More Coverage On the Giants from Newsday's Beat reporter. Last paragraph will be my commenrary

Giants beat Panthers to end 4-game slide
BY ARTHUR STAPLE
STAFF CORRESPONDENT

December 10, 2006, 4:34 PM EST

CHARLOTTE, N.C -- It took a month of losses for the Giants to reach their desperation point. There's still a month to go until the playoffs begin, but a lot can happen in a month.

The Giants ended their losing streak at four games with a 27-13 win over the fading Panthers yesterday. It wasn't the prettiest of efforts, especially against a quarterback who hadn't played in four years and two little-used cornerbacks, but the Giants never trailed in winning for the first time since Nov. 5 against the Texans.

"A month like that," cornerback R.W. McQuarters said, "feels like two years. It's like, 'Damn, we haven't won in a month!' All it takes is one, no matter how you get it."

The Giants got this one by being smart and unspectacular on offense, relying on Tiki Barber (20 carries, 112 yards), who passed 10,000 rushing yards for his career, and Eli Manning, who threw three touchdown passes and wasn't intercepted for the second straight game.

The Panthers gained 463 total yards, but that was the product of a beaten team trying desperately to rally. Chris Weinke, starting for the first time since Oct. 30, 2002, threw 61 passes, completing 34 for 423 yards. The Giants had three interceptions in the second half, two by Gibril Wilson, to solidify their lead and their playoff position.

The Giants host the Eagles on Sunday; both teams are 7-6, along with the Falcons, and are tied for the lead in the battle for the two wild-card berths. The Giants also moved within one game of Dallas for the NFC East lead. So this is no time to bask in the glow of a long-awaited win.

But perhaps the memories of the past month -- players calling each other out, a coach calling his players out, the headlines screaming for the coach's head -- will quell any lofty thoughts.

"We had a lot of criticism, probably a lot of it deserved, but we knew this was like a playoff game," Antonio Pierce said. "We've got four playoff games to get us to the playoffs. We're 1-0 now."

The first sign that the Giants were approaching this game with a different mind-set came on their second drive. Twice they went for it on fourth down.

The first made sense -- fourth-and-inches from the Panthers' 34 -- and Manning's sneak got the first down.

The next was an atypical Tom Coughlin call, on fourth-and-10 from the 33. Manning avoided pressure by rolling to his left, froze a pair of defenders by faking a run, then fired a pass to David Tyree, who dived forward for the first down. The Giants came away with only a field goal, but it was a tone-setter.

"It's about building up emotion and esteem right there," said Tyree, who caught a 3-yard touchdown pass in the third quarter as the Giants took a 27-10 lead. "We don't get anything there, it definitely does something to your psyche."

Plaxico Burress walked off the field in disgust after the field-goal drive, having gotten open twice without Manning finding him, but Manning completed passes of 45 and 28 yards to Burress to put the Giants ahead 10-0, the latter a touchdown pass into single coverage on third-and-7.

Just 1:49 later, the Panthers made it 10-7 as Weinke targeted Giants rookie cornerback Kevin Dockery for three completions in four plays, the last a 36-yard touchdown pass to Drew Carter. John Kasay's 37-yard field goal tied it at 10 with 3:02 left in the half, but Manning put the Giants ahead for good by directing another crisp two-minute drive capped by a 2-yard TD catch by Jeremy Shockey 27 seconds before halftime. Shockey had recovered Brandon Jacobs' fumble at the 1 a play earlier.

With 10 points in the opening 8:01 of the second half on Jay Feely's 29-yard field goal and Tyree's touchdown reception, the Giants just had to grind out a win. They didn't earn any style points, going without a first down the remainder of the game and picking up only 70 yards in the second half, but the defense held its ground.

The Panthers were without starting corners Ken Lucas and Chris Gamble, then lost backup Christian Morton in the first quarter, forcing them to use two rookies and a backup safety.

The Giants were able to run the ball even with a hodgepodge of offensive linemen in the game. Shaun O'Hara left for two series after Barber rolled onto the back of his right leg, and Kareem McKenzie missed the second half with a strained neck. That forced left guard David Diehl to play tackle against All-Pro end Julius Peppers, who was generally neutralized.

Now the Giants, who will play the Saints and Redskins after facing the Eagles on Sunday, have to make the last month seem like a bad dream.

"We had great purpose over the entire [losing streak]," Coughlin said. "I don't think we had any distractions. They really handled the situation very well."


And my Comments:
Ok so The G-men played a bit smarter this time, infact the last two games prior to this as well, then thy did in the first two losses. Even if the play calling was a bit better-172 yards passing Vs a team with a weak group of d-backs isn't very good. Also no rushing TD's this time, and Jacobs looks stuck again when they bring him in. Still not using the TE enough either, even though he scored a TD (Shockey), he was only 6 grabs for 49 yds. But i guess a win is a win is a win...