Big Blue Blitz: Giants roll to NFC East title

GIANTS 31

COWBOYS 14

To all the Tom Coughlin haters out there who wanted him fired for Bill Cowher: how do you feel now?

Tom Coughlin and the New York Giants are back in the postseason after a dominating 31-14 victory over the Dallas Cowboys to clinch the NFC East title. The Giants will host the Falcons next week in the wild card round, Sunday at 1 p.m.

This game wasn't even close, as the Giants rolled right over a hapless Dallas Cowboys team that had no answer for the Giants blitzing schemes, no answer for Eli Manning, and no answer for Giants super star receiver Victor Cruz.

The Giants wasted little time in putting this game in their back pocket. With 4:57 to go in the first quarter, Manning hit Cruz at the Giants own 24 yard line, and like he did against the Jets a week prior, Cruz slipped out of his tackler and sprinted down the sideline for the touchdown, giving New York a 7-0 lead.

Cruz had a huge evening hauling in six passes for 178 yards; it's a shame that this man wasn't voted to the Pro Bowl; he has had a spectacular season and made Giants fans forget Steve Smith.

In the second quarter, Giants running back Ahmad Bradshaw took over, adding a five yard touchdown run and a 10 yard reception from Eli Manning to give Big Blue a big 21-0 lead.

Even though Dallas cut the Giants lead to seven, thanks to a couple Laurent Robinson touchdown catches, it was pretty obvious that Dallas was not going to come back in this game. The Giants defense swarmed all over Tony Romo all night long. They sacked him six times, deflected two of his passes, and knocked him down seven more times. Romo never got comfortable in the pocket as the combination of Jason Pierre-Paul, Osi Umenyiora and Justin Tuck harassed him all night.

That trio will be key to any Giants success in the postseason.

As for Manning, he was excellent, throwing for 346 yards and three touchdowns, capping off what has been a brilliant 2011 regular season. Even though he won't win the league MVP this year, Manning was as good as any quarterback in football this season.

For Coughlin, the victory has to be bittersweet. He has had to hear all season about how his job was on the line, how he gave too much responsiblity to his coordinators; nonetheless, here he is in the postseason with a legtimate shot at the Super Bowl.

While asking the Giants to go into Green Bay and New Orleans and win is asking a lot this year, they can compete with anyone in this NFC playoff field. They are getting healthy at the right time, and they are playing their best football. Now Big Blue has to focus and get ready for a dangerous Atlanta Falcons team on Sunday.