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EVENTS
CNNSI.com GROUP
COMMERCE
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Bum and bummer Giants embarrassed by turnovers -- not to mention score
By John Donovan, CNNSI.com TAMPA, Fla. -- When you get your shiny pants handed to you, 34-7, in the biggest game of the season -- maybe the biggest that many of these coaches and players will have in their careers -- there's not a lot you can say or do. No good explanations can be forthcoming. No real excuses can be made. Sunday's Super Bowl was a football de-pants-ing, straight and simple, for the New York football Giants. "We just didn't make any plays," said cornerback Jason Sehorn after the Baltimore Ravens wiped out the Giants in Super Bowl XXXV at Raymond James Stadium. "We didn't do anything to change their field position, we didn't do anything to win the game. "It did not work out as planned." No, almost from the start, the Giants looked out of sorts. They got behind early when Trent Dilfer hooked up with Brandon Stokley on a 38-yard first-quarter touchdown, beating Sehorn and some invisible coverage from safety Shaun Williams. They gave up another field goal just before halftime to go down 10-0.
And that was enough to send the NFC champs -- who just two weeks ago embarrassed the Minnesota Vikings 41-0 in the NFC Championship Game -- home embarrassed themselves. "I'm very disappointed. This is a hard one to swallow right now," head coach Jim Fassel said. "I thought we would play much better today." A severe case of disappointment was evident with many of the Giants after the game. It was, of course, to be expected. Maybe the biggest source of the disappointment -- other than the final score -- was the fact that the Giants suffered through five turnovers. Sure, they said, much of it had to do with the famed Baltimore defense. But five turnovers? "That's what hurts so bad because we didn't play well. But you can't take anything away from them," offensive tackle Lomas Brown said. "I wish we had played better than we did, but we didn't. I'm just really disappointed to play this big of a game and not play well." The Giants had the fifth-ranked defense in the league, and were second against the run. But they gave up 34 points to the Ravens, 10 of them off turnovers. The only time they had given up more than the 34 points they allowed to the Ravens was in a 38-24 loss to the St. Louis Rams in their 10th game of the season. Fassel talked of the pride he had in his team, which wasn't expected to do much of anything this season but was riding a seven-game winning streak coming into the Super Bowl. Yet all the talk of success was drowned out by the disappointments following the convincing loss. "It didn't work out as planned," Sehorn repeated in the deadly silent and quickly vacated locker room. "There's not much more to say."
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