pass play, clearly Eli thought throwing the ball away was better than taking a sack -- which it wasn't. The Giants did the Cowboys a favor after an evening of the Cowboys doing a lot of favors for the Giants. Give the Cowboys full marks for getting the touchdown. They were fortunate.

Even our friends over at Blogging The Boys opined that "Dallas did not deserve to win this game."

ESPN's Dan Graziano wrote that "There's a lot I can't figure out" about Sunday's loss.

Tom Coughlin and Eli Manning both shouldered the blame for the loss. Ralph Vacchiano of the Daily News wrote that both deserved it:

A head coach on the perennial hot seat, maybe one hotter than ever before, can't make a mistake like the one Tom Coughlin made Sunday night. And a quarterback, with the ink not dry on his $84 million contract extension, can't make the mistake that Eli Manning made, either.

Steve Politi of NJ Advance Media writes that most of the blame for Sunday's loss has to go to Manning:

Take the sack. Eat the ball. Keep the clock running. Do what a quarterback who just signed a four-year, $84 million contract extension should know to do, which is be aware of the situation.

Throwing the ball away was a rookie mistake for a two-time Super Bowl MVP, simply inexcusable given the circumstances, and he knows it.

For what it's worth, Tony Romo thought it was sound strategy to pass the ball in that situation.

James Kratch of NJ.com wonders if the Giants should have gone for the touchdown after the failed pass play.

Pat Traina offers five takeaways that have nothing to do with the botched play call.

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