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Barber helps Giants rush toward playoff spot

Dec 31, 2006 - 6:58 AM LANDOVER, Maryland (Ticker) -- Tiki Barber knows how to throw a retirement party. He celebrated by taking out three teams.

Barber rushed for a career-high 234 yards and scored three touchdowns, singlehandedly leading the New York Giants to a 34-28 victory over the Washington Redskins and virtually locking up a wild card berth.

With New York (8-8) reeling from six losses in seven games coming in and teetering on the brink of elimination from the playoffs, Barber helped extend both the season and his career.

The franchise's all-time leading rusher, Barber announced his retirement midway through the season but played as if he was not ready to go home.

He scored on runs of 15, 55 and 50 yards to help the Giants practically wrap up the sixth seed in the NFC.

"I've been playing this game a long time," Barber said. "I know what it takes for us to win. I know when I get an opportunity to do my job, that I'm (pretty) good, and we did that today.

"My football career hopefully has four more games in it. The rest of my life is starting soon and I'm excited about that, I really am. It's better to leave wanting more than them kicking you out."

On this night, Barber did the kicking out. The Giants' victory spelled elimination from the playoffs for three teams - Atlanta, Carolina and St. Louis - and put Green Bay on life support.

The Packers maintain a feint pulse, but it would take a bizarre sequence of happenings for them to wrestle the bid from the Giants on a strength-of-schedule scenario. New York needs a positive result from just one of 10 games on Sunday to officially secure the postseason slot.

"We had to think we would we be able to rise up and play a game of this magnitude, despite what happened the week before," Giants coach Tom Coughlin said, referring to last Sunday's 30-7 home loss to New Orleans.

"We're counting on being in the playoffs. That is what we play for, that is exactly what all this was about. We tried very much to put that last one aside as quickly as we could and focused on winning this."

The Giants endured a tumultuous week, with Coughlin stripping offensive coordinator John Hufnagel of the play-calling duties and handing them to quarterbacks coach Kevin Gilbride.

The move looked brilliant thanks to the performance by Barber, whose 55-yard TD run in the second quarter gave the Giants a 17-7 lead and allowed him to eclipse 1,500 yards rushing for the third straight season.

It was the longest run of the season for Barber and his second touchdown of the game, matching his season TD total and capping a nine-play, 97-yard drive.

"He definitely is a great player," Redskins linebacker Rocky McIntosh said of Barber. "He went out with a bang. We went in there trying to stop him. I knew from the second or third play that he was a great back and you have to wrap him up to tackle him. We missed a lot of tackles tonight."

Barber had 137 yards at halftime and Jay Feely kicked his second field goal with two seconds to go, helping New York to a 20-7 lead at intermission.

When Giants quarterback Eli Manning - who was an unspectacular 12-of-26 for 101 yards and a TD - found Drew Carter for a six-yard scoring pass with 9:11 left in the third quarter, the lead grew to 27-7 and the Giants seemed on the verge of a rout.

That is until the defense, which allowed 66 points the past two weeks, startle to buckle once again. Second-year quarterback Jason Campbell, who was knocked from the game late in the second quarter on a hard hit by linebacker Brandon Short, directed a pair of long scoring drives to rally the Redskins.

Campbell hit Ladell Betts with a seven-yard scoring pass with just over two minutes left in the third quarter, and T.J. Duckett capped off a nine-play, 66-yard drive with a one-yard plunge to bring Washington within 27-21 with 9:25 left to play.

"He got blown up in the second quarter and he came back in the game to play well. That shows his toughness," Redskins tackle Randy Thomas said of Campbell. "He could have just sat down and said the season is over, but he has fight in him."

That left it to Barber to close the curtain on the Redskins' season, as he swept around the left end for 50 yards on the next possession to push the lead to 34-21 with 6:13 remaining.

That's the nature of the NFL. Nothing is ever easy," Barber said. "The defense wasn't holding. They couldn't get off the field, they gave up a couple of touchdowns.

"We went right to the offense and said, 'We can win this ourselves - we have to.' Defense got a big stop at the end of the game, but we continued to pound on them and make big plays and put the final nail in the coffin ourselves."