BY PAUL SCHWARTZ

The Giants came out of their pulsating 21-14 victory over the Steelers with one significant injury. Nickel back Kevin Dockery will be out at least two weeks with a fractured transverse process in his back. It’s a similar injury to the one that kept rookie linebacker Jonathan Goff out for more than a month, but Goff had more than one fracture. Dockery has a single fracture.

Rookie cornerback Terrell Thomas moved in when Dockery went out late in the second quarter. “He did a good job,” Tom Coughlin said. “He didn’t make an mental errors and got himself into a highly, highly competitive game.”

It was the first real work on defense for Thomas, who had exclusively been used on special teams. The Giants have options here, with veteran cornerbacks Sam Madison and R.W. McQuarters healthy and waiting in the wings.

The only other new injury reported by Coughlin was a toe problem for rookie linebacker Bryan Kehl, who is starting on the weak side in place of Gerris Wilkinson, who will miss Sunday’s game against the Cowboys with a sprained knee.