‘D’ not mentally prepared for last Dallas drive
There was a sense of dread within the Giants’ defense even before Tony Romo’s crushing, gamewinning touchdown pass to Jason Witten with seven seconds remaining led to the Cowboys’ stunning, comefrombehind 2726 victory Sunday night in Dallas.
“For us, especially in that last drive of the game, we mentally had gotten a little down, and we can’t let that happen,” defensive tackle Cullen Jenkins said on a conference call Monday.
It ruined a stellar performance for the Giants’ noname defense, which created three turnovers, including Dominique RodgersCromartie’s 57yard fumble return for a touchdown. After limiting Dallas’ highpowered offense to just 13 points over the game’s first 45 minutes, the Cowboys scored on successive drives of 79 and 72 yards, taking a total of just 4:20, handing the Giants a devastating loss.
“We didn’t give them much opposition,” coach Tom Coughlin said.
Jenkins felt the biggest issue on those drives was the team’s new players on defense getting discombobulated.
“I thought for the most part, we were communicating well the whole night. Toward the end, we did have a couple of plays where the communication wasn’t the best,” Jenkins said. “But I think that had more to do with the players not being on the same page with their responsibilities and their checks.
“We have to jell better together as a group, know what each other is thinking, anticipating calls from each other and just be on the same page. ... We have to be more crisp in our responsibilities. That really came to bite us in the fourth quarter.”
Hall of Fame defensive end Michael Strahan was at the Giants’ practice facility Monday, trying to boost the team’s spirits, Jenkins said.
“That helped a lot,” Jenkins said. “It’s times like this when we just have to rally together, stay behind each other, and get through this together.”
Coughlin didn’t have an update on wide receiver Victor Cruz (calf ) or middle linebacker Jon Beason (knee), both of whom were inactive against the Cowboys.
The Giants missed Cruz badly, as slot receiver fillin
Preston Parker had two costly drops and Rueben
Randle managed just three catches for 23 yards starting in place of Cruz. Left tackle Ereck Flowers played through an ankle injury Sunday and is set to get an MRI exam, though there was no update available.
“He did injure the ankle early on and he gutted it out and finished the game,” Coughlin said. “He was limited to a certain extent because of the injury, but I thought he battled away and that’s what we always counted on, that he would battle, and he did.”