Giants impressive in 34-10 victory over Texans

HOUSTON - The Giants had seen this kind of thing before. A team falls behind early, nothing seems to be working, the home crowd turns on it, and the players slink off to the locker room humbled and embarrassed by a three-hour beatdown.

This time, though, it wasn't them.

"We've seen that many a time," Giants defensive tackle Barry Cofield said. "I definitely understand what they were going through."

And it makes it that much sweeter when he and his teammates are able to put the hurt on someone else, as they did Sunday with a 34-10 win over the Texans. The Giants brought the NFL's top-ranked rushing offense to a crawl, capitalized on a young secondary and, for the first time in a year, won back-to-back games. They hadn't posted consecutive victories since their 5-0 start last season.

"It's definitely a feeling I haven't had in a while,'' Cofield said, "feeling like you dominated a game, feeling like you're on a winning streak and different phases of the team are working cohesively."

Two weeks after they were perceived to be splintering and their coach was being considered in the past tense, the Giants (3-2) have regrouped. Or maybe they just grouped, minus the re- prefix.

"We always knew we had talent on this team," said Eli Manning, who threw three touchdown passes and completed 27 of 42 for 297 yards. "It was just a matter of finding our rhythm. Sometimes it takes a few weeks for everything to sink in and trust your surroundings. We have new people, new leadership, and I thought we responded well these last few weeks."

After a three-and-out on their first possession, the Giants scored touchdowns on their next three to take a 21-0 lead on the Texans (3-2). Hakeem Nicks scored two of them with receptions of 6 and 12 yards and set up the other with a 27-yard catch-and-run to the 1 (Brandon Jacobs popped it in from there a play later).

That might have done as much to slow the NFL's top running back as anything the Giants did defensively. The big lead prevented the Texans from leaning on Arian Foster, who was held to 25 yards on 11 carries. He rushed for only 9 yards in the first half and carried only three times in the second half.

Despite a 24-3 halftime lead, the Giants came close to making the Texans competitive in the third quarter.

Manning was intercepted by Sherrick McManis when he threw an ill-advised pass across his body while rolling left and taking pressure from Brian Cushing. The defense forced the Texans to punt, but Manning threw another interception, again under pressure from Cushing, that was returned 23 yards by Kareem Jackson to the Giants' 17.

That set up the Texans' only touchdown drive, punctuated by former Giant Derrick Ward's 1-yard run, and made it a two-score game at 24-10.

"I didn't necessarily like the third quarter," Tom Coughlin said. "But we did come back and did a good job, I thought, and ended up winning the fourth quarter."

The Giants responded with an 11-play, 47-yard drive that ate up 5:38 and ended with a 42-yard field goal by Lawrence Tynes. They settled for three but did convert two third downs on the drive and were able to settle back into their role of dominance over the Texans.

A 4-yard pass to Steve Smith - his first TD of the season - finished the scoring for the Giants, who had long before finished the Texans.

"They kicked our tail in every phase of the game," Houston coach Gary Kubiak said.

The numbers bear that out. The Giants had 414 yards of offense, the Texans 195. The Giants had 26 first downs, the Texans 11. The Giants ran 74 offensive plays to the Texans' 52 and had the ball for almost two-thirds of the game (38:51).

"We felt coming in here, this was an important game for us," Coughlin said.

Going out, it might prove to be even more important. It was only 12 days ago, sitting on a two-game losing streak, that Giants safety Antrel Rolle said he was waiting for the team to come together. It wouldn't be a glaring moment, he said, noting that there would be "no skywriting" to announce it.

Maybe on its way home from Houston, the Giants' plane managed to spit out a few letters in the sky over New York, because Rolle - who shared a team high with six tackles - spoke about how the team was calm, composed and confident throughout the game.

So does that mean the Giants have come together?

"I definitely think so," the safety said with a glance to the future. "That's the sign of a great team to come."