NFL

Giants rewind: Incapable of rising to competition

There’s a difference between confidence and cockiness, and the Giants were on the wrong side of the fence in their “blood will be spilled’’ and “no doubt we’re going to win this game’’ yapping in the days leading up to their must-win 24-21 loss to the Cowboys.

Instead of turkey and stuffing this Thanksgiving, the Giants should just eat their words.

A couple of players saying too much cannot be the broad brush used to paint the entire team as a bunch of talking fools, but there is no doubt the Giants believed far too much in what they figured was the going to be a remarkable and historic turnaround. They were so ready to go out and show they meant business they got all macho before the game even started and looked as if they were trying to intimidate the Cowboys into leaving frigid MetLife Stadium before the opening kickoff.

Did any of this play a major role in the outcome of the game? Probably not. What was evident was these Giants are simply not good enough, and their failure to put together a complete game in any of their four victories against depleted opponents with shaky quarterbacks was a neon signal that when the competition strengthened the Giants would wilt.

On defense, the Giants allowed 17 points, which should have been sufficient to secure a victory, but when that unit needed to rise up, it crumbled. The offense scored 21 points, but it was about as crisp as two-day-old bagels. They handed the Cowboys seven points when Victor Cruz did not heed Tom Coughlin’s repeated reminders that the Cowboys hold you up and then rip the ball out. They twice had to kick field goals because for some reason, once they crossed inside the Dallas 10-yard line the offense ground to a halt, almost going into a shell rather than keeping up the attack mode.

Terrell Thomas lamented “we didn’t play Giants football,’’ but they did, at least 2013 Giants football. They committed 11 penalties and at times lost their cool. Andre Brown had a great game running the ball, but what the heck was he thinking running out of bounds twice to help the Cowboys preserve their timeouts just before halftime? It is not as if the Cowboys arrived and played a great game, but it was good enough to beat the Giants, who have not come close to greatness all season.

Other notables coming out of the game:

– There were 30 passes and 30 runs, the perfect balanced offense. Or was it? Eli Manning completed 16 passes and 14 fell incomplete. That’s a horrible ratio. Brown (career-high 127 yards) and Brandon Jacobs (75) combined to average 6.7 yards a carry and the linebacker-deficient Cowboys never had an answer for what the Giants gave them on the ground.

Should Kevin Gilbride have gone with the run even more than he did? Well, let’s not forget the Giants trailed 21-6 in the third quarter, so he was in comeback mode. But there should have been a few more running plays. Case in point: The Giants get the kickoff to start the third quarter. Brown runs for 11 yards, then gains 16 yards, and the Giants are on the Dallas 39. Manning takes a shot deep to Cruz, no good. Jacobs runs for 4 yards and it’s third-and-six on the Dallas 35. The Giants determine this is two-down territory because they are not going to punt from this area and are not going to try a long field goal into the wind. So what do they do? A pass intended for Jerrel Jernigan, incomplete. On fourth down, a pass sails very wide of Cruz and the Cowboys take the ball. After gaining 27 yards on back-to-back running plays, the Giants throw it three of the next four. Not smart.

– This was the first game where Jon Beason’s presence was not felt. He had four tackles, but wasn’t around the ball as much as he needed to be and was not great in coverage, a failing those in Carolina said he struggled with coming off a knee injury.

– There’s an issue with Hakeem Nicks. He said Thursday there was no way he was going to miss facing the Cowboys despite not practicing much because of a strained abdominal muscle that suddenly cropped up on the injury report. He was declared inactive without even trying to warm up on Sunday. Coughlin said that was because Nicks barely got on the field during the week. “No practice, no play” is not a rule, but it is something Coughlin usually adheres to, with exceptions. A player of Nicks’ caliber in a game of this magnitude would qualify as an exception, but it didn’t. This season has been like water torture for Nicks, and with each drip it seems he’s less likely to return next season.

– The Cowboys came into the game with the 32nd (that’s dead last) pass defense in the league and were coming off a game in which they were torched by Drew Brees and the Saints for 625 total yards, a franchise record. Sure, it was a rough day to throw the ball when facing the wind, but Manning getting only 174 passing yards was inexcusable. Even after cornerback Morris Claiborne went down with a recurrence of his hamstring issue, the Giants could not take advantage. It didn’t help that Jernigan, in a season-high 33 offensive snaps, was targeted seven times and came away with only two receptions for 24 yards. What a bad draft pick.

– Around the league, people will no doubt scoff when they hear or read how devastating it was to the Giants that Trumaine McBride had to take a seat with a strained groin after 45 defensive snaps, a loss that for some reason sapped the secondary of its ability to stay in the same vicinity of Cowboys receivers on the game-winning drive. Antrel Rolle stood there and took his medicine after getting burned for four of Tony Romo’s six completed passes on the drive and explained his technique was rusty when he was forced into the nickel corner slot. It’s a spot he has played often with the Giants but not for the past month. Still, Rolle has to do a better job in that situation because Romo made it look easy hitting Dez Bryant, Miles Austin and even Cole Beasley, who is not exactly Wes Welker out there.

– Another point on Rolle moving into the nickel role: Where was Jayron Hosley? He missed five straight games with a hamstring strain then returned last week and was active against the Cowboys, yet he got only four defensive snaps. Hosley is a 2012 third-round draft pick and supposed to develop into a starting nickel corner. Yet when McBride went down, the coaching staff did not trust Hosley and instead forced Rolle to move out of his natural position. That’s either a bad move by the coaching staff or else an indication that Hosley isn’t making any progress.

– Jason Pierre-Paul talked a much better game than he played. His shoulder must not be close to 100 percent — he played 27 of the 65 defensive snaps and never got close to Romo. Pierre-Paul finished with one tackle and nothing else. After showing some of his past excellence the past two games, this was a step back for Pierre-Paul.