Jay Feely, my sources tell me, tried to end it all after the Giants’ overtime loss to Seattle yesterday. He put a gun to his head, pulled the trigger – stop me if you’ve heard this one – and the bullet went wide to the left. Or was it to the right? Or did it just fall short?

Sports analysts have never been able to build a consensus on the question of whether clutch performance exists. In truth, I’m not sure myself. But I’m pretty sure choking is real, and that’s what Feely did. Maybe not three times, which is the number of field goals he missed from the closing seconds of regulation play through overtime.

The second miss, after all, was from 54 yards out, which is probably two or three yards longer than he could reasonably have been expected to make, but the other two, including a 40-yard miss with four seconds left that would have prevented overtime, were the biggest chokes since “The Fumble” 27 years ago.

Not old enough to remember that one? Let me recall the horror for you: In November, 1978, with a minute left, the Giants led the Eagles 17-12 and needed only to snap the ball and take a knee to even their record at 6-6. Instead, quarterback Joe Pisarcik tried to hand off to Larry Csonka, bumped into him, and the resulting fumble was run back by the Eagles’ Herman Edwards for a touchdown. The Giants lost three of their last four games and missed the playoffs. First the assistant coach who called the play, Bob Gibson, was fired; head coach John McVay soon followed. And finally, GM Andy Robustelli, one of the greatest players in Giants history, went down in flames.

Who takes the fall for this one? Well, okay, there’s a lot of season left and plenty of time for the Giants to redeem themselves. Let’s look on the bright side: Once again, Eli Manning was amazing, completing 29 passes for 344 yards, leading the Giants to the tying touchdown and two-point conversion with just 1:50 left in the game, and then putting them in position for what should have been winning field goal tries on three consecutive possessions.

Tiki Barber was equally great, winning his duel with Shaun Alexander, outrushing the NFL’s best runner in pro football by 41 yards. Jeremy Shockey, Plaxico Burress, and Amani Toomer all made fantastic catches when needed.

Now for the bad news: For the third time in seven tries, the Giants lost by three points in a game they should have won, and for the second time in three weeks, they lost by the score of 24-21 a game in which they completely dominated and thoroughly outgained their opponents.

I’ll ask the question again. If, when we look back on it, the Giants’ season turned on this game, who will take the fall? Feely, of course. But was he the only one to blame? Everyone remembers who missed the big kick in a big game. But who remembers the names of the guys who set him up to fail?

With 2:07 left in the fourth quarter, someone on the left side of the Giants offensive line was called for a false start – was that the play that lost the game? On the Giants’ first possession in overtime, someone jumped offsides again – was that mental error bigger than Feely’s miss? Should I name the offenders on those two plays? But if I do that, I’d have to list everyone who was called on each of the Giants 16 penalties. By the way, that’s 16 penalties assessed; there were 19 called. Eleven of those were false starts, and 10 of those drew flags on the left side of the line. Please, let’s not talk about crowd noise. What crowd noise caused the six false starts the Giants were penalized for against Minnesota at the Meadowlands?

And why single out the offensive line? In the first quarter, Chad Morton – who may be the best kick returner the Giants have ever had – ran one back to the Seattle five before running out of steam. It’s a shame he couldn’t have made those last five yards – if he had, the Giants would have had the distinction of having had a touchdown called back in three consecutive games. Morton’s run was negated by a holding penalty.

So who are we going to nail for these mistakes? We can knock Manning for lobbing a third quarter interception that prevented a Giants blowout and gave Seattle the impetus to come back and take the lead, 14-13. But really, Eli had at least one flub coming, particularly since penalties wiped out four of his completions for what would have been an additional 56 yards.

We can blame Jeremy Shockey for not holding on to a pass in overtime that would have given the Giants a shorter field goal try, but, then, Shockey caught 10 passes for 127 yards, five of them in key third down situations.

We can blame the defense for finally weakening in overtime, allowing a 20-yard run by Alexander that set up the winning field goal – but then we should remember that aside from that play, the Giants held him to just 90 yards on 30 carries.

We can knock cornerback Cory Webster for allowing most of Joe Jurevicius’s eight catches and 137 yards, but then, Jurevicius has eight years of NFL experience and Webster has only been in the pros for 11 games. Maybe Webster could have used a little help?

After we’re through pointing fingers, we can ask ourselves how a team that out gains its opponent by 135 yards, has eight more first downs and 50 more punt return yards, commits three fewer fumbles, and has the ball for six more minutes can still find a way to lose. And the face we must put on the answer is that of head coach Tom Coughlin standing on the sidelines with a look of anguish and bewilderment which seems to be asking the not so rhetorical question: “Who’s in charge here?”

Mr. Barra is the author of “The Last Coach: A Life of Paul ‘Bear’ Bryant.”