Giants Blow 23-0 Lead, but Luck Out in Big D

GIANTS 29 
COWBOYS 24

Giants coach Tom Coughlin should remember to send a bottle of champagne or at the very worst send a Christmas card to the officials who called Sunday's Giants-Cowboys game, because if it weren't for the refs reversing a Dez Bryan touchdown with :08 seconds to go, the Giants would have limped home with a disheartening 31-29 loss.

While Bryant appeared to have touched the back of the end zone with his fingers before resting the rest of this palm in the navy colored end zone, the play was so close, you could make the case that Dallas won this game.

It was not like the Cowboys outplayed the Giants. Tony Romo made his share of mistakes in this game, but the fact that the Giants built a 23-0 lead and fell asleep only to find Dallas in front 24-23 by the end of third quarter was unspeakable.

The Giants offense struggled throughout the afternoon to move the football against a Dallas defense that, while talented is very beatable. New York managed only 11 first downs on Sunday, and watched five different drives stall and result in field goals.

Even though Big Blue built a 23-0 lead, it could have been and should have been so much more. On the Giants opening drive, Eli Manning missed Hakeem Nicks on third down at the Cowboys 23, result Giants field goal. On the Giants second possession, New York faced a third and two at the Cowboys 19, result: Ahmad Bradshaw was stopped short of the down, and the Giants kicked again.

The Giants offense was bailed out by the Big Blue's defense. They forced Tony Romo to throw four interceptions, including one to Jason Pierre-Paul who rumbled home for a 28 yard score to give the Giants a 23-0 lead. Romo would later throw a huge interception on a fourth and one at the Giants 19 with Dallas trailing 29-24. While most people forget about this pick because of the phantom Bryant touchdown, it was a huge turn of events in the game.

That being said, while it is great to see the Giants defense step up, and while it is true that the Giants were fortunate to escape with their lives from this game, this game exposed some big flaws with this football team.

All season, the Giants have gotten off to one slow start after another, only to have Eli Manning and company turn it on in the fourth quarter and lead Big Blue all the way back with a barrage of touchdown passes.

While this might be great against teams like Tampa Bay, Cleveland, and even Dallas and Washington it will not fly forever. The Giants are entering the toughest part of their schedule, and the NFC East is still up in the air.

The Giants still have the Steelers, Ravens, Eagles, Packers, Saints, Falcons, and Bengals on their schedule in the second half of the season. While these teams have their own issues, most of them will not allow the Giants offense to score at will in the fourth quarter of these games like past opponents.

If the Giants are serious about repeating as Super Bowl champions they are going to have to get their offense moving earlier in these games. They need Eli Manning to play like an MVP candidate on a more consistent basis and they need Ahmad Bradshaw to do more than just hit the hole for short two or three yard gains.

This season the Giants and Eli Manning have gotten away with too much slacking off in quarters one through three for far too long. They act bored by the regular season instead of determined, and eventually this kind of attitude is going to cost them. It should have cost them against Dallas, but the officials had another idea. Yet people are willing to give the Giants a pass because they won a Super Bowl. Everyone considers Manning a first ballot Hall of Famer, and they all consider Tom Coughlin a sure-fire Hall of Famer too. That's all nice and all, but if the Giants should lose a couple games at hte end of the year, costing them the division, you can kiss that talk good bye.

The fact is this Giants football team has been woefully inconsistent. One could argue they should have lost to the Bucs, the Redskins and Cowboys. If they did, this would be a Big Blue disaster, and nobody would be talking up the praises of this football team right now.

One of these days, the Giants high powered offense is not going to click, and at some point the Giants are going to lose a game they had to win, or should have won. Teams around the league are taking note that these World Champions are the nothing more then a team that has been more lucky than good.

On Sunday, the Giants face a Pittsburgh Steelers team that is starting to get red hot, with a defense that can slow down Manning and the Giants passing attack, and an offense that can compete with the Giants on every level. Call it the first real big test for the Super Bowl Champs in a while. If Big Blue is down in the 4th quarter don't bet on Manning and the Giants to pull this one out of the fire too. The Steelers defense, while old, is too good for that.

So yes, it is good to be 6-2, but unless things change real fast for the Giants, they could be 10-6 and barely hanging onto a playoff spot with the flick of a wrist.