Giants edge Jaguars, 24-20, with late defensive stand

Not every season has a hinge, a moment when the door can swing in either direction. They certainly aren't always clear at the time they occur, either. The Giants found themselves at that pivot Sunday, trailing the Jaguars by 11 points at halftime of a must-win game.

"We realized that we were about to let the season go down the drain," defensive tackle Barry Cofield said. "It doesn't matter what happened in earlier games and if we could have won those. It was all about what we were going to do from that point on."

What they did was use a pair of fiery speeches from defensive leaders - Osi Umenyiora followed by Justin Tuck - and clutch plays from the few offensive players on the field who had been with the team all season to wrestle a 24-20 home victory away from the Jaguars.

After allowing 17 points and a staggering 145 rushing yards in the first half, the Giants yielded only a field goal in the second half and forced two turnovers. Fourth-quarter touchdown receptions by Mario Manningham and Kevin Boss provided the points to eventually push the Giants ahead.

The win allowed the Giants to keep pace with the teams ahead of them in the NFC playoff picture and pull even with the Eagles for first place in the NFC East after Philly lost to the Bears.

"I'm going to enjoy this game," said Tom Coughlin, who certainly didn't appear to do so while it was going on. "This was a game that we felt like we needed to win. We needed to be 7-4."

Now the question is whether they can be 8-4. The Giants host the Redskins on Sunday before embarking on their final four games, three on the road and one at home against the Eagles. Will Sunday's halftime oratories be looked at as turning points? Or footnotes on another second-half free fall?

"We just have to show up," cornerback Terrell Thomas said. "We've got big money on our defense, a lot of playmakers. We play great at times, but sometimes we play like an average defense out there. We have to show up every game. We can't start out like that because a good team like that will beat us."

Thomas was part of the solution with an interception, sack and forced fumble in the second half. But in the first half, he was part of the problem on a team that was in constant disarray. Defensive linemen were turning around before the ball was snapped, wrong personnel groups were coming onto the field, and guys such as Thomas were missing tackles. The Jaguars converted five of six third downs in the first half, none more debilitating to the Giants than the pair of scrambles by David Garrard on the Jaguars' last drive of the second quarter.

On third-and-5, Garrard was flushed to his right, then cut inside Tuck back to his left for a 6-yard pickup to the Giants' 15. On third-and-goal from the 5, Garrard again rolled right, high-stepping a dive by Umenyiora from behind. He then cut back on Tuck, making him look jelly-kneed for the second time in a few plays, picked up a block on Jonathan Goff and scooted into the end zone for a 17-6 lead with 19 seconds left in the half.

Those plays led Umenyiora and Tuck to stand up at halftime and passionately implore the team to play better. "The guys, they responded," Tuck said. "Sometimes you can talk until you're blue in the face. Guys have to respond, and I give my team credit. They responded."

It began with Thomas' interception on the first play of the second half on a ball tipped by Mike Sims-Walker. The Giants moved to a first-and-goal at the 9 before settling for a disappointing field goal that made it 17-9.

Two of the first three plays of the fourth quarter were long passes, a 25-yarder to Boss and a 26-yard touchdown to Manningham that brought the Giants within two. Coughlin decided to go for the tie, although he said he usually waits until later in games to fiddle with those. Ahmad Bradshaw ran the ball in to make it 17-17.

Josh Scobee's 42-yard field goal gave the Jaguars a 20-17 lead with 8:26 left. But with a little more than three minutes remaining, Boss caught a short pass against a blitz, stepped out of a tackle and rumbled to the end zone for a 32-yard touchdown and a 24-20 lead.

The Jaguars' final three plays of the game were a sack of Garrard shared by Antrel Rolle and Tuck; a sack credited to Jason Pierre-Paul after he stripped the ball from Garrard, and a sack by a blitzing Thomas, who dislodged the ball for a fumble that Rolle recovered.

"We knew it would be a game that would come down to the last drive, win in the fourth quarter," Tuck said. "Hopefully, it is a wake-up call. Hopefully, it is something that can get us steamrollering. Sometimes you just have to win some games ugly."