Embarrassed Giants: We let Eagles bully us

It wasn't just that they lost. It wasn't just that they lost to the hated Eagles, either. It was the little things that happened Sunday -- things the Eagles got away with while incurring little consequence from the Giants -- that left the players feeling as if they hadn't stood up for themselves.

"You play within the lines, you play within the rules," safety Antrel Rolle said. "But you don't take ---- from nobody at the end of the day. That's my attitude. You don't take ---- from anybody. [Sunday] night, I felt like we took a little bit."

He and his teammates were not talking about the touchdowns that were scored or the flaws that squashed the Giants' potential tying drive late in the game. What they were upset about -- Monday, anyway -- were Trevor Laws' blindside hit on Eli Manning after a first-quarter interception and DeSean Jackson's flipping a ball at defensive coordinator Perry Fewell after a 51-yard catch. Both plays drew penalty flags, but they did not draw the appropriate ire from the Giants at the time.

Defensive captain Justin Tuck said that issue was addressed in an emotional, frank team meeting Monday morning, but he declined to discuss his feelings about his team's having sand kicked in its face. Defensive tackle Chris Canty, however, was willing to share.

"We got punched in the mouth and we didn't do anything about it," Canty said. "I think our response, or lack thereof, was embarrassing."

The Giants were bullied, and at least one of them vowed it will not happen again. Rolle, the safety who created a stir last year with his outspoken assessments of the way things are done with the Giants after spending the early years of his career in Arizona, said he is done taking a back seat in the leadership car.

"Whatever has to be done or has to be said within our organization to get us on the right track and to play ball is going to be done and going to be said," Rolle said. "We can pick it up from there. We're too calm out there, and football is not a game for you to be calm. It's a game of passion, it's a game of emotion, and I just feel like we were too calm."

The last thing Tom Coughlin wants is a bunch of Antrel Rolles running around retaliating for every perceived slight and costing the team yardage in penalties. But even Coughlin said there has to be a middle ground, someplace where emotions are lifted but also kept in check.

On the hit against Manning, for instance, Chris Snee went after Laws and drew a penalty that canceled the one for the initial infraction. It could have been worse. "It took everything in me to stay on the sideline," Rolle said. "Just know that."

He knows that would've been a wrong response. What's a right one? Clearly, the Giants did not see it from themselves Sunday.

"I don't know if there is a proper way to respond to it," Rolle said. "You don't want to do anything foolish, you don't want to do anything stupid. But I think there's a way for you to send a message and still stay between the lines . . . We have to put our foot down. We have to get it to the point where teams fear us, where receivers fear coming across the middle, where we are feared by our opponent."

Canty, who was still frothing with game-day intensity Monday, said he thought the team needed to clear the air in its meeting, noting it "got the fire stoked a little bit" and adding that "it needed to be." But he also knows that all of the meetings in the world will not get the Giants ready to face the Saints on Monday night or the Packers the following Sunday.

"I think, to be quite frank with you, there's enough talking," Canty said. "There's enough talking. There's enough talking. There needs to be more doing. Show me."