Collapse throws cold water on title hopes

The Giants will make the playoffs.

Not to sound too much like Antrel Rolle, who said Monday that his team will clinch a playoff spot because he said so, but the mathematics of the following two weekends play out in the Giants' favor. They win against the Packers, they're in. They lose to the Packers, they have to beat the Redskins and get some help from the Bears over the Packers. It's not hard to imagine either of those scenarios happening.

Besides, the Giants are a playoff team. They have a playoff-caliber defense, a playoff-caliber quarterback, two very good running backs and a coach who already has a Super Bowl ring. The Chernobyl-like meltdown against the Eagles a few days ago didn't really change any of that.

What it did change, though, is what the Giants are capable of doing once they get to the playoffs. Had they held on to beat the Eagles - even if it was 31-24, or 34-31 in overtime - they would be legitimate Super Bowl contenders, a team able to close out not only a game but also a season. Now? Well, the definition of success has shifted a bit. The Giants may have the strut of a playoff team, but the all-out swagger of a championship team has taken a hit.

Essentially, they have given themselves no room to relax. No lead will be safe for however long the Giants' season lasts. If they are up by two touchdowns late in the game at Green Bay this week and the Packers are driving the ball, doubt has to start creeping in. When they make it to the playoffs and have a fourth-quarter lead against the Bears in Chicago, visions of what happened against the Eagles are sure to be running through their helmets.

And what if they play the Eagles a third time? The Giants already have blown two fourth-quarter leads against them this season, extending their losing streak against Philly to six. A 31-10 Giants lead with eight minutes left might have them just where the Eagles want them.

The players insist that won't be the case.

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"Not at all," cornerback Terrell Thomas said when asked whether Sunday's collapse will haunt any future leads. "We know we lost that game. We know they didn't beat us, but they got the 'W'. We have to fix our mistakes, learn how to finish the fourth quarters, play 60 minutes, and win the football game.

"It's great that we got to experience that," Thomas added with more spin than Michael Vick squirming out of the pocket. "It's not a real positive thing, but now we know how to lose. And now we have to learn how to win and move forward."

Those lessons usually are taught early in the season. For the Giants to be two games away from the end of their schedule and still be staring blankly at the chalkboard trying to learn how to win, to ice games against good teams, is alarming.

There are plenty of examples of teams making unexpected runs in the playoffs. The 2007 Giants never showed the glint of being a championship-caliber squad until they were actually hoisting the Lombardi Trophy. A year later, the Cardinals - a team Rolle played on and has referenced - won their division with a 9-7 record and came within seconds of a Super Bowl title. It can happen.

But those stand out because we hardly notice the teams that make the playoffs and are rightly, promptly eliminated. Their head coach stays, their top coordinator gets a new job and they move on to the next season, trying to get back into that elite circle of 12 teams with a chance.

That could very well be the 2010 Giants. Just good enough to get in the playoffs - the equivalent of playing sharply for 52 minutes in a game - but not great enough to seal a Super Bowl.