Another Miracle at the (New) Meadowlands as Eagles stun Giants

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. - Andy Reid was surprised the Giants punted to DeSean Jackson late in a tie game, even if there were just 14 seconds left.

Jackson was thinking, "They're really not going to kick it to me."

The idea, Giants coach Tom Coughlin confirmed, was, in fact, not to punt to Jackson.

"Why would they kick it to DeSean?" Michael Vick wondered afterward. "They was on their own from there."

Matt Dodge was supposed to boot the ball out of bounds. But the snap was high and Dodge was worried about a block, and he laid it out there on a straight line, 36 yards. Almost before you could blink, that Jackson fellow himself - after dropping the ball - was blazing up the right side, sore foot and all, past midfield now, in front of the Giants' bench, nobody in front of him.

"Oh, my God. That was crazy," Eagles corner Asante Samuel said. "I don't know what's going to happen to [Dodge], but I'm sure Tom Coughlin is pretty upset."

The New Meadowlands Stadium, at that point, sounded very much like the old Meadowlands stadium did, on Oct. 19, 2003. That was the day the Giants spent more than 58 minutes beating the Eagles, only to see the whole thing vanish when punter Jeff Feagles couldn't get the ball out of bounds, and Brian Westbrook ran a punt back 84 yards for a game-winning TD. We're not sure what the old Meadowlands stadium sounded like on Nov. 19, 1978, when Herman Edwards picked up a botched handoff in the days before kneeldowns and did the same thing to the Giants, but we will go out on a limb and guess that sound was much like the sound in 2003, and yesterday, when the Eagles miraculously won their sixth in a row over New York, including one in the postseason.

Yesterday's sound was a low, anguished hum that built in intensity as Jackson high-stepped 65 yards to the end zone, and then danced along the endline, bleeding off the final few seconds before crossing the white line into the deep blue-dyed turf, where his teammates piled on him and he pleaded for air.

For some reason, the NFL requires an extra point to be attempted in such situations, so the field was cleared of celebrants - and of Coughlin, who had journeyed far from the bench to accost Dodge - for David Akers to set the final score: 38-31, Eagles win, history made.