GREEN BAY, Wis. — Eli Apple sat at his locker when it was over, still wearing the “NYPD Football” hat he had received two days earlier in honor of the Giants’ recently coined “New York Pass Defense” nickname.
But unlike in recent weeks the cornerback and his colleagues were talking not about stopping an opponent’s passing attack but rather about what went wrong against the Packers in a 38-13 wild-card playoff loss.
The worst of it was a Hail Mary that Aaron Rodgers completed to Randall Cobb as time expired in the first half, a 42-yard completion that gave the Packers a 14-6 lead.