Clay Matthews Strips Eli Manning, Recovers After Giants Quit (Video)

Clay Matthews never gave up, but the New York Giants did as the Green Bay Packers linebacker forced a fumble and then recovered it well after.

Play until the whistle. That’s the mantra preached by football coaches from Pop Warner all the way up to the NFL ranks. However, for a New York Giants team already under scrutiny for partying on a boat and how that affected their performance on Sunday in the NFC Wild Card Playoff against the Green Bay Packers, they couldn’t heed that simple advice. And Clay Matthews made them pay for it.

The star Packers linebacker first got loose on the edge midway through the fourth quarter and got right after Eli Manning. When the Giants quarterback cocked his arm back, Matthews made contact and the ball came loose. That’s when things got weird and where the linebacker had to go make a play.

With the ball loose on the ground, no whistle had sounded. Meanwhile, half of the Packers defense and the entire Giants offense had given up on the play. That’s when the ball careened over to running back Paul Perkins, who lackadaisically bent down to pick the ball up. While doing so, Matthews had made his way from the backfield to the hash marks down the field and absolutely lit Perkins up, causing the ball to go loose again. Then Matthews finally came up with the fumble he caused that no one seemed interested in going after:

Hats off to Matthews for everything he does on that play, from his effort in the pass rush to the hustle to make the hit and the recovery. However, what are the Giants even doing here?

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You’re down in a playoff game with your season on the line. In what world should it be possible that you don’t play until the whistle and even allow Matthews to make a play like this? It’s baffling. Instead, Matthews looks like a superhero and the Giants, pretty officially, signed the death certificate for their season.