Giants' spiral continues in Big Easy

NEW ORLEANS

Three straight losses and counting. Undefeated Packers up next at home. Cowboys on the road. A game against the Jets on Christmas Eve. And another against the Cowboys on New Year's Day.

With that 6-2 first-half record a distant memory, the Giants are officially reeling after getting waxed by the Saints, 49-24, Monday night at the Superdome. After that exhilarating 24-20 road win over the Patriots on Nov. 6 put the Giants in the conversation about contending teams, they have lost to the 49ers, Eagles and Saints, with each setback accompanied by increasingly disturbing signs.

They failed to get the offense going in the fourth quarter against the 49ers. They were pushed around by the Eagles. And they were obliterated on both sides of the ball Monday night against a Saints team that might be good enough to get to the Super Bowl. Said Antrel Rolle, "We've got to find a way to dig out of this hole. We've got to find a way to get better. We're not playing good football right now. No matter how you look at it, it's unacceptable to let a team score so many points. We're still trying to get better. We're going to fight through this."

Said Mathias Kiwanuka, "They were able to do anything they wanted. We didn't play hard enough to win the game. We've got to be able to rise up."

There was no better place to make a big statement than right here in the Big Easy. A win over the Saints before a national television audience on Monday Night Football, and the Giants would rescue their season from another second-half collapse.

But in a place the Giants instead might call the Not So Easy, the Giants fell apart from the start. They entered halftime trailing 21-3, with Drew Brees performing so well that his numbers looked respectable for a full game: 17-for-25 for 265 yards, three TDs and no interceptions.

If the Giants thought they were embarrassed by what occurred against the Eagles last week in a 17-10 loss, it was even worse against the Saints.

The Giants' defense talked all week about having to re-establish their dominance after being beaten by the Eagles and backup quarterback Vince Young, and knew they needed to get to Brees with a four-man rush. But they didn't sack him even once, and he had his way against a secondary that looked lost in trying to defend the Saints' formidable set of offensive weapons.

From tight end Jimmy Graham to wide receivers Marques Colston, Devery Henderson and Lance Moore, Brees looked as if he were conducting a practice.

The Giants kept their composure coming out of halftime, going on a six-play, 67-yard drive to make it 21-10 on Brandon Jacobs' 8-yard run. But the Saints poured it on from there, making it 28-10 on Brees' 8-yard scramble up the middle with 5:48 left in the third quarter. They scored two more TDs to make it 42-17 early in the fourth quarter, and that was it.

Here come the questions about whether they will crumble under the weight of expectations yet again -- and maybe take Tom Coughlin down with them this time. "We're going to keep trying,'' he said. "We've got to keep fighting and scrambling and doing the best we can. I thought we would play our tails off and put ourselves in position to win the game."

After Monday night's embarrassment, it's on to the unbeaten Packers at home. So by the time they face the 7-4 Cowboys, who are in sole possession of first place in the NFC East, their losing streak is likely to be at four and counting.

Sure, it's possible for the Giants to right themselves, especially if they can win that game in Dallas, a place where they have done well in big spots before. But the margin of error is small, and figures to be the rest of the way. If they keep playing the way they did Monday night, though, it won't matter.