Giants beat the Eagles in overtime 10-7.
Kerry Collins completed 25 of 35 for 256 yards, 1 INT, 1 TD.
Kenny Holmes had 1 sack.
Tiki Barber rushed 32 times for 203 yards.
Tiki Barber had 8 catches for 73 yards.
Jeremy Shockey had 10 catches for 98 yards and 1 touchdown.
Giants held the Eagles to just 65 yards rushing.

It was a close game.
"Yes, they don't get any closer than overtime! The Giants gave us another thriller. I don't know about you, but I can't take much more of this. There were so many plays that were great followed by others that went against the Giants, that the crowd was up and down all game. At the beginning, the excitement level was high, just watching players taking the field. I can't describe how people were behaving, waving the towels, and reacting to what was going on in this game. It reached a fever pitch when the Giants hit Duce Staley for a three yard loss on the Eagles opening play. They didn't come to Giants stadium to be patsies tough, and they quickly scored seven points. That took the crowd out of the game, but Shockey brought us right back with a 22 yard catch on the Giants first pass play of the game. In no time, Collins was throwing to the endzone, but instead of going for a touchdown, it was intercepted."

The offense had the ball for almost 40 minutes.
"The offense did control the ball, and you got to see lots of exciting drives and plays. Was Tiki Barber involved in every play of the game or did it just seem that way? He and Shockey saw most of the action, and they seemed to forget Amani Toomer. Unfortunately, a lot of your excitement went away when the Giants turned the ball over or pulled a penalty. They kept moving the ball, but couldn't score. In this game, they had the Eagles, the refs, the field, and the replay challenges, and even the overtime coin toss going against them. The defense was impressive after giving up that touchdown early on. After that, they were out there just long enough to do the job, and then were right back off the field."

The Giants took their time putting points up on the board.
"They finally put seven up in the fourth quarter. If they waited much longer, you wouldn't have seen points on a Giants scoreboard until next season. They squandered scoring opportunities, with two touchdowns being called back for penalties, and another with an interception in the endzone. There were four fumbles, and three were turned over to the Eagles, who were fairly unimpressive in this game."

They looked impressive at the start.
"I'll give them half credit for that. The Giants were so fired up taking the field for the first time that they overplayed their positions. The Eagles used up most of their offensive firepower in their opening drive. It accounted for about 75 yards, a big chunk of their total 209 yards, and resulted in their only points of the game. After that the Eagles had nothing. They just fed off of bad calls made by the refs, and the many mistakes and miscues made by the Giants."

Why do you think they made so many mistakes?
"Some of it was the poor field conditions, but I think some of it was 'overuse' of Tiki Barber. I know Fassel likes to put the ball in the hands of his big playmakers, but Tiki had the ball for 32 carries for 203 yards. He was also out there running around, pulling in eight catches for 73 yards.
You get tackled and hit, and have to run around a lot of big guys doing all that, and Tiki fumbled three times, and mishandled a handoff from Kerry Collins. It nearly cost the Giants the game when one fumble was recovered by Eagles at the Giants 26 with 4:34 left in the fourth quarter. Luckily, Akers missed that easy field goal attempt.
Somebody better tell Jim Fassel to mix in a few extra plays and give Tiki a break because mistakes don't get you get very far in the playoffs, and possibly, some could have been avoided here."

Anything else?
"Yes, Kenny Holmes earned a big hunk of bonus money ($400,000) for making that one arm 'reach out from behind' sack on quarterback A.J. Feeley in overtime. He has a sack-related incentive portion in his contract, and this one, added to the two sacks Holmes had last week, matched his career high of eight for one season.
Also, Feeley played a better game than it looked, because they sure dropped a lot of passes on him."

Giants are now 19-5 in December under head coach Jim Fassel.

Giants are 31-14-1 in regular-season division games during Fassel's six seasons, including 5-1 this year.

Giants have won seven of nine since Fassel took over the play-calling from offensive coordinator Sean Payton.

Giants have given up just seven points in the first quarter over the last ten games.

Jeremy Shockey, the only rookie to be selected to the Pro Bowl, finished the regular season with 74 catches, breaking Mark Bavaro's team single-season record of 66 for a tight end.

Kerry Collins finished the season with 4,073 yards passing, breaking Phil Simms single-season mark of 4,044 yards set in 1984.

Tiki Barber's 203 rushing yards was the second best single-game total in team history.
Gene (Choo-Choo) Roberts had 218 on Nov. 12, 1950.

Tiki Barber had 1,387 yards for the season, second all-time on the franchise charts behind Joe Morris' 1,516 in 1986. He is also the fourth Giants running back to pass 4,000 yards (4,193) in a career.

Tiki Barber now has 9,069 all-purpose yards in his career, behind only Frank Gifford (9,862) on the Giants' all-time list.

Next Game
If they are seeded fifth, they would play:
San Francisco if Tampa Bay beats Chicago Sunday night or St. Louis defeats the 49ers on Monday.
Tampa Bay if Chicago defeats Tampa Bay and San Francisco beats St. Louis.

If they are seeded sixth, they would play:
Tampa Bay if the Bucs defeat the Bears and Green Bay defeats the Jets or Chicago beats Tampa Bay and St. Louis defeats San Francisco.
Green Bay if the Jets beat the Packers and Tampa Bay defeats Chicago.
San Francisco if Chicago beats Tampa Bay and the 49ers defeat St. Louis.

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