IRVING – With so much ahead of them the Giants were able to pause yesterday to reflect on what they left behind.
“When we looked at the schedule at the beginning of the year,” coach Tom Coughlin said, “everyone said ‘Wow, look at those first five you got.’ ”
Wow, look at the first five now.
“Now we expect to win every time we step on the field and that’s a big difference from what we had,” confessed DE Michael Strahan.
With their bye week upon them, the Giants completed phase one of this turnaround season with another remarkable display of well-rounded grit. They struggled through a frustrating first half and then turned up their vise-grip resolve. The Giants, embarrassed here last year, plowed and pilloried their way to 23 unanswered points, including a 20-0 second-half blitz to derail and defeat the Cowboys 26-10 at Texas Stadium.
“We won our fourth game in a row, that’s a pretty good situation to be in,” Coughlin said.
In barely a month, the Giants matched their entire 2003 victory total and inflated their record to 4-1 for the first time since 1993. For the latest chapter in this improbable tale, the Giants out-did the mighty Bill Parcells, the Dallas coach who twice rolled the dice with his trademark gambler’s verve and came away empty on a pair of fourth-down calls that helped swerve momentum into the Giants’ lane.
The Giants trailed 10-3 in the second quarter and 10-6 at the half before they clamped down on the Cowboys’ running game and seized control. The spark, as it always seems to be thus far, was Tiki Barber on yet another huge run, this time a 58-yard burst triggered by a devastating block from fullback Jim Finn.
“That’s how it is in this league, you keep hitting and keep hitting and eventually you bust one,” said Barber, who has surpassed 100 rushing yards in four of his five games. “Keep persevering until the victory is yours.”
From there, the usual suspects conspired to bring the Giants home.
There was Barber (23-122 rushing, 5-76 receiving), who is merely playing like the NFL MVP, setting up Kurt Warner’s perfectly-placed fade toss to Jeremy Shockey for a 1-yard touchdown catch over a leaping safety Roy Williams.
The Giants – helped by three major Cowboys penalties on the drive – were ahead 13-10 with 4:58 left in the third quarter and they were just starting to percolate.
By the time the Giants put the finishing touches on this one, Steve Christie made a bid for comeback player of the week, nailing all four of his field goal attempts – including a 51 yarder – a week after going 0-for-3 and nearly losing his job. Christie’s 47-yard line-drive made it 16-10 early in the fourth.
The tide was turning so dramatically that Parcells grew desperate. On fourth-and-1 from the Dallas 43-yard line he opted to keep his offense on the field rather than punt the ball away, trailing by only six points with a full 10:14 remaining. The Cowboys came up empty when Vinny Testaverde, ineffective much of the afternoon, threw in the flat to fullback Darian Barnes, who was hauled down by cornerback Will Allen for no gain.
“I was trying to get some energy, but here’s the deal,” Parcells said, “I learned a long time ago if you need some type of momentum creation event in the middle of the game, then you probably don’t have a very good team.”
Parcells handed the Giants the ball on the Dallas 42 and four minutes later Christie made it 19-10. Barber added a late touchdown and the Giants coasted to victory against a bitter NFC East rival.
“The way the players are playing, as hard as they’re playing, if you can prepare yourself properly and give great effort you got a great chance,” Coughlin said.
At 4-1, the Giants have a great chance to make this season better than most anyone imagined.
