Giants not happy after loss to Redskins

LANDOVER, Md. -- Chris Canty spent part of his childhood growing up in the Bronx and he still has plenty of family members who live in New York. He, more than most Giants perhaps, understood what Sunday's game meant.

Which may be why Canty stood in the visiting locker room at FedEx Field following the 28-14 loss to the Redskins choking on his words and having tears well up in his eyes.

"We don't live in a bubble as professional athletes," the starting defensive tackle said. "We're affected by what happens and what 9/11 means to us, what it means to our fans, what it means to our city, what it means to this country.

"We represent the red, white and blue and to go out there and put that kind of performance out there is just unacceptable for us. It's unacceptable in every regard."

The Giants knew this would be an emotional day and an emotional game. Guard David Diehl tweeted the morning before kickoff that the NY on his helmet would mean more than it normally does and Tom Coughlin and his coaching staff wore the hats of the NYPD, FDNY and PAPD on the sideline.

"We came down here to get a win on a very important day for the Metropolitan area and we did not get the job done," Canty said. "For us, to understand what we were representing and to do what we did out there, it's embarrassing."

It was the Giants' first season-opening loss since 2007 and their first loss to the Redskins since later in that same season. A shorthanded defense, an out-of-synch offense and a special-teams unit that seemed unable to do much of anything right set the early tone for a season that, if not turned around, could conceivably spiral.

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Coughlin said he was pleased with the effort and execution in the first half when the teams were tied at 14, but things quickly got away from the Giants. On the third snap of the second half, Eli Manning tried to throw a screen pass to Hakeem Nicks but rookie defensive end Ryan Kerrigan tipped the ball in the air, caught it, and returned it 9 yards for a score and a 21-14 lead. Right tackle Kareem McKenzie tried to dive at Kerrigan's feet to cut him, but Kerrigan was athletic enough to step away from the attempt and get up in the air.

It was still a one-touchdown game early in the fourth when Jason Pierre-Paul sacked Rex Grossman and forced a fumble which was scooped up by linebacker Michael Boley. That gave the Giants the ball at the Redskins' 27 but they couldn't put points on the board.

A toss to Ahmad Bradshaw on third-and-1 was pushed back 2 yards by a swarming Redskins defense and Brian Orakpo blocked a 38-yard field-goal attempt by Lawrence Tynes.

"No points," Pierre-Paul said. "That could have been the play that changed the game."

Instead, the defense came back out and gave up a 70-yard drive that featured three third-down conversions, including a 4-yard pass from Grossman to Jabar Gaffney on third-and-goal with Corey Webster on him.

"It's very disappointing," Chris Snee said. "We come in [at halftime] and it's a tied game. If we outplay them in the second half, we win that game and we did not do that."

The loss left Coughlin using words such as "atrocious," "disorganized" and "unacceptable" to describe various areas of play. The inconsistencies of the preseason lingered into the regular season, particularly for the Giants' offense, which converted only 1 of 10 third downs and turned the ball over when it failed to cash in on a fourth-and-1 late in the third quarter.

"It's not clicking, that's the main thing," Nicks said. "We have to start clicking now because we're into the regular season now. No more time for errors."

Yet there were plenty.

"We just made the mistakes that coach Coughlin continues to tell us we can't make," Canty said. "We continue to do the things that he says we can't do. At some point, we as a team have to listen."