When the time comes for the demolition of Giants Stadium, let's hope they don't hire anyone from the Giants to provide the dynamite. They aren't capable of coming up with anything but duds when the big moment arrives.
In their last game in a stadium named after them, the Giants didn't do anything to make anyone think they were worthy of such an honor. They turned the ball over, allowed copious amounts of points and yards and all but blew a golden chance to stay in the playoff hunt. Thanks to the Packers victory Sunday night's Cowboys-Redskins game will reveal whether there's any reason to care about next week's result against the Vikings, but there can't be anybody still operating under the illusion that the Giants are deserving of a berth in the postseason.
After all, an uninformed observer would surely have picked the Panthers as the team playing with their backs up against the wall on Sunday. They weren't, though. The Panthers are playing for nothing but pride, something that was sorely missing on the other side of the field.
The Giants fumbled deep in Carolina territory on their first drive and promptly folded up and took a whupping into the halftime break. In a pretty telling sign, not even heading into the break down 24-0 elicited a passionate response from a team that didn't seem particularly interested in playing on Sunday. The Panthers tore down the field, scored another touchdown and produced boos from a crowd that came expecting to see the old stadium sent out with a fanfare. They got a funeral dirge instead.
If you're looking for a positive spin on this miserable result, at least it was definitive. If the Giants won their last two games and still didn't make the playoffs, it would be easy to fool yourself into thinking that major changes weren't needed on the team. Sunday's blowout is right in line with the kind of performances that followed a 5-0 start and should be taken as a sign of the serious problems on both sides of the ball and on the coaching staff.
Perhaps that's harsh, but for a team to come up with a performance like this in a game with as much emotional weight as this one is inexcusable.
Josh Alper is a writer living in New York City and is a contributor to FanHouse.com and ProFootballTalk.com in addition to his duties for NBCNewYork.com.
