david dieHl - New York Giants

Giants searching for answers as playoff hopes take another hit
By Mike Garafolo
USA Today
Dec. 23, 2012
BALTIMORE – It was a year ago Monday – Christmas Eve 2011 in East Rutherford, N.J. – when
Victor Cruz split cornerbacks Kyle Wilson and Antonio Cromartie, high-stepped over the arms of
diving safety Eric Smith and raced down the New York Jets' sideline for a 99-yard touchdown.
It was the play that sparked the New York Giants' Super Bowl run.
It's one they needed this year. And one they couldn't make.
Given time, Cruz one day will realize the magnitude of that play, how it gave the Giants' the
lead, how it energized the eventual champions and how it suddenly got every aspect of the
team to play so much better.
Sunday was not that day -- not after a 33-14 loss to the Baltimore Ravens nudged the Giants (8-
7) to the brink of becoming the 14th Super Bowl champion to miss the playoffs the following
season, a loss that only helped clarify the impact last year's play had.
The absence of a repeat performance certainly hasn't escaped coach Tom Coughlin.
"When it happened for us last year, this particular game, the 15th game, we had a spark, we had
a really great spark," Coughlin said of a team that was 7-7 and had lost five of six games, a run
similar to the four of six this year's team had lost coming into Baltimore. "You want to say it was
the Victor Cruz 99-yarder? Whatever it was, it really invigorated our team."
Cruz knows this team needs – no, needed – such invigoration.
"I agree, I agree," he said. "100%."
This season, there's been no such turning point for the Giants. Not a good one, anyway. Plenty
of bad ones, sure, but no moment onto which they could latch to spin things in a positive
direction as they also did in 2007 on their way to their first Super Bowl under Coughlin.
They thought they'd had one four weeks ago when they trounced the Green Bay Packers 38-10.
Nope, a week later they lost to the Washington Redskins by a point.
They thought they had another one when they hammered the New Orleans Saints 52-27 on Dec.
9. Ha, hardly. Last Sunday, they got smoked by the Atlanta Falcons 34-0.
And this week, well, let's have Jason Pierre-Paul say it.
"We went out there and (urinated) down our legs," the defensive end said.
Give Pierre-Paul credit. He was one of the first players to say enough with the talk about how
they'd been in this position before and how they play their best when their backs are against the