The Giants special teams must have missed a practice last week, the one where they remind you to tackle the ball carrier on missed field goal attempts. The Giants did okay on punts and kickoffs in Sunday night’s 38–20 loss to the Chicago Bears, but after Jay Feely came up short on a 52-yard field goal attempt, they stood around watching Devin Hester run 108 yards for a touchdown, showing less resistance than Congress when Bush ordered the invasion of Iraq. Let’s not blame Tom Coughlin.

The press, sports Web sites, and radio talk shows are gravid with critics of Coughlin’s decision to go for the field goal into the wind from the Bears’ 35-yard line, and I’ll admit it wasn’t a play that I would have called. But Jay Feely had made a 46-yarder against the same wind earlier in the game, and a good kick in the fourth quarter would have brought the Giants within a point, 24–23. In calling for the kick, Coughlin was simply being a realist in acknowledging that the Giants weren’t going to do much more scoring against the Bears’ defense.

This, it seems to me, is the crux of the matter: Those who are knocking Coughlin for his decision are saying that he should have called for a punt, which most likely would have given the Bears offense the ball at the 20-yard line. Well, Feely’s kick went eight yards into the end zone, and if the Giants had bothered to cover it, the Bears would have downed it and the ball would have been on the 20-yard line. In other words, if the Giants special team players had been alert, what did they have to lose by trying the field goal?

Let’s blame Coughlin for the game plan. All week long, Coughlin and the rest of the Giants coaches were telling the beat guys that the key to scoring on the Bears’ league-leading defense was the ground game, as in “If we can establish the run and stop theirs, we’ll control the game,” etc. Stuff like that. I was hoping that this was some kind of diversion and that the Giants’ real intention was to rip the Bears’ pass defense with Plaxico Burress long and Jeremy Shockey curling under the coverage. No such luck.

The Giants’ defense, star-depleted and all, did stuff the Bears’ running game. Chicago running back Thomas Jones had one gain for 26 yards, but in the Bears’ 38 other rushing attempts, they averaged a miserable 2.4 yards. Meanwhile, slashing both inside and out according to the shifts of the Bears linebackers, Tiki Barber ran for 141 yards on just 19 tries for. Considering the toughness of the opposition, it was one of the best games of his career.

The Bears came into this game having given up just a single rushing touchdown and with their eye on some kind of league record in that department. The Giants ran for two touchdowns, both short runs by Brandon Jacobs, but that made no difference to the outcome.

The reason it made no difference is that the Giants’ passing attack has completely fallen apart. Last week I gave you a comparison of Eli Manning’s sensational performance over the first four games and contrasted it with the next four games where his numbers fell off. Let’s bring those stats up to date: In the first four games Manning threw 146 passes, averaged eight yards a throw, and had nine TDs to five interceptions. Since then he’s thrown 147 passes, averaged 5.6 yards a throw, and had as many interceptions, six, as TDs. Against the Bears, he never began to get on track, throwing 32 passes for a dismal 121 yards and two interceptions. Manning averaged just 3.8 yards a throw, just about half of what Tiki Barber averaged, 7.4 yards every time he ran the ball.

The Giants’ passing game is dropping faster than the president’s approval rating, a fact disguised by the five consecutive wins before Sunday’s loss. This has nothing to do with the running game, that has been superb, nor with the pass blocking. Despite the loss of Luke Pettigout in the first quarter, the Giants’ line opened holes for Barber and blocked well for Manning. Though he fumbled on two pass attempts, Manning was only sacked twice, same as their D inflicted on the Bears’ passer, Rex Grossman.

Nor does the Giants’ lack of real offensive punch have anything to do with the terrible plague of injuries on the defense. Sunday night the Giants lost defensive back Sam Madison for the entire second half, adding to the loss of Michael Strahan and linebacker LaVar Arrington. All things considered, the Giants defense didn’t play poorly at all, particularly linebacker Antonio Pierce, who was the most active defender on either team, taking part in 15 tackles.

If the offense had played up to the level of the defense, the Giants would now be on track for home field advantage in the playoffs, despite the injuries. Instead, New York will now be facing a desperate fight just to hold on to the lead in the NFC East with the December 3 game against Dallas and the December 17 match with the Eagles looming larger than ever. The Giants’ suddenly scaled-down expectations were best expressed by Pierce in a postgame interview: “I just want to fix what we had problems with … We have to hope to get to the playoffs.”

Two weeks ago, the Giants were dreaming about the Super Bowl; now they’re worried about making the playoffs.

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