In the standings, the Giants are in a familiar place: Atop the NFC East after two weeks, with both victories coming over divisional opponents. In terms of getting out in front of the division, last night’s win was impressive: On the road, in the first game at Cowboys Stadium, in front of such luminaries as George W. Bush, LeBron James, and the all-new Dallas Cowboys cage dancers. How they’ve gotten to first place, though, is kind of bizarre.
They’ve managed to win two games thus far without any sort of running game. And they’ve been comically bad inside the red zone — and we’re going to call it the red zone, no matter what color Tom Coughlin prefers to use — going zero for eight thus far this year. But Eli Manning appears to be very comfortable throwing to Steve Smith and Mario Manningham, so long as any and all touchdown passes come from behind the twenty-yard line. (Last night’s were both 22 yards.)
Give Eli Manning credit for taking the crowd out of it early on the first drive of the game, and for yet another fourth-quarter comeback drive. (Also give him credit for converting after the unfair-but-correct call on Kenny Phillips’s circus interception off of Jason Whitten’s foot.) But also, blame Tony Romo for some terribly bad decisions; all three of his interceptions eventually resulted in touchdowns. (It’s never a good sign when a quarterback throws an interception and neither of the announcers can tell which member of his team he was trying to throw to.)
One familiar place the Giants won’t find themselves this morning is the back page of the tabloids; last-second field goals are great, but the back page (deservedly) went to the city’s other football squad today. One suspects the Giants don’t much care about that; after all, they did quite well for themselves last night playing the role of the other team.