It turns out Randy Moss wraps his sore hamstring the same as all those Bears who have been plagued by the injury this season.
The Minnesota Vikings tried to foist Moss off as a decoy again Sunday, but the New York Giants weren’t fooled by the No. 84 costume. The limp gave him away as an impostor.
It turns out the league’s leading passer, Daunte Culpepper, needs Moss more than the Vikings let on. Moss failed to catch a pass for the second week, and the Giants rolled 34-13.
Last week the Vikings got past Tennessee without help from the ailing Moss. But the Giants made it clear the NFC race is far from over. The Vikings (5-2) still must play Green Bay (4-4) and Detroit (4-3) twice each in the NFC North, and Moss’ injury looks like it will linger regardless of what coach Mike Tice says.
“We have to find a new personality until Randy’s healthy,” Tice said. “The way we used to do things when Randy was healthy doesn’t work when Randy is not healthy.”
In the NFC East, the Giants (5-2) stayed well within reach of the Philadelphia Eagles (7-0) despite a perplexing loss at home last week to Detroit. The Giants play host to the Bears next Sunday.
It turns out Vikings owner Red McCombs was one year premature in labeling his team’s performance against the Giants last Oct. 26 “humiliating” and “embarrassing.” This meltdown involved more than Moss’ spotty first-half performance. In street clothes for the second half, Moss watched a defense that wilted to the point that Giants coach Tom Coughlin used subs in the fourth quarter.
New York quarterback Kurt Warner was efficient and avoided turnovers despite completing only 13 passes for 144 yards. The Giants worked on a short field thanks to three Minnesota turnovers. They cured their red-zone problems just in time to play the Bears. Tiki Barber and backup Mike Cloud each scored twice on runs of 5 yards or less.
Barber’s second touchdown made it 17-0 early in the second quarter and came on an audible after Warner saw the Vikings drop into a zone to cover tight end Jeremy Shockey. Also just in time for the Bears, Shockey returned to previous form, catching three passes for 60 yards.
Moss watched a Vikings offense that had led the league in total yards, passing yards and rushing average get shut out until a touchdown with 9 minutes 1 second to play made it 34-7. With games the next two weeks at Indianapolis and Green Bay, the Vikings fell flat in a chance to create a cushion for their lead.
Last year, after the unbeaten Vikings lost to the Giants at the Metrodome 29-17, McCombs was so harsh in his postgame comments that Tice defended his players in front of McCombs and later said at least one player wanted to go after the owner, then 76. That loss marked the beginning of a slide that kept the Vikings out of the playoffs after their surprising start.
Tice said McCombs hugged him after Sunday’s loss and was “very, very positive.” Tice’s future as well as the future of the Vikings in Minnesota are constantly under speculation as McCombs continues to try to solicit a new stadium while providing conflicting signals about selling the team. He has acknowledged he would like to move to Los Angeles, but the league has balked.
Moss was supposedly ready for more than token action Sunday after getting through practice Friday. But he was so limited the Giants paid virtually no attention.
“They left a lot of people in trying to protect Daunte, which hurt some of his options,” Giants defensive end Michael Strahan said. “Also, we shut down the running game, which makes them one-dimensional.”
Said Culpepper: “It’s obvious when Randy’s not out there we’re a different team.”
Tice said Moss’ right hamstring started to stiffen up, but he did not reinjure it.
“Last week our trainer said it would be two to four weeks before he’s full speed,” Tice said. “We have to figure out how to hold the fort.”
The Vikings were so flustered they didn’t know a pass from a lateral. Culpepper tried to throw a swing pass to Mewelde Moore on the first series that was really a lateral. Moore missed it and failed to cover the ball. The Giants turned the lost fumble into a field goal.
“I could go down the list, down the list, down the list,” Tice said.
The Giants now have won one more game under Coughlin than they won all last season under the fired Jim Fassel. They get a chance to avenge their opening-day loss to Philadelphia on Nov. 28 at the Meadowlands.
The Vikings’ mistakes were shared by Tice, who used both of his officiating replay challenges in the first quarter and lost them both, as if to just get everything over with as soon as possible.
Morten Andersen, 44, couldn’t kick his age, bouncing a 38-yard field-goal attempt off the left upright. Culpepper, who’d had only three interceptions all season, threw two more.
The Giants stuffed the running game. Much of Culpepper’s 231 yards passing came on Hail Mary routes that began as early as the first quarter.
It was the Giants’ third straight victory over Tice’s Vikings, all at the Metrodome. The Giants also ended coach Dennis Green’s last full season in Minnesota with a 41-0 victory in the 2000 playoffs.
“I just got my only good news: The Giants are not on our schedule next year,” Tice said.
Said Barber: “They have to stop inviting us here. We match up well against these guys.”
