The Rundown: The Giants' 50/50 lifeline

The day before Columbus Day.

That's how long it had been since the Giants put one in the win column. So Sunday's 34-31 overtime victory over the Falcons was cause for celebration, a quality win that puts the G-Men back in the thick of the NFC East race.

But anyone who actually watched the game has to have a sour taste in their mouth, because the reality is the Giants did everything wrong down the stretch until they were bailed out by the flip of a coin.

For 50 minutes, Tom Coughlin's squad did everything right. Eli Manning shredded Atlanta's porous pass defense, hitting wideouts, tight ends, fullbacks, security guards and hot dog vendors at will. The Giants defense kept the Falcons out of the end zone on a key third-quarter drive, and Big Blue held a 31-17 lead with seven minutes left in regulation.

At this point, the Falcons needed this scenario -- and only this scenario -- just to force overtime.

Atlanta touchdown
Giants don't score or hold the ball
Atlanta touchdown
Giants don't score before end of regulation

And that's exactly what happened. For the second straight game, the Giants choked away a fourth-quarter lead at home. The only difference between Sunday's collapse and the 21-20 loss to San Diego was the G-Men had a bigger lead this time, and the Falcons could only tie them.

This week's edition of "Giants Collapse" featured many of the same themes as two weeks ago: a prevent defense unable to stop the 15-yard pass, Justin Tuck hobbling off on the final drive, and repeated appearances of the Eli Manning Face. But once again, the central storyline was the atrocious play-calling of offensive coordinator Kevin Gilbride.

Gilbride is best-known as the architect of the Houston Oilers' "Run & Shoot" offense in the early 1990s, so you'd think he would know when to take the blinders off his offense. But in each of the last two games, he has gone conservative with the Giants winning late in the game. Last week, it led to a late field goal instead of a game-clinching touchdown. This week, it led to a quick punt that gave Matt Ryan oodles of time to bring his offense down the field for a game-tying touchdown.

Here's a quick breakdown of the last four plays from the Giants' last drive in regulation.

Eli to Kevin Boss for 26 yards (Boss steps out of bounds to stop the clock)
Eli dump off to Boss for no gain
Ahmad Bradshaw dive for no gain (ATL timeout)
Eli incomplete pass on attempted WR screen (stops clock)

Even the one positive play -- Boss' big catch -- had a gray lining because Boss didn't cut back to the middle of the field and keep the clock moving. But it's the next three plays that kill me. When you've shredded an opposing pass defense all day and have an opportunity to end the game, you take it. You don't suddenly go into the fetal position and rely on your defense when that exact strategy failed in the last game. Yet that's exactly what Gilbride did.

To be fair, the Giants moved the ball with ease once the overtime coin toss went their way. Eli, who threw for a career-high 384 yards, exploited hapless cornerback Chris Houston and found Hakeem Nicks over the middle on a quick slant on 3rd-and-2. A 29-yard strike to Mario Manningham on the next play put the Giants in field goal range, and Lawrence Tynes nailed the game-winner.

The Giants have a quick turnaround for their Thanksgiving Day game at Denver, but the Broncos' 32-3 loss to the Chargers suggests they may be ripe for the picking. Maybe this time Gilbride and Coughlin will let the offense play like men instead of mice in the final minutes.

NEW YORK JETS: Though the Jets' record changed from 4-5 to 4-6 after a 31-14 loss to the Pats, their story remains the same. The Jets have a pretty good defense that was very good before the loss of massive nose tackle Kris Jenkins, a pretty good running game that was very good before the loss of Leon Washington, and a mistake-prone rookie quarterback. Mark Sanchez is no Matt Ryan. The 3-0 start was a fluke. We have returned to our regularly scheduled programming.

NEW YORK KNICKS: The Knicks actually played well all week, beating the Pacers and the winless Nets and battling the Celtics for 53 minutes before falling to Kevin Garnett's buzzer-beating jumper in overtime. Their defense appears to be headed in the right direction, and Al Harrington has emerged as a legitimate offensive go-to guy. But when I read Harrington's comments after the Boston loss -- "It just goes to show that we're a very good team" -- I almost choked on my coffee.

Easy, Al. Your team is 3-10. You're being outscored by an average of 6.5 points per game. Your three wins are against New Orleans (6-9), Indiana (5-6), and New Jersey (0-13). Maybe don't call yourself "very good" until you beat at least one team with a winning record.

NEW JERSEY NETS: The infamous record approacheth. Now that New Jersey has lost to the
"very good" Knicks (see what I did there?) they have a slew of good Western Conference opponents between them and 0-18.

If the Nets want to avoid the worst start in NBA history, they'll have to beat either Denver, Portland, Sacramento, the Lakers, or Dallas. Only Sacramento is under .500, and the other four teams all made the playoffs last year. If Lawrence Frank's squad can't knock off the Kings the day after Thanksgiving, expect the 2009-10 Nets to be the new standard for season-opening futility.

NEW YORK RANGERS: Before Saturday's 3-2 loss to the Panthers, Vinny Prospal said players other than he and Marian Gaborik needed to contribute more offense. The duo then proceeded to provide the entire offense in defeat, scoring one goal apiece.

The irony intrigued me, so I took a look at the Blueshirts' offensive stats this season to see if Prospal had a point. Turns out he could have written a dissertation on the subject. Gaborik and Prospal have 29.5 percent of the team's points (51 of 173). That's two players out of 21 providing almost a third of the offense. Gaborik has 25 percent of the team's goals (16 of 64) by himself despite missing a pair of games to injury in late October.

Considering that center and right- and left-wingers are supposed to provide the offense and Gaborik and Prospal are part of the first line, those percentages are somewhat oversimplified. But they're also part of the reason the Rangers are 4-9-1 since Oct. 17.

AND ANOTHER THING... How 'bout those Orangemen? Possessing a massive "home-court" advantage, Syracuse ran North Carolina off the floor with a 20-1 second-half spurt and won the Coaches v Cancer Classic 87-71. The one point I should have mentioned in my post on the Orange was the substantial alumni base Syracuse has in New York City. Orange-clad alumni fill the stands at Madison Square Garden every time Syracuse plays there, and against schools like North Carolina, Jim Boeheim's squad has a significant cheering-section advantage. It showed on Friday night.