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 The New York Giants lost a heartbreaker to the Carolina Panthers Julian Love NFL Draft , 33-31, Sunday as the Panthers squeaked past the woebegone Giants with a last-second 63-yard field goal. The Giants broke the 30-point barrier (which, honestly, shouldn’t even BE a barrier for a team with the offensvie firepower the Giants boast) for the first time since 2015, but it wasn’t enough to overcome their own play. What can did we learn from the Giants’ tough loss in Carolina?The Giants’ special teams remain a problemAs Dan Pizzuta and I noted this week after the loss to the New Orleans Saints on the Big Blue reView podcast, it’s a sad state of affairs when the best thing you have to talk about on special teams is the improvement of your kicker.And kudos to Aldrick Rosas, because he HAS improved this season. Yes, he did kick one out of bounds on a slick field, but he nailed a career-long 53-yard field goal, has been perfect on the season, and solved any kick coverage problems by simply depositing the ball behind the opposing endzone. That’s about where the kudos will end. The Giants’ punt coverage remains an adventure, and they STILL can’t seem to find a reliable punt returner, even with Odell Beckham Jr.’s presence back there. The Giant added a bevy or special teams specialists in the offseason, and hired a new Special Teams Coordinator — though Tom Quinn remains as an assistant as Thomas McGauhey fights his own battle with cancer. We don’t talk much about special teams, but it is a vital part of the game. Even a great offense and defense can’t overcome the hidden yardage lost by bad special teams. It’s a problem the Giants need to fix, but they might not be able to do so this year.The Giants’ are undisciplinedSloppy tackling. Bad penalties.Poor routes.Mental mistakes and miscommunications on offense and defense.These things have been problems throughout the 2018 for the Giants, but they hadn’t come together quite like they did against the Carolina Panthers. Though the team came in to the game as the least-penalized team in the NFL Julian Love Buffalo Bills Jersey , the Giants are still undisciplined.The NFL has an officiating problemThis isn’t just limited to today’s game against the Giants. The officiating has been horrific league-wide all season long. The most egregious today was the unnecessary roughness penalty against Landon Collins as three Giants collided while coming for wide receiver Devin Funchess. The problem? Collins was going for the interception and Funchess fell into the back of Collins’ helmet. The play would have ended the Panthers’ drive, but instead the penalty kept the drive alive, which ended in points. Later in the game there was a somewhat questionable call on Kerry Wynn to cancel out a holding call on the Panthers which would have had them starting with a 1st and 20 on their final drive. These calls on the heels of a pair of terrible calls on Clay Matthews in the second and third weeks of the season, and a bevy of others around the NFL.Considering the Panthers only won by two points on a career-long 63-yard field goal as timethe difference in the game. Blame could also be levied on Odell Beckham’s mistake on special teams or the defense’s bad tackling in the first half. This has become a big problem across the league. One the league will either need to address or heir product will continue to suffer.The Giants playmakers can make playsFor the first time this season, the Giants’ playmakers all showed up and made plays. In the same game.Beckham’s blunder on special teams might have been the difference in the game, but he made up for it by throwing a 57-yard touchdown to Saquon Barkley and making a terrific catch for a 33-yard touchdown touchdown of his own. Sterling Shepard was clutch with four catches for 75 yards to help keep Giants’ drives alive.Saquon Barkley finished the game with 129 total yards and a pair of touchdowns.The Giants’ lost in a fashion that could have been called “fluky” if they hadn’t put themselves in that position with three quarters of bad, sloppy play. But, their playmakers did enough that they could have won, and showed the league what There is no running gameDave Gettleman introduced us all to the phrase “Hog Mollies” this past offseason as he vowed to “fix” it and return the Giants’ to a hard-nosed run-first offense. In doing so he threw money at Nate Solder and Patrick Omameh, drafted Will Hernandez and Saquon Barkley, let Justin Pugh, Weston Richburg, and D.J. Fluker walk in free agency and traded Brett Jones for a 7th round pick. In 2017 the Giants averaged 24.5 rushing attempts per game, for 3.9 yards per carry, and 2 sacks per game.In 2018 they are averaging 19.6 carries per game, 3.8 yards per carry, and 3.2 sacks per game.The offensive line is giving Eli Manning time to throw the ball Authentic Christopher Slayton Jersey , as he has had roughly league-average time to throw thus far this season, but the pass protection is unpredictable, and a jailbreak could occur on any play. And so far, the vast majority of the team’s 75 rushing yards per game have come from Barkley either making defenders miss with his agility, or running through arm tackles with his power. All while Barkley has been facing one of the lowest percentage of runs against eight-man boxes in the league.It could be argued that the Giants haven’t called enough running plays, but from Shurmur’s perspective, why bother? With some exceptions, Gettleman’s Hog Mollies have been playing like playing like piglets.The Giants actually showed some heartThe Giants could have folded up their tent and started back up for New York at the half. They played some pathetic football in the first two quarters. With the exception of Beckham and Barkley, they were uninspired on offense and the defense couldn’t tackle its way out of a wet paper bag. But they came out to play, really play, in the second half. Ultimately, it didn’t matter and they lost anyway. But this was the first loss in a long time that could actually be called a “heartbreaker”.Because the Giants FINALLY showed some damn heart. Beckham was getting ripped for his special teams blunder and having a touchdown ripped out of his hands — all after publicly criticizing his teammates for not matching his passion and energy.But in the second half, and especially the fourth quarter, the team finally seemed to find its way to feeding on Beckham.Eli Manning had his worst game of the season from an efficiency perspective, but he came out and attacked the defense. There were a couple bad interceptions and he was off target at times, but he didn’t spend the whole game checking down for easy completions. After his second interception he kept throwing the ball down the field and picked up more than 100 yards on 5 completions and a touchdown. He averaged 9.1 yards per attempt, up from around 6 yards per attempt against the New Orleans Saints Christopher Slayton Jersey Boys , Dallas Cowboys, and Jacksonville Jaguars.Beckham played like the receiver we all know he is, with 8 receptions for 131 yards and a touchdown.The defense played with fire, stepping up their run defense and held Christian McCaffrey to a season-low 3.4 yards per carry. They still miss Olivier Vernon off the edge, but they did get after Newton some in the passing game. They weren’t able to do quite enough to allow the offense to overcome bad play and bad calls, but this defense, which has played hard all season, stayed in it when it looked like they were going to have to once again carry a putrid offense. Does it mean anything and will they be able to carry it over to their Thursday night game against the Philadelphia Eagles? We’ll find out, but this feels as much like a win as possible for a heartbreaking loss. A Date To Remember is an occasional series Big Blue View will be running through the Super Bowl, highlighting the glory of the Giants’ past and celebrating the biggest playoff wins in franchise history. A Tale of Two Signature WinsNFC Divisional Round gamesJan. 13, 1991 Giants 31, Bears 3 Jan. 13, 2008Giants 21, Cowboys 17There was almost no one left. The Giants secondary had been decimated by injury, losing one starting cornerback and a top backup in the season’s final weeks.They arrived at Texas Stadium as touchdown underdogs for the 2007 NFC Divisional Round game with four healthy corners. Only three would finish the game.Starter Sam Madison and Kevin Dockery were inactive due to injury. Then Aaron Ross, the other starter, left in the third quarter and did not return.That left just three corners to stop Tony Romo Youth Eli Manning Jerseys , Terrell Owens, Jason Witten and the 13-3 Cowboys: Corey Webster, R.W. McQuarters and Geoffrey Pope. And Pope had spent the regular season on the practice squad, only promoted to the active roster the week of the Wild Card game win over Tampa Bay.So of course, the divisional round game came down to a Cowboys’ final-seconds drive and Romo firing passes into the end zone.But just like the rest of the 2007 Giants, those remaining cornerbacks rose to the challenge. McQuarters emerged as the hero, first by setting up the game-winning touchdown with a long punt return and then intercepting a Romo throw intended for Terry Glenn with nine seconds remaining. It sealed a 21-17 victory over top-seeded Dallas.“For me, the big one in 2007 was having lost twice against the Cowboys and going into their place and beating them,” kicker Lawrence Tynes told Big Blue View. He was the kicker on both the 2007 and 2011 Super Bowl champions. “That was a signature win. That was huge.”It propelled the Giants to bigger upsets to come.They became the first team to beat the NFC’s top seed in the divisional round since the current postseason format was adopted in 1990.It was the Giants’ second road playoff win that January, and one more remained in Green Bay. But that’s a story for a different day.The road was easier for the 1990 Giants — at least in the divisional round. Earning a first-round bye and home game as the No. 2 seed after a 13-3 regular season, they smothered the underdog Chicago Bears at Giants Stadium, 31-3.They dominated thanks to their suffocating defense and backup quarterback Jeff Hostetler, who threw two touchdown passes and ran for another in his playoff debut. The Giants limited Chicago to only 27 total rushing yards and not a single first down on the ground. Meanwhile, they held the ball for 38:22 thanks to Hostetler (10-of-17 passing for 112 yards) and their ball-control offense. And when the Bears tried to attack through the air, Mark Collins and Everson Walls intercepted passes from Mike Tomczak.The Giants had overcome Mike Ditka’s Bears and were headed to face the heavily-favored Joe Montana and the 14-2 49ers.Although both the 1990 and 2007 teams overcame long odds, they started in completely different circumstances,The 1990 Giants began 10-0 and did not hit significant turbulence until Phil Simms broke his foot in Week 15 against Buffalo.The 2007 squad faced adversity from the start.The Giants began the season 0-2 and trailed the Washington Redskins Eli Manning Jerseys Stitched , 17-3, at halftime in Week 3 on the road. They took a 24-17 lead with 5:32 remaining in the game, but the Redskins reached the Giants’ 1-yard-line with 58 seconds remaining and four downs to score.“We lose in Dallas [45-35]. We get killed at home against Green Bay [35-13]. And then we get down to a third- and a fourth-and-goal against the Redskins looking at 0-3 right in the face,” Tynes said. “Then Kawika Mitchell makes an unbelievable tackle to stop them [on third down and James Butler made a stop on fourth down]. “And we got on a little run.”They won six in a row and nine out of 11 to finish 10-6 and earn a Wild Card berth.“We looked at it as a new life, a new beginning,” Tynes said.Against Dallas, Eli Manning (12-of-18 passing for 163 yards) threw two touchdown passes to Amani Toomer (four receptions for 80 yards, including a 52-yard touchdown on the opening possession). Manning led the game-deciding scoring drive early in the fourth quarter. It began with a 25-yard McQuarters punt return, setting up the Giants at the Dallas’ 37-yard line. The possession ended with Brandon Jacobs’ 1-yard touchdown run. That left the injury-ravaged secondary to protect a 21-17 lead over the final 13:29. And it did, thanks to a serious pass rush that led the NFL in sacks. It produced only two of Romo (Mitchell and Reggie Torbor), but harassed him all day.Yet Dallas still had chances. Romo threw two passes into the end zone in the final 20 seconds. The first — on third down — fell incomplete. On fourth down, McQuarters stepped in front of Glenn for the interception. It was the Giants’ ninth straight road win.“It was an interesting team,” Tynes said. “There was a lot of moves being made [by general manager Jerry Reese] in the first couple months. The Dave Tollefsons of the world. The Kevin Boothes. The Domenik Hixons. The roster was constantly fluctuating for the first couple of months. “And then as we started winning, things obviously started to settle down.”Two divisional playoff games 17 years apart. Two wins.Two teams that advanced to NFC Championship games.The 1990 Giants were headed to San Francisco. The 2007 Giants were headed to Green Bay.The rest, as they say, is history.