Apologizing

They didn't offer to refund any of those PSL's you've paid for next season. But at least Eli Manning and Tom Coughlin formally apologized for what one might understate as a bad effort in yesterday's 41-9 loss to the Panthers.

"I apologize. I’m sorry," Manning said. "I wish I had an answer. I wish we could have come out and played better football. I don’t have the answer to why it happened or why it has happened kind of throughout the season where we have been up and down in our play.

"We have to find a way to be more consistent. That is what you see from the good teams in this league – they are consistent week in and week out. You might not win every game but you are going to be in the fight for every game."

Coughlin was equally apologetic, and understandably perplexed, at his team's collective no-show.

"I do think of one thing I want to say to our fans," Coughlin said. "I think to a man, we'd like to apologize for yesterday. I think, for whatever reason, a team that had an awful lot to play for, that had opportunities there, that was playing in Giants Stadium for the last regular-season game, didn't play up to our capabilites. It's been a very frustrating thing."

Others didn't apologize, some because they didn't think of it, and others because they never made themselves available for such trivial matters. Osi Umenyiora, Justin Tuck (surprisingly), Fred Robbins, Chris Canty, and Michael Johnson reprised their Sunday roles by being no-shows in the locker room during today's media access. Brandon Jacobs scurried away from questioners, but he always does that on Mondays, anyway.

Mathias Kiwanuka, voted by the media members as this year's Good Guy Award winner for his cooperation, dressed and walked away from the media, saying, "Sorry, can't do it."

Time for a re-vote, maybe?

Well, that's for another time. The pressing issue now is where the Giants go from here. Most immediately, it's to next Sunday and a chance to finish up 9-7 against the Vikings in Minnesota. Given that the 11-3 Vikes may well have a chance to swipe home field advantage away from the slumping Saints, assuming a win tonight over Chicago, they may well play that game to the hilt. And that's not particularly good news for a Giants team that could be in for some major changes come the offseason.

"We'll see what happens in the offseason," Manning said. "We've got to go out to Minnesota and play well and end this season on a good note. If we can go and win nine games in a season, it's not great, not good enough to make the playoffs, but you can build off that.

"Then, we'll work this offseason. We do have young guys who were banged up and hopefully they'll get better next year. And there's changes one year to the next. We'll get to work and see if we can get better."

Linebacker Michael Boley's first season as the team's prized free agent pickup comes to an end, expects there will be significant change.

"It's inevitable," Boley said. "It's just the nature of the league."

He had no suggestions for general manager Jerry Reese or Coughlin, for that matter.

"It doesn't matter what I think," Boley said. "It is what it is."

Plenty of players, however, will be playing for their jobs next week.

EP