- At least a couple of Giants thought they were hosed by the officials last night. I agree that the personal foul on Amani Toomer in the fourth quarter was ridiculous, but I don't think Mike Carey's crew set any records for poor calls. Of course, receiver Plaxico Burress would disagree with me.
"That was the worst officiating I've been a part of in eight years," he said.
But on a night they pushed the best team in football to the brink, the Giants shouldn't be whining about the officiating. I've seen much worse.
- I cornered Patriots safety Rodney Harrison as he grabbed a couple of sticks of celery on his way to the team bus. He seemed genuinely hurt when I asked him how much time he and his teammates had spent talking about a 16-0 season.
"It's so disrespectful to talk about a perfect season when a team is waiting to kick your butt," he said. "That's what you guys want us to talk about. And honestly, we don't care about what you write."
I'm pretty sure Harrison was talking about the collective "you," and not Hashmarks. By the way, Harrison was on the wrong end of a couple of punishing runs by Giants running back Brandon Jacobs. He's still a great leader on this team, but Jacobs made him look really, really bad in the open field a couple of times.
- If I'm counting correctly, Randy Moss addressed reporters for only the third time this season. He was thrilled to break the season touchdown catch record (23) that Jerry Rice established in 1987. But I wouldn't call it the most gracious postgame interview.
"I don't really think that me breaking Jerry Rice's record was special," Moss said. "I think shutting you guys up was really what made it special. All the negativity and all my critics, I think this really is a good feeling to be able to come in and have a good season like this, to have confidence in myself that I can still get it done. And still I really wasn't coming into the season not thinking that I was going to have a good season. My mind-set was to come out here and have a helluva of a season. Just wanted to come up here and play some good football this year, knowing that it was my 10th year in the league."
I wonder if the Giants still think it was a good idea to double Wes Welker instead of Moss on that 65-yard touchdown. The Giants couldn't stop the pass Saturday. Welker exposed rookie cornerback Aaron Ross. He's just impossible to cover for more than about two seconds. When a play breaks down, Welker is usually a nice option. He's like the kid you always got mad at for constantly running in circles in pickup basketball. He's relentless, and the Dolphins were nuts to let him go.
- Patriots vice president of player personnel Scott Pioli jokingly scolded me for my lack of "bedside manner" following the game. My pregame conversation with Pioli deteriorated moments after I asked about his father-in-law, Bill Parcells.
"Im going to relish this game for two nights," he said. "Then it's back to work."
- William Rhoden couldn't help himself. He wrote a really nice column on the NFL Network fiasco, and then he comes back with something on Bill Belichick's cheating heart.
- The Giants may have earned a lot of respect around the league by taking their best punch at the Patriots, but they potentially lost three starters: center Shaun O'Hara (knee), linebacker Kawika Mitchell (knee) and cornerback Sam Madison (abdominal strain). By the way, we won't find out what day the Giants play the Bucs until tonight.
- In other Giants news, I'm convinced that Tom Coughlin will remain the head coach no matter what happens in Tampa next weekend.
- Eli Manning was brilliant for three quarters last night. He finished 22-of-32 for 251 yards, four touchdowns and one costly interception. He made nice decisions and I thought the 19-yard touchdown pass to Plaxico Burress in the right corner of the end zone was one of the best of his career. He was facing a second-and-6 on that interception in the fourth quarter, and just got greedy. There was no reason to try and force that ball between two defenders.
But the Giants could be a dangerous playoff team if Manning starts playing like this on a regular basis. OK, I'm signing off.
