Asomugha's bizarre evening ends with Eagles victory

• Lawrence Tynes missed a 54-yard field goal that would have given the Giants the lead
• There were three pass interference calls on the Giants' final drive, the third on WR Ramses Barden
• LeSean McCoy ran for 123 yards for the Eagles

PHILADELPHIA – Nnamdi Asomugha was grinning and bearing through the pain. He wanted to finish. Had to finish. There was no quit in him.

The Philadelphia Eagles cornerback would not allow an eye injury to knock him out before the end of this … interview.

"That light is killing me," Asomugha said as he squinted while looking in the direction of a TV camera only a few feet from his face. "But I'm just dealing with it."

Asomugha had just dealt with blurry vision and some ache for over a quarter of football in the Eagles' 19-17 victory over the New York Giants. And good thing for the Eagles he had, because he made the play of the game just by staying on top of Ramses Barden in man coverage to draw a rare offensive pass interference penalty on Barden, who had Asomugha gripped around the chest and the facemask as they ran inside the 5-yard line.

The 10-yard flag turned what should've been a makeable 44-yard field goal into a 54-yard bomb that would've been Lawrence Tynes' career-long. It fell short, and the Eagles are now atop the NFC East with their third fourth-quarter comeback victory of the season.

It was close.

The game, and also whether Asomugha, who said his eye "blacked out" after being poked by a Giants wide receiver he couldn't recall, would return to it.

"We were just doing vision tests and I passed a couple of vision tests," Asomugha said with a grin when asked by USA TODAY Sports what allowed him to be cleared. "Let's just say I…"

At this point, he threw up some air quotes.

"…passed some tests."

These days, players need to be careful with head and neck injuries. They often won't be cleared by trainers and doctors even if they pass a few tests, for fear of worsening serious issues.

Asomugha seemed to realize he probably should've played this one safe, even if he did put a visor on his helmet before he went back out there. After the game, he was to undergo a few more tests to see if he'd suffered serious damage. At one point, the Eagles announced Asomugha was headed for a nearby eye hospital, only to have him show up on the sideline in the third quarter.

Heading to the hospital was the plan because Asomugha could only pass top-line eye exams. Eventually, his blurry vision cleared enough to read a few more lines.

Monday morning, if he'd been more cautious, he might've been reading in the paper or online a 2-2 Eagles record, had the training staff stuck with its original plan.

"I didn't weight it that much. But they weighed it, the trainers were weighing it," Asomugha said in regard to the consequences should he have taken a shot in the eye area. "They wanted to shut it down completely because it was just a half of football and they didn't want it to get any worse."

The Eagles signed Asomugha to a $60-million deal last offseason to play in games like this, to be a factor much more than he'd done during his first, rough season in Philly. His original assignment for Sunday was to shadow Hakeem Nicks the entire game, though that changed when the Giants' receiver was ruled out on Saturday because of a swollen knee.

Asomugha instead saw a bunch of Domenik Hixon, Barden and even some of rookie wide receiver Rueben Randle. Early in the game, it was Asomugha getting his hands on receivers and in their face. He got away with it – until the final drive when he was nailed for an 8-yard pass-interference penalty while interfering with a slant Barden ran inside him.

Asomugha admitted he had trouble getting his bearings when he returned and did a little shimmy when he explained it. By that, he meant he had issues jamming and covering shifty receivers off the line, particularly when they broke inside to the blind (or, more accurately, blurred) spot in his vision.

Which is why the key moment played to his strength. He was able to keep Barden to his left as he remained over the top of the 6-6 receiver, knowing the Giants and Eli Manning figured they could take a deep shot over his head as they'd done earlier when Barden got past him for a 31-yard catch.

"We had options on either side of the field. Eli decided to take the 'X' receiver and it didn't work out," Giants coach Tom Coughlin said. "But that wasn't the only option."

It also wasn't the only option on the route. The offensive system Coughlin and offensive coordinator Kevin Gilbride run have built-in adjustments for receivers and the quarterback. Given Asomugha stayed high in coverage, Manning and Barden should've adjusted.

"I should've tried to throw it to Barden's back shoulder to keep it away from the corner," said Manning, who was going for the 23rd fourth-quarter comeback victory of his career.

Said Barden, "I tried to make a play on it but must have gotten my arm on him."

Asomugha stopped short of calling it a make-up call for the one against him two plays earlier.

"I know if it's the defensive guy, they're more apt to call it. But an offensive guy, you never know," he said. "So I was just happy they did call it. I looked around kind of late and I saw the flag. It was a relief."

A relief the flag had been thrown. That he could see it. And that he'd won the battle to talk his way back onto the field.

A rash, reckless decision? Maybe.

But for one night, finally, it worked out for the Eagles and Asomugha.

"Great negotiating," he said with a grin. "I'm a good negotiator."