By PAUL SCHWARTZ

What an exciting time it is to be a fan of the Giants. Their beloved team is preparing for a huge showdown this Sunday against the rival Cowboys at Giants Stadium. If the Giants win, they will be tied with Dallas with matching 7-5 records but the Giants would be alone in first place based on sweeping the two-game season series.

Surely everyone associated with the Giants is fired up after their businesslike victory over the Titans in Nashville. The Giants raced to a 21-0 lead and held it comfortably into the fourth quarter. That’s when I got up out of my seat in the press box in Tennessee to take in some local attractions that Music City has to offer.

Did I miss anything of importance? Uh, what? They did what? How? Eli Manning did what how many times? Mathias Kiwanuka got hold of quarterback Vince Young and then let him do what? Tom Coughlin acted like horse’s what on the sideline? The Titans scored how many points in the fourth quarter and how many points in the final 44 seconds?

Guess those coaching tidbits about playing all 60 minutes actually mean something.

The aftermath of such a shocking loss is never pretty and fans want their ounce of blood. They need someone to blame for their three hours of agony and the ensuing depression that follows. This was a disgrace and someone has to pay for it. Manning and Coughlin finished No. 1 and No. 2 in an informal poll of disgruntled loyalists. Eli is a bust and Coughlin should be fired. That was the general consensus.

Of course, a few days later Manning was still at the controls of the Giants offense and Coughlin continued to run the show. The outrage fades, a week progresses and another game is anticipated. That’s why comparing this collapse to the playoff atrocities in 1997 and 2002 is silly. Those games ended seasons and the finality was stinging. This loss was embarrassing and made all Giants fans sick but life goes on in the form of more season to come. Sure, a 6-5 team losing three straight games is not supposed to think playoffs or first place but this is the state of the NFL and the state of the NFC, where the meek shall inherit the post-season. Greatness is not a requirement.

Usually, teams are not destroyed after ridiculous losses despite the “they can’t recover from this debacle” mantra that always gets recycled. You’ve seen it too many times, a team left for dead actually is quite alive. Then all those fans who demanded “back up the truck and ship ’em all out” do a reversal, jump back on the bandwagon and praise their beloved team for its resilience.

That doesn’t mean the Giants are ready to beat back the red-hot Cowboys and take command of the division. There’s a good chance the Cowboys are simply better, healthier and hotter than the Giants and will leave Giants Stadium firmly entrenched in first place. That will have less to do about any notion of the Giants quitting on Coughlin and more to do with the way the Giants, and especially Manning, are playing.

Firing the coach is not on the radar of the Giants front office, despite the pleas of many fans to get him the heck out. It’s amazing how the worm turns. At this time last year Coughlin was hailed for bringing discipline to the Giants and for his straight-ahead, no-nonsense approach as the Giants surged to the NFC East title. Now he’s the maniacal autocrat who is the root of all evil. What is really happening is that Coughlin is living the life of a coach working with a struggling quarterback. When that happens, nearly everyone looks dumb. Eli throws a terrible interception and everyone wants to know why the hell is he passing in the first place. When you play scared with your quarterback, you will lose. The greatest concern for the Giants as they head down the stretch is not Coughlin’s future but the future of Manning. If he’s not the answer for the franchise at quarterback, the organization is back to square one and it could take years to recover.