Glauber: Giants don't have to worry about Cowboys
Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo wears a sling on the sideline after injuring his left shoulder against the Giants. (Oct. 25, 2010) Credit: Getty Images
The script was supposed to go like this Monday night at Cowboys Stadium:
The desperate 1-4 Cowboys host the 4-2 Giants in a critical early-season NFC East showdown. With the NFL's desperate-teams-usually-win theory at work, the Cowboys would turn this into a horse race and re-inject themselves into the equation with a win over the streaking Giants.
Uh, one problem: Nowhere did it say that the Cowboys would suffer a devastating quarterback injury and, for all practical purposes, be eliminated from the race altogether.
With one fierce hit on Tony Romo by Giants linebacker Michael Boley early in the second quarter, what little hope flickered for the Cowboys was extinguished in their 41-35 loss.
Romo suffered a fractured left clavicle and is expected to miss several weeks. By the time he's ready to return, there's no telling how much worse Dallas' nightmare season will have become.
The Cowboys had built a 13-7 lead when Romo was replaced by 38-year-old Jon Kitna, and they went ahead 20-7 on Dez Bryant's 93-yard punt return. But by the time the first half ended, the Giants were ahead 24-20. And they poured it on from there, building a 38-20 lead in the third quarter on Eli Manning's fourth touchdown pass and a 30-yard touchdown run by Brandon Jacobs.
They wound up holding on and taking a decisive step forward in a divisional race that now is theirs for the taking.
"Tonight there were times when we were as good as there is in the NFL," Giants coach Tom Coughlin said. "We didn't play very smart toward the end, but you celebrate these victories. We feel pretty good about ourselves going into the bye."
It was as stunning a turn of events as this division has seen in years. The Cowboys were the overwhelming favorites to repeat as divisional winners - and perhaps even become the first team to play in a Super Bowl staged in its own city. Instead, they are for all practical purposes finished for the year.
Even with Romo, their chances were slim. Without him, those chances are virtually non-existent.
"I was upset, disappointed, frustrated," Romo said. "You work very hard to play in these games and be in position to help your team. It's tough not to be in there, but I know I'll be doing as much as I possibly can to help this team, even if I'm not playing."
Until Monday night, the major storyline in Dallas was whether Wade Phillips would last the season as coach. But that scenario is a moot point now that Romo is done for an extended period of time. Without a functional quarterback, you could bring back Vince Lombardi, Bill Walsh and Paul Brown, and it still wouldn't get the Cowboys back in the race.
The Giants, meanwhile are in control of the division. With the Eagles experiencing instability at quarterback because of Kevin Kolb's performance and Michael Vick's injury, Philly is a work in progress. Donovan McNabb has been an upgrade at quarterback for the Redskins, but Mike Shanahan still is a long way from fielding a dominating team.
It is now the Giants, winners of four straight, who enjoy the role as divisional favorites. The offense is humming behind the passing of Manning and the running of Jacobs and Ahmad Bradshaw. And the defense, Monday night's fourth-quarter struggle notwithstanding, is looking better each week, with an unrelenting pass rush that has left a path of battered quarterbacks in its wake. Romo became the fifth quarterback knocked out of a game by the Giants under new defensive coordinator Perry Fewell.
"We feel we can play even better than this,'' defensive end Justin Tuck said. "We want to shut the other team out. We didn't do that, but we did enough to win, and that's good enough for now. Still a long way to go, though.''
Once Romo was injured, the Cowboys' defense was invisible. After two interceptions helped Dallas take a 10-0 lead, Manning picked apart the Cowboys at will.
And the Giants' one-two punch of Bradshaw and Jacobs wore down a defense that had - at least statistically - been near the top of the NFL's rankings. Bradshaw rushed for 126 yards on 24 carries, Jacobs picked up 75 yards on 12 attempts and Manning passed for 306 yards as the Giants gained 497 total yards.
Look ahead at a schedule that once seemed daunting, and there are winnable games wherever you look. After a bye, the Giants are at the Seahawks, home to Dallas, at Philly, home to the Jaguars and Redskins, and then at a Vikings team that might be without Brett Favre.
Barring major injury, they look good enough to win the division. At the very least, one major obstacle is out of the way: After Monday night, the Giants won't have to worry about the Cowboys.
