Defense A Driving Force for the Giants

By Tom Torrisi
SportsTicker Pro Football Editor

With less than a minute left in the first half of Sunday's NFC divisional game, the Dallas Cowboys had the New York Giants reeling - again. The Cowboys had just completed a 20-play, 90-yard touchdown drive that spanned nearly 10 1/2 minutes, methodically bulldozing New York's defense to take a seven-point lead with 53 seconds left in the half. Already owning a pair of regular-season victories over the Giants in which it amassed 76 points, Dallas' offense had sent a clear message: We can do whatever we want. There was just one problem for the Cowboys: The Giants weren't buying it.

"That's the way we have been all year," New York coach Tom Coughlin said. "Even when people have done things to us and we have been down, 14-0, we have been down, 7-0 - we were down 7-0 (to Tampa Bay) last weekend. "But the guys hang in there and believe in each other and they think that they can turn the thing around, and that's exactly what they rely on. They rely on their belief in themselves."

A last-minute touchdown drive authored by quarterback Eli Manning not only tied the score at halftime, but it stemmed the Cowboys' tide, generated badly needed momentum for the Giants and got the team into the locker room with a renewed outlook. "That second quarter was ugly. I mean, they had 20-something plays," Giants linebacker Antonio Pierce said. "Our guys never put their heads down and just kept going and kept pushing and our offense got it going in the second half."

New York came out in the second half and limited the league's second-highest scoring team to just a field goal en route to a 21-17 victory that earned the Giants a berth in Sunday's NFC championship game at Green Bay. "We really just tried to stop talking ... and change our mind-set, relax, have fun and that's what we did," linebacker Kawika Mitchell said. "They got one more dive after that, but besides that, I think we stepped up and did a great job."

Not that the task was easy. With cornerbacks Sam Madison (stomach) and Kevin Dockery (hip) inactive for the game, New York's secondary suffered another blow when rookie Aaron Ross suffered a dislocated shoulder with two minutes left in the first half. The injuries were magnified when backup cornerback Corey Webster dropped a sure interception that would have ended Dallas' marathon 20-play drive. Which is why the halftime break couldn't some soon enough. "We always got to go in and make adjustments and coach Spagno (defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo) and the rest of the defensive coaches always do a great job at that," Webster said. "We aint' going to say what adjustments we made, but we made some adjustments and came out and it ended up working in our favor."

Ross attempted to return in the second half but re-injured the shoulder on the third play of the third quarter, forcing New York to go with a patchwork cornerback unit of Webster, veteran R.W. McQuarters and rookie Geoffrey Pope, who was in uniform for the first time this season since being promoted from the practice squad two weeks ago. The results were beyond what even the staunchest Giants supporter could imagine.

After Dallas tacked on a field goal on the opening drive of the second half to go ahead, 17-14, New York's defense suffocated the Cowboys the rest of the way. The Giants forced the Cowboys to punt on their next three possessions before McQuarters sealed it with an interception of quarterback Tony Romo in the end zone with nine seconds to play. "This is my 10th year in the league, this is my third time in the playoffs and this is my first time going to the NFC championship," McQuarters said. "So just talking to the young guys and let them know what's at stake - this game's big, each game gets bigger, it's just a great feeling."

It was the second straight game that the Giants got a late interception from McQuarters, who also delivered a huge 25-yard punt return in the third quarter that led to Brandon Jacobs' go-ahead touchdown with 13:29 to play. "I will tell you R.W. came off that and two weeks in a row he has played super in the secondary," Coughlin said. "The kickoff return was huge, putting the ball at midfield, giving us great field position. ... That was the deciding drive right there."

The Giants shackled Romo in the second half, limiting him to 7-of-16 passing for 86 yards, one interception and two sacks as they extended their franchise-record road winning streak to nine consecutive games. That sets up another revenge game against the second-seeded Packers, who dominated the Giants, 35-13, in Week Two at Giants Stadium. "A lot of people don't believe in us, but these 53 guys in here, we all believe in each other and we're just going to keep doing what we do," safety Gibril Wilson said.