LONDON – The end of a grueling and historic four days could not come soon enough for the Giants, who were grinding to the finish of a wet and muddy contest that was deteriorating at an alarming rate.
All of a sudden, the first NFL regular-season game ever played outside of North America was threatening to devolve into the worst loss ever for the Giants on foreign soil. An untidy but effective 13-0 lead bent and wobbled but didn’t break, and after escaping last night with a 13-10 victory over the still-winless Dolphins at Wembley Stadium, the Giants were eager to get dry, get fed and then get home.
“The biggest priority is eat something, enjoy the win,” center Shaun O’Hara said, looking forward to one final night here. “Maybe grab a pint. Or 10.”
The ale would certainly have had a bitter aftertaste had the Giants (6-2) not increased their winning streak to six and achieved what they knew they must in this first International Series event. A crowd of 81,176, mostly cheering for the “home team” Dolphins but often cheering and whistling at most any action, witnessed a game that might have the Brits saying “No thanks” the next time the American version of football is offered.
A steady rain turned the thin grass soccer field into a quagmire and obliterated the passing game the Giants wanted to use to exploit Miami’s man-to-man defensive coverage. Eli Manning threw for an anemic 59 yards, completing eight of his 22 passes. You knew something was terribly wrong when Manning was more effective with his legs (career-high 25 rushing yards, including 10 yards for the Giants only touchdown) than he was with his arm.
“With the conditions, we weren’t throwing it especially well,” Manning said.
The Giants didn’t score a point after halftime and had to sweat out a few anxious moments when Cleo Lemon, with 1:54 remaining, hit rookie Ted Ginn Jr. to trim the Giants’ lead to three points. When Jay Feely – the former Giants kicker – sent the onside kick rolling out of bounds, all that was left were three kneel-downs by Manning, prompting a loud chorus of boos.
“I thought the fans were great and they were loud,” Tom Coughlin said, “and the only thing they didn’t understand is us kneeling on the ball at the end. I guess you have to know football to understand that.”
That about sums up a strange evening that never quite was in synch. A streaker, masquerading as an NFL official undressed, danced and gyrated wearing nothing but a thong in the shape of a football, delaying the second-half kickoff for a few minutes.
“I enjoyed every bit of it,” running back Brandon Jacobs said. “That doesn’t happen across the water.”
On the Giants’ first possession, Manning, from the Miami 3-yard line, overthrew a wide-open Amani Toomer in the back of the end zone, setting a tone that never quit. The British fans were then treated to what was, to be kind, a game devoid of the “cracking” plays the locals were hoping to see.
Manning thrust both fists into the air and then knocked on his helmet in disgust after the misfire, forcing the Giants to settle for Lawrence Tynes’ 20-yard field goal. Perhaps it was fitting that Tynes’ leg produced the first points in this event, as he’s the NFL’s only Scottish-born player.
The pounding running of Jacobs (23 carries, career-high 131 yards in the slop) set up Manning’s rare scoring run. Lemon whiffed on a pass, Michael Strahan pounced on the ball on the Miami 34-yard line and Tynes nailed his second field goal to make it 13-0. What figured to be an inelegant but routine victory nearly stalled out. The Giants were called for six penalties in the second half, Manning lost the ball on a fumble and Tynes slipped and missed a 29-yard field goal attempt early in the fourth quarter.
Had it not been the dreadful Dolphins (0-8), this might have been a colossal loss of international proportions.
“It was definitely a relief,” Toomer said.
“In the NFL not every game is going to be gorgeous,” added O’Hara. “Sometimes you got to go home with the ugly date. It’s a lot prettier when you win.”
On any continent.