Yesterday, though, was a whole new dynamic for Domenik Hixon. This was his first start since the Giants decided to suspend Burress for the rest of the season. And Hixon responded the way the rest of his teammates did after a turbulent week filled with daily chronicles of the Burress situation: horribly.

Hixon was awful in the Giants' lethargic 20-14 loss to the Eagles. He dropped one potential 85-yard touchdown bomb, almost muffed a punt return and managed only three receptions for 30 yards, prompting thoughts that he might've put too much pressure on himself.

"Nah, not at all," he said. "The play that I missed today, I should have made that. At the end of the day, I should have made the plays regardless of what happened throughout the week."

Perhaps no play typified the Giants' day of missed opportunities more than Hixon's drop. On the first play from scrimmage of the second quarter, with the Giants facing a first-and-10 at their 15 and the wind at their backs, Eli Manning threw a deep pass over the middle. Hixon had a couple of steps on his defender and appeared poised to give the Giants a much-needed spark. But the pass fell through his hands at the Eagles' 35.

Hixon looked down at the ball as it moved harmlessly on the turf, almost in disbelief that his hands had betrayed him and that he hadn't come up with what could've have been an easy touchdown, one that could have put the Giants on top 7-3.

"That's how we drew it up," Hixon said. "I've just got to look the ball in and finish the play. I should have caught it. It's a routine play. We practiced that in practice. We drew it up the same way, and I've just got to finish the play. That's on me. Great ball by Eli in the wind, put it right there on the money."

"He just didn't make the play," Manning said. "The first quarter, we were going against the wind the whole time. There was a play we were trying to run earlier, but we couldn't get it in since we were going into the wind. The first play [after changing sides], we tried it. We had a shot, and even when you're throwing with the wind, the ball moves around a lot. Hixon just didn't convert on the play. You know, it happens."

Even on special teams - an area in which he's fared well with or without Burress - Hixon was a non-factor.

He entered yesterday's action ranked eighth in the NFL in punt-return yardage with 248 yards and was averaging 11.3 yards per punt return, placing him 15th. But he mustered only minus-6 yards on two punts against the Eagles and came close to coughing up Sav Rocca's 37-yard punt, which he fielded at the Giants' 19 with just under five minutes left in the first quarter.

"Opportunities were there and we didn't take advantage," Hixon said. "When you do that against a good team, it's going to come back to bite you. And it did today."