Win, get in: Vikings trounce Giants 49-17 to make playoffs

Sunday’s loss was a statement game for the Vikings, who secured a playoff berth with the win.

The Vikings’ defense, with defensive tackle Linval Joseph, linebacker Anthony Barr and safety Harrison Smith all back from injuries, intercepted Giants quarterback Eli Manning three times, returned one of those for a touchdown and brought another inside the Giants’ 5-yard line to set up another score.

This week is about winning, knocking off the Philadelphia Eagles in the regular-season finale and ending on a high note.

At 69, Coughlin is already the NFL’s oldest head coach. “It’s a shame that they have to be put in a position where they have to respond about something to do with me”. It’s not about me. They got some pressure early, had turnovers, they made plays, I made bad throws, made bad decisions, and I wasn’t on my game. Put it that way, leave it that way. “We try like heck not to put these young men in a position where they feel badly about the circumstances that the head coach finds himself in”, Coughlin said in a rather short day-after news conference with the media.

There are no playoffs for the Giants for the sixth time in the past seven years, with a Super Bowl title after the 2011 season the lone exception – and the Giants are the first team since the 1970 merger to miss the players four straight years after a Super Bowl triumph.

While many speculated the Giants quit Sunday night, Coughlin felt his players played with effort. Now, one has to wonder if management will give up on coach Tom Coughlin.

“Doing it ourselves, taking care of business”, Peterson said, “I’m just proud of all these guys”.

Here is to hoping Minnesota can evolve from being a “good team” to a “great team” when it travels to Lambeau Field with goals of renewing a rivalry that has become rather one-sided in recent years and earning a division championship banner that will hang forever. He’s always given us 100 percent.

Beat Green Bay, and they’re the No. 3 seed with a home game against Seattle. The final play of the third quarter was a Fran Tarkenton special: On third-and-8 from the NY 16, Bridgewater took a deep drop, rolled almost all the way to the left sideline, reversed course, maintained textbook downfield vision while rolling nearly all the way to the right sideline, cut upfield and then to his left and picked up the first down. Walsh accounted for 19 points on the night as he connected on 5-of-5 field goal attempts with two from over 50 yards.

Coughlin, 69, has one year remaining on his contract, but that will mean nothing if co-owners John Mara and Steve Tisch, as expected, determine a change is needed. The Giants would cut the lead at 10 to 3. I’m responsible. We lose, I lose the game for our players. “We just couldn’t win some close games and we had a lot of them”.

In the past few weeks Coughlin’s strategies have been crushed, his game-management has been creamed, the very tenet upon which he has built so much of his career – discipline – came crashing down in one release (Damontre Moore) and one suspension (Odell Beckham Jr.), and in the aftermath of the 49-17 slaughter in Minneapolis Sunday night he admitted, “I never saw this coming”.

That’s just the way Coughlin wants it. He said he plans to address the team about his situation, but only in terms of encouraging them to ignore it.

Players, led by Eli Manning, have expressed remorse that they haven’t played better for a coach they have tremendous respect for. Many people will call for GM Jerry Reese’s job and many people will call for Coach Tom Coughlin’s head.