Giants have to play keepaway vs. Bills 'D'

Facing a defense that leads the league in turnovers with 16 and interceptions with 12, you'd think Tom Coughlin would be stressing the importance of ball security to his Giants more than usual. Nope.

"The usual," he said, "is a lot."

But will it be enough?

Add the Bills' proclivity for picking off passes with the Giants' five turnovers in their loss to the Seahawks and it's a pretty good guess that Sunday's game could come down to the Giants' ability to keep the ball away from the Buffalo defense. The Giants have allowed a touchdown return of an interception twice this season, both of them coming in their two losses. The Bills, meanwhile, have returned an interception for a touchdown in three straight games, one shy of their team record streak set in 1960.

"It's huge," Giants wide receiver Victor Cruz said of hanging on to the football. "We're ready. We understand that we have to take care of the ball and we'll do that this week."

Cruz didn't against Seattle. He fumbled in the fourth quarter and tipped a pass in the air that was picked off and sealed the win for the Seahawks. Coughlin said he's noticed that many of the Bills' interceptions have come on tipped passes like that.

"They've been Johnny-on-the-spot," he said.

And while Sunday's pass off Cruz's fingertips was the first tipped ball interception of the year for Eli Manning, the Giants quarterback had nine of his 25 interceptions in 2010 on balls that were first touched by his own receivers.

Besides the three returned for a touchdown, the Bills have used the turnovers to generate massive points. Two of their 16 turnovers have ended games or come late enough for the Bills to run out the clock on a win. Of the other 14, the Bills have scored points off all but one turnover. That was last week against the Eagles, when they forced five turnovers in the game.

"Those are such big plays in the game," Bills quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick said of converting the turnovers. "Those are momentum swings and if you get one of those and then all of a sudden you don't score, it takes away from it a little bit . . . When you get a turnover your mentality's got to be to take advantage of it and score."

While there is certainly increased awareness about turnovers in this game, the Giants say they aren't about to change anything they do to avoid them. They see the take-aways the Bills are getting -- including three interceptions from safety George Wilson, a converted wide receiver -- but they also see a defense that has allowed 421.8 yards per game, which is 31st in the NFL. They let up 283.4 passing yards per game, ranked 26th.

"They do a good job getting turnovers and that is something that you can't play any differently," Manning said. "We are going to go out there and run our offense and throw to the guy you think is open. They've done a great job of making plays on defense. We have to make sure that they don't get many."

Coughlin, a former receivers coach, said there are techniques the players can use to eliminate tipped balls. But the answer is pretty simple as far as Mario Manningham is concerned.

"Just catch the ball," Manningham said. "That's all. Catch the ball. Catch it clean and they won't have any interceptions . . . As long as we keep them from their strength we should be all right."