Glauber: One meaningful game after another for Giants

PHILADELPHIA

In the wake of a dispiriting, mistake-filled home loss to a 1-7 Cowboys team last Sunday, the Giants didn't mind the seemingly daunting task of facing a 6-3 Eagles team coming off a game for the ages.

In fact, they thought it was the best thing for them.

"Hopefully this riles us up like Dallas was riled up against us," defensive end Justin Tuck said. "Hopefully we can look at ourselves and see the way we played against Dallas and promise ourselves we're not going to play this way against Philly."

You can understand the reasoning. Good teams always falter at some point during the season, and the Giants picked their moment to squander good fortune against the Cowboys. Five straight wins, and there was the clunker.

But say this much for Tuck's foresight. As it turned out, the Eagles were just the team last night to wake the Giants up after that dud against the Cowboys. Unfortunately for the Giants, a stunning second-half comeback slipped from their grasp and gave them a second straight loss to put them a game behind the Eagles.

Trailing 13-3 at halftime, and then 16-3 after the Eagles' first drive in the second half, the Giants staged a stunning comeback to take a 17-16 lead with 14:10 left in the fourth quarter. Eli Manning drove the Giants 68 yards for their first touchdown late in the third quarter, and Tuck's sack-forced fumble of Vick early in the fourth set up another touchdown to put the Giants ahead for the first time in the game.

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That lead vanished in the time it took LeSean McCoy to take a pitch on fourth-and-1 from midfield and race nearly untouched into the end zone to give the Eagles a lead they did not surrender again. In the end, the Eagles won it, 27-17.

Surprised at the late-game drama? Don't be. It's just the way the NFL planned it.

And you'll be seeing plenty more down the stretch, as the league's new emphasis on stacking divisional games over the second half of the season is already bearing the kind of results commissioner Roger Goodell was looking for. Meaningless games late in the year? Not this time.

"We've seen that commissioner Goodell's purpose was to load the second half of the season with key games, and we have to answer the bell," Giants coach Tom Coughlin said. "This is where you find out what you've got."

It could not have been a more daunting challenge. Coming off one of their sloppiest games of the year, the Giants were up against an Eagles team that had played as close to a perfect game as you could imagine in a 59-28 win over the Redskins in Washington.

One-game lead with six to play. By the time the teams meet again next month at New Meadowlands Stadium, it's a safe bet the stakes will remain just as high as they were last night.

In a division that features only a two-game spread from first place to third, this race will only heat up more. But it won't be easy for the Giants. The schedule down the stretch is unrelenting. Up next: resurgent Jacksonville and then the Redskins at home. Then it's at Minnesota against a Vikings team that might very well feature Tarvaris Jackson and not Brett Favre. Eagles at home, Packers on the road, Redskins on the road.

That, my friends, is no easy mission. Counting last night, six of the team's last seven games are against playoff-contending teams.

That's about as treacherous as it gets, even in a league that prides itself on parity. If the Giants get into the tournament after that late-season schedule, they'll have earned it.

Last night certainly didn't make it any easier.