IRVING – As they walked up a hill towards the buses waiting outside for them, cheers from Giant fans standing above them behind a fence rang in the ears of players who had been scorned, mocked, or left for dead.
In the shadow of the Yankees, a stirring story of redemption builds week by week around Big Blue. Soon every NFL head coach, even the humbled Bill Parcells, will demand players five minutes early to meetings.
The 4-1 Tom Coughlin Giants outclassed the Cowboys 26-10 yesterday. Or you can call them the Tiki Barber Giants, because the reinvented running back rushed 23 times for 122 yards and caught five passes for 76 more on a day when Parcells wasn’t going to let 21 beat him.
“The scary thing is we can get better,” Jeremy Shockey said.
Coughlin has the same Midas touch that his buddy Parcells had a year ago with the Cowboys and seven years ago with the Jets and 10 years ago with the Patriots and 20 years ago with the Giants.
He teaches Barber not to fumble, and Barber (96 carries) doesn’t fumble. He stays with field goal kicker Steve Christie after nearly single-footedly blowing the previous week’s road warrior triumph in Green Bay, and Christie boots field goals of 31, 51, 47 and 26 yards. He hires Tim Lewis to instill a watch-your-buddy’s back defense that bends but doesn’t break and refused to let Vinny Testaverde (no completion over 18 yards) get a pair of fourth-and-ones.
He keeps Shockey happy with five catches each week, and two green zone touchdowns in two weeks. He helps Kurt Warner resurrect his career, and wills his offensive line to get off the deck and block somebody. And he gets the whole damn team to pay the price, to believe, to aspire to what Lombardi once called the perfectly-disciplined will, to fight for 60 minutes.
A scene from the halftime locker room: Coughlin giving the Giants an expletive-laced pep talk along the lines of stay together and find a way to win. “We were all ticked off,” Ike Hilliard said.
Parcells was so unnerved, so desperate at what was unfolding before his Jersey eyes that he had Testaverde try a fourth-and-1 swing pass from his 43 for fullback Darian Barnes down only 16-10 with 10 minutes left.
Barber promptly put the Cowboys away with a 55-yard catch and run on a third-and-10 slip screen against a full blitz that positioned his 3-yard TD run. “I had a lot to prove to Coach Coughlin and a lot to prove to myself,” Barber said.
On the heels of his 182-yard ground assault on the Packers, Barber has earned Mr. October consideration. “I think I’m gonna hire a 24-hour bodyguard to go wherever he goes in the bye week to make sure that nothing happens to him,” Shaun O’Hara said.
Barber, invisible behind his O-line on an earlier 58-yard scamper, has now accumulated 817 yards from scrimmage in five games. “That’s what they pay me to do – be a game-changer a little bit,” Barber said.
Michael Strahan: “He’s half-man, half-amazing.”
Ike Hilliard: “It’s a pleasure just to play with him.”
Barber is Warner’s Marshall Faulk, and you had to feel good for the old Ram quarterback as he walked hand-in-hand towards the buses with wife Brenda. Warner, like the rest of the Giants, wears the smiling face of a winner again.
“I’m thrilled for him,” Brenda said. “It’s awesome to see somebody do something that they love so much, and he’s so good at it.”
She may as well have been talking about all the Giants.
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Tiki’s tale
Stats tell the story of another good day for Tiki Barber (off and running yesterday in 26-10 win over Cowboys):
RUSHES 23
YARDS 122
RECEPTIONS 5
REC. YARDS 76
TOTAL YARDS 198
