PHILADELPHIA -- David Meggett had leveled a linebacker, but now it seemed that Dave Brown's pass was floating to him. Floating slowly. Too slowly.
"The ball took so long," the New York Giants' little big man from Towson State was saying after yesterday's bizarre 16-13 victory over the Philadelphia Eagles. "I had a thousand things going through my mind."
Such as don't drop it. Whatever happens, don't drop it.
He didn't. All alone out near the left sideline after getting up from having flattened blitzing linebacker William Thomas, he caught the pass, turned upfield and hurried to the Eagles' 9-yard line to position Brad Daluiso's decisive 18-yard field goal with 54 seconds remaining.
More than any other play, David Meggett's maneuver kept the Giants breathing in their struggle to qualify for the Super Bowl XXIX playoffs.
Their slim chance is this simple: They must upset the Cowboys on Saturday at Giants Stadium, while the Packers lose at Tampa Bay.
Whatever happens, Meggett's extra effort defined not only him, but also this growing Giants team. At 5 feet 7 inches, he's short, but at 195 pounds he's not small. And at least 100 of those pounds must be in his heart. In a third-and-15 at the Eagles' 42, he not only chopped down a 218-pound, 6-foot-2 linebacker, he then hustled out to catch a pass and create a 33-yard gain that set up the winning field goal.
The play also symbolized a season.
Just as Meggett blocked, got up and caught a pass, the Giants had a 3-0 start, toppled during an 0-7 slump, then caught a 5-0 streak.
"In a blitz situation, I'm responsible for the outside guy," Meggett said, meaning the linebacker. "I picked him up, then I drifted off."
Had he ever done it before?
"Absolutely my first time," he said. "I never cut a guy and then caught the ball. It's just a presence of mind type of thing. It's just being a football player."
But not many football players have done it. Not many could do it. Not many would do it.
And not many teams have done what the Giants have done, generate a five-game winning streak for an 8-7 record and a playoff scenario with a virtual rookie quarterback whose growth also was defined by his pass to Meggett.
"He was my fourth receiver on that play," 24-year-old Dave Brown said. "I don't know if I would've seen him early in the season. I think I'm a lot calmer now."
Coach Dan Reeves had called that play, which the Giants regularly practice, because of the third-and-15 situation. He was hoping that when Brown scrambled to the right, as planned, one of the other pass receivers would be open for a gain that would shorten Daluiso's field-goal attempt.
"I really wanted to hit the two outlet receivers," Brown said. "Then I saw David clapping and waving his hands. I tell guys to clap their hands. For some reason you can hear them clapping."
Moments later, all the Giants were clapping.
Brown, who completed 18 of 27 passes for 267 yards, had been intercepted in the first quarter. But when Brown got to the sideline, Meggett was the first to soothe him. And late in the second quarter, Meggett had fumbled at the Eagle 24.
Coincidentally, Greg Jackson, the former Giant safety, had forced Meggett's fumble. But on Meggett's 5-yard touchdown that created a 13-13 tie, he actually rolled over his former teammate, who was sprawled across the goal line, into the end zone.
"I was never down," Meggett said, "until I got in the end zone."
Meggett talked about how he often sees Jackson in a Hackensack, N.J., barber shop where each player gets his hair cut.
"He drives up," Meggett said.
What's the name of the barber shop?
"I'm not going to give that barber shop no publicity," he said. "They don't give me no free haircut."
They will now, it was suggested.
"No, they're too stingy," he said.
For the Eagles, the game and their playoff hopes ended when Eddie Murray missed a 44-yard field goal as time expired after referee Gordon McCarter had put the final two seconds back on the clock. Had the Eagles' place-kicker forced overtime and the Eagles won, the Giants would still be boiling over linebacker Jessie Armstead running off with the football with two seconds to go, giving the Eagles a final chance.
When Murray's kick was wide, all that commotion was soon forgotten. And the Giants were smiling.
But none of the Giants were smiling wider than David Meggett, the little big man who leveled a linebacker and turned a pass into a 33-yard gain that positioned the winning field goal in a game the Giants had to win in order to measure how much they have grown this season.
"It's just being a football player," he shrugged.
But not all football players are football players.