Giants Blown Out, Eliminated

The Giants' long, slow - at times hectic - walk toward irrelevance finally reached its end Sunday; blown out in San Diego, Big Blue was officially eliminated from playoff contention.  

Though they entered the game winners of five of their last six, the G-Men were in need of a considerable amount of help to reach the playoffs - a trait you'd expect to see associated with a team that lost each of its first half dozen games.  None of that help came yesterday, though, with the Eagles coming back to win in a blizzard, the Niners squeaking past their rival Seahawks, and the Cardinals tripling up the Rams.

Not that any of that mattered.  In nearly every scenario, the Giants needed to win-out to keep their playoff hopes alive - a long-shot rendered an impossibility by their no-show in Southern California.

The usual suspects revealed themselves in the loss - the G-men turned the ball over, took bad penalties, and failed to get anything going offensively.  Compounding their effect was the resurgence of a "suspect" they hadn't seen in weeks - an inability to do anything defensively.

The focus of the Giants now shifts from slim playoff hopes to equally slim hopes of avoiding the franchise's first losing season since the Coughlin/Manning era began in 2004.  At 5-8 they'll have to win out to do it, and will start the campaign by hosting the 2-loss Seattle Seahawks on Sunday.

Good luck.

For more of my thoughts on the Giants and where we as fans go from here, head over to NoTicketSports.com.