It was supposed to feel like cold times again for the New York Football Giants. A wicked, wintry northeast blast, a hated enemy picking the wrong time and the wrong place to walk into the Big Blue igloo that was supposed to house a driven team that walks the talk, Icemen Cometh for the NFC East title, and history.
A merciless, howling wind, and a merciless, howling defense whipping with gale force fury through the tortured soul of Tony Romo and his Boys and blowing them away.
Another Giant step toward a Miracle of the Meadowlands comeback story the likes of which the NFL has never seen.
And with everything on the line, Tony Romo — Tony Romo! — laughed in the face of all the hostility and all the noise coming from the 4-7 Giants, Dead Again.
It was supposed to be a bloodbath, but when it ended Cowboys 24, Giants 21, when it ended on Dan Bailey’s 35-yard field goal as time expired, it ended with cold turkeys drenched in their own blood, an improbable playoff dream ended cold turkey, gone with the wind.
It was supposed to be the Giants’ Super Bowl.
It turned out to be Super Bowl XXXV.
Only this time, it was Jerry Jones, not Ray Lewis, dancing on the Big Blue grave, and Orlando Scandrick crowing, and Victor Cruz and a defense that could not make a stand champions are supposed to make, and instead swooning at Romo’s feet, forced to eat crow.
“Our season was on the line … we had to win that game … when it’s Cowboys-Giants, there’s no bulletin material, it’s all in the heart, it’s the will that’s going to win this game, and the better team won,” said Terrell Thomas, who went public with his conviction the Giants were the better team, guaranteed.
And what do Cold Turkeys do when it is time to trot to the slaughterhouse?
They cry fowl:
Thomas: “Honestly, some of them calls were a little iffy. They’re calling holding calls on the back side, they don’t never call that in the NFL. The roughing the passer [on Mathias Kiwanuka], I understand you got to protect the quarterback, but I think it’s getting out of hand. If you watch the replay, he didn’t even get hit. We’re not going to blame the refs … but it seems like ours came in tougher situations, and when you give the refs opportunity to call a penalty, that’s when you’re going to lose, and we did that.”
Cruz: “He [Scandrick] always holds on every play, so it’s always borderline whether it’s a pass interference or a holding or whatever, but I just don’t think about that.”
Eli Manning — his passing game sabotaged by Hakeem Nicks (abdomen) showing up as a surprise scratch and some head-scratching play-calling on a day when Andre Brown (21 carries, 127 yards) was gashing the Cowboys whenever Brandon Jacobs (9, 75) wasn’t — had staged a dramatic comeback from a 21-6 deficit.
Manning hit Cruz, for only the second time, at the 5, for 22 yards. Then, as he was flushed left on second down, saw Louis Murphy Jr. alone in the left corner of the end zone for the 4-yard touchdown that made it Cowboys 21, Giants 19 with 4:45 left.
Two-point conversion still needed.
Two-point conversion made — Brown on an inside handoff up the middle.
Life inside MetLife Stadium.
Suddenly, Cruz being stripped by Scandrick resulting in Jeff Heath’s 50-yard fumble recovery that made it 7-0 was a distant memory.
Coach Tom Coughlin: “You hope that the whistle should blow. For them to have a touchdown on a play like that is just unbelievable.”
Suddenly, Kiwanuka’s roughing Romo by briefly grabbing him around the neck area that negated a Will Hill fumble recovery prior to a second touchdown catch by Jason Witten was a distant memory.
Here was Romo, his reputation for choking in the clutch preceding him, an albatross around his neck, starting at his 20 with 4:45 remaining, effortlessly shredding a defense that has no right to think of itself as anyone’s Monster of the Meadowlands.
“You either feel comfortable in those situations or you don’t,” Romo said.
Three times Romo faced third-and-5 or longer, and three times Romo burned Antrel Rolle, forced to play slot corner and victimized by picks when the one and only Trumaine McBride left with a groin injury.
“At certain times I was a little too antsy in my press technique being that I haven’t really been down working there for the last five or six weeks,” Rolle said.
Romo’s third-and-10 completion to Cole Beasley for 13 yards to the Giants 15 was the killer, because the Giants had already burned two timeouts and finally their last one, for what it was worth.
“That last drive we couldn’t get off the field,” said Jason Pierre-Paul, who couldn’t get anywhere near Romo all day.
Coughlin’s message: It’s a five-game season now.
“Now we’re just playing for pride and not trying to go out like a team that just gave up,” one player told The Post.
“We have to win out, and see what happens,” Thomas said. “Now we need help, a lot of help. It’s been given to us all season, so we’re going to suck it up and get over this [Monday], regroup Tuesday, and start preparing for Washington come Wednesday.”
A heaping helping of humble pie will be served the Giants on Thanksgiving.
“They talked their talk,” Jason Hatcher said. “They had to back it up and they didn’t.”
Gobble, gobble, gobble go Cold Turkeys.