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Yeah, look. There's no point in trying to deceive anyone. I'm checking out for the weekend. This is one of my very favorite weekends of the year, and I'm going to get it started early. This is the last blog post I'm writing today, and other than a phone interview on NFL32 at 6 p.m., work is over for me for the week. But before I go off to a weekend of char-grilled relaxation, I wanted to do a "one more thing" post. What's a "one more thing" post, you ask? Well, it's something I just thought up where I go through each of our four teams and raise one issue we haven't been discussing very much on the blog. They're all going to be positive issues, because I don't want anyone to go into the weekend upset. We'll do them in order of how close each team's home stadium is to my house, because I just decided that as well.

New York Giants

Corey Webster should get more love. The Giants have question marks at cornerback this year, with Terrell Thomas coming back from injury and 2011 first-round pick Prince Amukamara still learning on the job. But what doesn't get mentioned enough when we talk about those two is Webster, who had an absolutely incredible year in 2011. The Giants asked him quite often to play the Darrelle Revis role of the corner who just plasters himself to the other team's best wideout and keeps him from making plays. Webster was, far more often than not, up to the task. He's 30 years old now and doesn't get mentioned with the league's best corners, but he played like one of them last year, and another year like that will make sure he's on the national radar.

Philadelphia Eagles

I think the biggest thing working in Demetress Bell's favor as he works at the very difficult task of replacing Jason Peters as the Eagles' left tackle is the rest of the offensive line. Evan Mathis, Jason Kelce, Danny Watkins and Todd Herremans teamed with Peters last year to form maybe the best run-blocking line in the league. They are a confident, outgoing bunch of players who are eager to help, and Bell is certainly getting by-the-second lessons on Howard Mudd's blocking scheme from his new linemates. Bell doesn't have Peters' athleticism, and that's certainly likely to show up at times this year. But he's going to get a lot of help from some linemen who played extremely well together last year, and he's in a position to exceed expectations.

Washington Redskins

Don't rule out Pierre Garcon as No. 1 wide receiver material. No, of course he's never really been that traditional No. 1 we all think of when we think of guys like Calvin Johnson and Larry Fitzgerald. But Garcon doesn't even turn 26 years old until August. He had 70 catches and 947 yards last year for a Colts team that was using Kerry Collins, Curtis Painter and Dan Orlovsky at quarterback. And after deciding that one of his top priorities this offseason was finding a No. 1 receiver, Mike Shanahan picked Garcon from among the available free agents. This was the guy he wanted. The Redskins signed him within the first five minutes of free agency. For his offense, Shanahan was looking for a receiver with the speed and athleticism to catch the ball on a slant route and take it the distance. In Garcon, he sees a young man who can be that guy. Garcon will play with a rookie quarterback this year, as you're all aware, but he'll also grow and develop along with that quarterback, and the Redskins believe they have plucked a future No. 1 wide receiver just as he's about to become one.

Dallas Cowboys

Sean Lee wasn't having a good year before his dislocated his wrist. He was having an eye-poppingly fantastic year. Wherever the ball was, there Lee seemed to be at critical moments, to make an interception, deliver a big tackle or break up a pass. He played fine after the injury, when he came back with that big old cast on his arm, but lost in the way the Cowboys' defense melted down at the end of 2011 was that Lee had been one of the best defensive players in the league for the first month. Assuming he's back to full health, Lee could be a monster player for the Cowboys in 2012 -- the kind of do-everything defensive leader they've lacked for so long. DeMarcus Ware is the best player on the defense (some say on any defense), and it's doubtful Lee will ever match him. But given Ware's preference for keeping to himself and out of the media spotlight, Lee's the kind of guy you can imagine emerging, assuming he plays the way he did early last season, as the face of the Cowboys' defense in the coming years. Last year's disappointment shouldn't dim the hopes Cowboys fans have for more great things to come from Lee.

And that's it for now. I really do mean it about this being one of my favorite weekends, and I hope it is for you too. Memorial Day is the day to remember the people who died fighting to protect us. People who literally died so that you and I could keep sitting here arguing about sports. I have no idea if I could die for my country, and as a result I am incredibly appreciative of the people who have done it and allowed me the time and freedom to keep wondering. Think about them as you enjoy the first weekend of the summertime, because we owe them that and much more.

The defending Super Bowl champions get back to work this weekend, as the New York Giants hold their rookie minicamp in East Rutherford, N.J. Repeating is hard work, though, and there are good reasons why only one team this century has been able to do it.

You lose players. You lose coaches. You become the No. 1 target for teams that have identified you as the biggest obstacle standing in their way of getting what they want. The people who run the Giants, and many of the people who play for the Giants, were in this position four years ago, and they know all about the challenges that face the defending Super Bowl champs.

But this year's Giants are not your ordinary defending champ. They were, speaking strictly in terms of winning percentage, the weakest Super Bowl champion in history. They didn't even secure their playoff spot until the final game of the regular season. With two weeks to go, they were 7-7 and in real danger of finishing under .500.

All of these things are facts, just as much as the title they won. So as they get back to work this spring and summer, the Giants face the seemingly incongruous dual task of maintaining the magic that brought them their title while also improving a 9-7 team.

They have some things going for them, and I'm not just talking about Eli Manning, Hakeem Nicks, Victor Cruz, Justin Tuck and Jason Pierre-Paul. The Giants run their franchise as one that's perpetually in transition.

Rather than wait for problems to present themselves, or roster holes to open, the Giants constantly churn the middle and the back end of their roster, developing players in their system so they're ready to step in when need arises. There are running backs and wide receivers on the roster who have been waiting for the opportunity created by the free-agent defections of Brandon Jacobs and Mario Manningham, and those players will get the chance to do what Cruz and Pierre-Paul did last year when presented with similar chances. The Giants never allow themselves to get so thin at any one position that they don't at least have options for replacing those who leave or get hurt or decide to sit out training camp.

That said, this Giants team does have holes to fill and problems to solve. They finished 32nd in the league in rushing offense -- a fact that, while mitigated by the improvements the run game showed in December and January -- didn't sit well with their running backs and their offensive linemen. They will need to get better there, and to do so they'll need Ahmad Bradshaw's feet to stay healthy for the first time in years. Plus, they must find someone to replace the 167 touches and eight touchdowns Jacobs contributed to last season's cause.

They'll need to shuffle the offensive line again. While Kareem McKenzie was not what he used to be, he was the starting right tackle on a team that won the Super Bowl, and they did not replace him. They hope that Will Beatty (a) comes back healthy from his eye injury and (b) plays better than he did at left tackle in the first 10 games of last season.

David Diehl isn't around to slide over and bail him out this time. Diehl's got to play right tackle in place of McKenzie. The Giants have some offensive linemen they like for the long-term, but this looks like another transition year on the line. While they have enough good veterans in place to pull it off, that's a tough tightrope act to try too many years in a row.

They have bodies at linebacker, with Keith Rivers brought in as a good veteran reinforcement and some of last year's promising rookies hopefully ready to take a next step, but they have no clear man for the middle. They have bodies at cornerback, but they have question marks there, too.

Corey Webster was awesome in 2011. Can he repeat that performance? Is Terrell Thomas fully recovered from the preseason knee injury that cost him the whole season? Will Prince Amukamara make more of a contribution?

Don't think for a second that GM Jerry Reese isn't concerned. He used each of his first three draft picks on positions at which he lost a player in free agency -- running back (David Wilson for Jacobs), wide receiver (Rueben Randle for Mario Manningham) and cornerback (Jayron Hosley for Aaron Ross). And he's smart to be concerned, because while these Giants rightfully consider themselves a championship team, they're also a team that won one less regular-season game in 2011 than it won in 2010. Had someone in the NFC East won 10 and the Giants missed the playoffs, their offseason narrative would have been that of a team moving in the wrong direction.

Instead, the Giants have a two-front problem to solve. They have a division and a conference and a league full of teams that saw what they did and now consider Super Bowl glory more attainable than ever. And they have an internal mandate to be better this year than 9-7, because they know first-hand that it's not usually good enough to get you the chance to make a Super Bowl run.

They're capable of doing it, and they'll deservedly enter the season among the favorites to win it all again. They have superstars at quarterback, wide receiver and defensive end, and in this day and age that can carry you a long way. But as far as defending Super Bowl champions go, these Giants have more issues than most -- and more work to do.

The New York Giants are having a rookie minicamp at the end of this week. Thinking of going down there maybe Friday and picking up some fresh material for the blog. Meantime, Ohm Youngmisuk has a profile of one of the rookies who'll be in attendance -- Jayron Hosley, the cornerback the Giants drafted in the third round. Youngmisuk says Hosley could have an opportunity to challenge for the nickel cornerback role and the punt returner spot.

Now, the Giants don't generally rush their rookies, but the fact of what Youngmisuk says is there will be opportunities for someone like Hosley to contribute. Other than Corey Webster, the cornerbacks on the Giants' roster all seem to be coming off of serious 2011 injuries. And Prince Amukamara, whose training-camp injury healed enough to allow him to play late last season, isn't all that far ahead of Hosley in terms of his experience in the Giants' program.

It'll be interesting to see the extent to which the Giants' early-round picks factor into the plans for 2012. Their depth somewhat weakened by free-agent defections at running back, wide receiver and cornerback, they used their first three picks on those positions and later admitted to drafting for need more than they usually do. For that reason, players like David Wilson, Rueben Randle and Hosley could find themselves with more of a chance to make an immediate impact than a lot of rookies might on most Super Bowl champion teams.

Did the New York Giants get better?

History will make it easy to forget that the 2011 Giants were a 9-7 team that needed to win its final game of the season just to make the playoffs. Sure, they won the Super Bowl, and if you do that it doesn't matter how close you came to not getting the chance. But if the goal is to do it again (as I'm certain it is in the minds of those who play for and run the Giants), then it's fair to assume they'll need more than nine regular-season wins this time. So the question is not whether they've done enough to make themselves better than they were in January and February but whether they've done enough to make themselves better than they were from September to December.

The Giants are incredibly strong at certain key positions, such as quarterback, wide receiver and defensive end. They are wise to prioritize those positions, because in today's NFL, being ultra-strong in those areas can help you cover weaknesses in others. But that's not to say they can allow weaknesses elsewhere on the roster to fester, and that's part of the reason they took a running back in the first round and a wide receiver in the second. Will David Wilson be an upgrade over the 2011 version of Brandon Jacobs? Probably someday but not necessarily right away. Will Rueben Randle be an upgrade over the 2011 version of Mario Manningham? Maybe someday but not necessarily right away. Will the offensive line be better with Will Beatty back at left tackle and David Diehl replacing Kareem McKenzie at right tackle? Depends, in part, on whether Kevin Boothe can play as well as he did at left guard in December and January, and whether David Baas and Chris Snee can play better than they did at center and right guard.

The Giants don't panic, and they shouldn't. They have ample proof that their faith in themselves to replenish the roster and regenerate a contending team on the fly is fully justified. But they have a lot of questions to answer in the offseason and in training camp. They don't know whether Terrell Thomas can come back fully healthy and be the emerging star cornerback he was before last summer's knee injury. They don't know whether Corey Webster can repeat his career year. They don't know who the starting middle linebacker is, or how the alignment will work around newcomer Keith Rivers. They don't know whether Osi Umenyiora is going to hold out. They have questions at tight end, and elsewhere on the offense. The Giants don't know, right now, whether they're better than the team that won the division at 9-7 and then got on a roll and won it all. They've done the best they could this offseason to try to make themselves so, but they don't know yet whether they have.

Cornerback Aaron Ross became the second member of the Super Bowl champion New York Giants to leave via free agency, signing with the Jacksonville Jaguars for three years and $15.3 million. As with the departure of wide receiver Mario Manningham, who signed with the 49ers over the weekend, Ross' defection was expected. Earlier this offseason there had been some talk of finding a way to keep Ross. But after the Giants re-signed cornerback Terrell Thomas last week, they looked at Ross as a reserve cornerback behind Thomas, Corey Webster and possibly even 2011 first-round draft pick Prince Amukamara. With that kind of depth at the position, they were only going to bring Ross back at their price, which was surely less than what he got from Jacksonville.

The Washington Redskins, looking to deepen their own secondary, had Ross in for a visit late last week and had interest in signing him as well. But as with the Giants, the Redskins weren't necessarily looking for a starter. They have DeAngelo Hall, Josh Wilson and the newly signed Cedric Griffin at cornerback. And while they would have liked to add Ross to that mix, they weren't willing to go as high as Jacksonville was to do so.

So the Giants feel they have the depth on their roster already to allow them to handle the loss of Ross, who won two Super Bowls with them and performed, overall, fairly well once he was thrust into a starter's role this past season due to Thomas' preseason knee injury. A former first-round pick, Ross had some 2011 games in which he flashed that first-round talent, and surely that's what caught the eye of Jacksonville, Washington and other interested teams.

Expect the Redskins to continue to hunt for free agents who can help add depth to their secondary, and don't rule out cornerback for them as a possibility in the middle rounds of the draft next month. They're picking a quarterback in the first round and don't have a second-round pick, but they still have a third-rounder and two fourths, and they still could use reinforcements in the secondary.

NFL free agency doesn't begin for about six more hours, but teams can still sign their own free agents before then, and the New York Giants have reached an agreement with one of theirs. Adam Schefter reports that the Giants have agreed on a new contract with free-agent cornerback Terrell Thomas, who missed the entire 2011 season due to an ACL injury suffered in a preseason game.

It was an important signing for the Giants as they head into free agency very close to the salary cap. Cornerback Aaron Ross is also a free agent, but since he's healthy and coming off a good year, Ross was always more likely to get more on the open market than Thomas was. Assuming Thomas can come back healthy, Corey Webster can continue to play the way he played this past year and 2011 first-round pick Prince Amukamara can step up his performance in his second year, the Giants are positioned to weather the loss of Ross via free agency. That's not to say they won't make an effort to bring back Ross, but it's not going to be easy, and since Thomas was always likely to be cheaper, they felt it was important to make sure and keep him off the market.

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. -- It's tough playing cornerback for the New York Giants, where the defensive line gets all the love and the best cornerback in the league plays for the other New York team. And for much of this season, the Giants' secondary was the team's Achilles' heel -- a near-laughingstock that was famously ridiculed on national TV by Cris Collinsworth and obviously targeted by opposing offenses.

But anyone who's played defensive back in the NFL will tell you how important it is to have a short memory and a ton of confidence, no matter how much attention anyone's paying to you. As the Giants prepare to play the Patriots in Super Bowl XLVI, their secondary remains unbowed and as confident as ever.

"If you keep doing your job, the attention will come," Giants cornerback Corey Webster said Friday. "Me, I think I'm great. I think I'm the best thing out there. I'm sure Aaron Ross feels the same way, and our whole secondary feels the same way. That's how you're supposed to feel when you take that field."

There were certainly times this year when the men in the Giants' secondary could have justifiably felt otherwise. Only three teams gave up more passing yards than the 4,082 the Giants allowed. And while those three -- Green Bay, New Orleans and New England -- were among the very best teams in the league, a number like that still isn't good for your personal or professional pride. After a four-game losing streak in which they allowed an average of 304 passing yards per game, a victory over Dallas in which they allowed 305 more and a loss to the Redskins in which Rex Grossman was 7-for-10 on third downs, the Giants' secondary looked like such an easy target that Mark Sanchez and the Jets threw 59 passes against them in the Christmas Eve game.

That turned out to be a huge mistake, however, as the Giants' secondary was in the process of turning a corner. They blanketed the Jets' receivers, won that game and haven't lost since. And while the defense still lives and dies with the performance of its pass-rushing linemen, the performance of the secondary has been a big part of the five-game win streak that has landed the Giants in the Super Bowl.

"Our play speaks for itself," said Giants safety Antrel Rolle, who does more than his own fair share of speaking. "There are a lot of reasons we've played better. We're more focused. We're on the same page with our defensive coordinator. And we're on the same page with each other, and that's the biggest improvement."

The enduring images of the Giants' secondary from last Sunday's NFC Championship victory over the 49ers are the two times San Francisco tight end Vernon Davis got behind them for long touchdowns. But true to the defensive back's code, the Giants' DBs were pointing out this week that Davis only caught one other pass, that the 49ers only caught 12 total and that six of those were caught by the running back. Safety Deon Grant said the first Davis touchdown wasn't the result of Rolle getting beat, but rather the result of zone coverage that wasn't executed correctly, and that the Giants' safeties and cornerbacks relish the challenge of slowing down the Patriots' great tight ends the way they did the Packers' Jermichael Finley two weeks ago in Green Bay.

"Those tight ends are more like tight end/wide receiver combinations, so it falls right into what we do," Grant said. "We have safeties who can cover, corners who can cover. When we're matched up against these best tight ends out there, we don't want to play zone. We want to play man-to-man and show off our skills."

You can't play defensive back in the NFL without that level of confidence, whether justified or not. And the Giants' defensive backs are a case study in forgetting the bad stuff quickly. If cornerback Aaron Ross had wallowed in early-season struggles that got him benched in Week 2, the Giants would have been floundering even more than they already were on pass defense through November and early December. But Ross shook it off and helped fill the gap created by preseason injuries to Terrell Thomas and first-round draft pick Prince Amukamara.

"Aaron was a guy they drafted in the first round," Grant said. "He was a guy who was here when they won the Super Bowl the last time. And now you're seeing that same first-round guy and that same guy who helped win that Super Bowl. He's back. He's healthy. And he's the old Aaron Ross again."

Plenty of swagger and no desire to look back. That's the way these Giants' defensive backs are built. When practice ended Friday, Rolle shared a friendly handshake with Collinsworth, who'd called the Giants' coverage "amateurish" and said Rolle had been "barbecued" by Dez Bryant in the first game against the Cowboys. In the days following that game, Rolle was critical of such analysis and explained in detail what had really happened on the play in question. But on Friday, when Collinsworth showed up for practice as part of NBC's preparations for the Super Bowl, all was forgotten.

"We're cool," Rolle said. "There's no hard feelings in this league. Collinsworth and I, we've always gotten along."

The defensive back's code: What happened in the past stays in the past. And none of it matters to the Giants now.

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. -- Missing practice nine days before the Super Bowl isn't the biggest or most alarming deal in the world, but it's still better to be healthy enough to practice than to not be. To that end, we offer you an update on who's on the field and who isn't, both here and up in Foxborough.

For the Giants, wide receiver Hakeem Nicks, cornerbacks Corey Webster and Will Blackmon and linebacker Jacquian Williams all missed practice for the second straight day. Nicks injured his shoulder Sunday in the NFC Championship Game, but he returned to the game and said Thursday that he wasn't worried about missing the Super Bowl. Webster has been dealing with a hamstring problem for a while now, but he played Sunday and should be good to go. Blackmon has a knee injury. Williams, who forced the fumble that set up the Giants' overtime game-winning field goal Sunday in San Francisco, has a foot injury, and there has been no update on his status. If it's serious enough to keep him out of the Super Bowl, that would hurt the Giants on special teams and in coverage against the Patriots' tight ends.

Speaking of which...

Up in Foxborough, the folks at ESPNBoston.com report, Patriots tight end Rob Gronkowski was absent for the start of practice. Gronkowski injured his ankle Sunday in the AFC Championship Game, and the Patriots have been typically tight-lipped about his status. But Gronkowski's father told a Buffalo TV station that the injury is a high ankle sprain, and if that's the case his status for the Feb. 5 game is in doubt.

Steelers center Maurkice Pouncey missed last year's Super Bowl after suffering a high ankle sprain in the AFC Championship Game. Two years ago, Colts defensive end Dwight Freeney had an ankle injury and started the Super Bowl but was unable to maintain his effectiveness in the second half. The odds are good that Gronkowski will find a way to suit up and play in the game, but the question is how much the ankle will limit him. This is likely to be the dominant daily storyline next week in Indianapolis.

Giants center David Baas and running back Ahmad Bradshaw, who missed Thursday's practice with neck and foot injuries, respectively, were back at practice Friday for the Giants.

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. -- Most of the New York Giants returned to practice Thursday. Seven of them did not, including wide receiver Hakeem Nicks, center David Baas, running back Ahmad Bradshaw, cornerbacks Corey Webster and Will Blackmon and linebackers Chase Blackburn and Jacquian Williams. All seven were held out due to injury, but none is concerned about possibly missing the Super Bowl, which is 10 days away.

"Just trying to be smart and not aggravate something that's there that we'll be able to manage in a short amount of time," Giants coach Tom Coughlin said.

Nicks injured his shoulder in Sunday's NFC Championship Game in San Francisco, but he returned to the game and expects to be fine. Baas has an abdominal injury as well as the neck problem that has affected him all year. Bradshaw has been sitting out two practices a week for the past month and a half to rest his injured foot. Baas and Blackburn (calf) said they expected to practice Friday. Webster has a hamstring injury that's been bugging him for a few weeks but hasn't affected him in games. Williams has a foot injury, the team said.

Basically, the two-week break before the Super Bowl allows the Giants to rest injured players even if their injuries wouldn't require them to miss practice on a normal week. If we get to next Thursday and Nicks is still not practicing, then Giants fans would have a reason to be worried. But again, he came back into the game after injuring the shoulder Sunday. If he was fine after a half-hour, I imagine two weeks should be plenty of time to allow him to heal sufficiently to play in the Super Bowl.

It takes a while to get back to the East Coast from the West Coast, and so today I find myself writing on airplanes and in airports with little time to cultivate thoughts into the kinds of longer, deeper posts I enjoy writing. But I couldn't let the day go by without something on the NFC champion New York Giants, and the word off of which I kept wanting to work is "heart."

It's no secret that, at various times this past season, I was unconvinced about the Giants. More than once, I wrote with some degree of conviction that they weren't very good. Occasionally, these proclamations included ill-advised references to tropical fruits. We all have our regrets.

But long before I was willing to concede that the Giants are a much better team than I thought they were (a fact now indisputable as I finalize my Indianapolis hotel room), I thought and wrote that they were at least tough. Eli Manning's fourth-quarter comebacks, the victory over the Patriots in Foxboro, the 6-2 start in spite of the injuries ... all of these were evidence of a level of heart that's hard to see when making preseason predictions, and the Giants clearly had it in buckets. Where the Eagles didn't have enough heart to cash in on their talent and the Cowboys didn't have enough to win one of two head-to-head games against the Giants and claim the division title, the Giants had enough to hold on through some very tough times -- some times when they honestly weren't very good -- and survive until they could get healthy and hot.

This is admirable, and would have been so even if they'd lost in Green Bay or in San Francisco or even at home to Atlanta. Given what the Giants went through this year in terms of injuries and schedule, winning the division was an achievement unto itself -- a testament to their toughness and heart.

But I think what's most remarkable about what's going on now -- about how far they've been able to take this -- is what's grown out of that heart. Plenty of teams this year were tough, but not all of them made it to the Super Bowl. This Giants team's achievement is that it was able to build on its heart and grit and mold it into the kind of stuff that wins you games on the road in January.

Out of the heart and the toughness grew confidence. The Giants' players looked around their locker room week in and week out and saw men who were making huge plays -- maybe even playing over their heads -- in the name of trying to win games. Yeah, Manning's been brilliant and was making more of those plays than anyone. But if you're a Giants player, how could you not notice the job Corey Webster was doing, more often than not, in one-on-one coverage against No. 1 wide receivers? How could you not appreciate Ahmad Bradshaw running hard with a broken bone in his foot? Even the offensive stars of the team -- Manning, Hakeem Nicks, Victor Cruz -- are paragons of hard work, film-room rats who carry themselves like humble teammates instead of superstar talents.

So out of the heart and toughness grew a roster-wide confidence that was visceral and organic. This wasn't the result of speech-making by coaches or fellow players. These Giants grew to believe in each other, and that belief grew out of what was happening on the field -- even when they were losing.

Tom Coughlin and his coaching staff sensed that confidence and that belief growing, and they began to trade on it. Coughlin's message ever since the Week 15 loss to the Redskins that dropped the Giants to 7-7 has been upbeat and positive. He has worked to use the teamwide belief and confidence to mold key components of playoff victories. The Giants of the past five weeks have been the personification of patience. Taking their cue from their coach and their quarterback, they refuse to be rattled. They encounter frustration, on a weekly basis, and they do not let it affect them. Not running the ball the way you want to run it in the first quarter? Stick with it, and we promise it'll pay off. Vernon Davis gets behind the defense for two long touchdowns? Buckle down. Keep doing the right things you've been doing on all the other plays and don't let the one or two breakdowns shake you up.

Not moving the ball at all in the second half or overtime against a 49ers defense that won't let up? Just stay the course. Protect the football. Be smart. The team that blinks first is the one that's going to lose. Nobody's going 80 yards to win this game. There needs to be a turnover and a short field, and if you just keep doing what you've been doing and refuse to buckle, there's a good chance it'll be the other team that blinks.

And sure enough.

Even when they looked like one of the league's mediocre teams, these Giants players had some things going for them. They had experience that they knew could pay off if they made it to the playoffs. They had one of the league's best and most unflappable quarterbacks. They had heart -- miles and miles and miles of heart. But the reason they're playing in the Super Bowl 13 days from now is because they were able to trade on that heart and convert it into on-field patience and discipline. That's how you win road playoff games -- persistence, patience, discipline and toughness. The Giants' coaching staff deserves credit for identifying the ingredients and putting them all together. The players deserve credit for putting it into practice. The 2011-12 Giants are a remarkable story of perseverance and recovery, and the way they're playing right now, even a pineapple can see that they're not just good -- they're a Super Bowl team.

Friday the 13th, huh? Well, we'll get through it together. Or something like that. Links.

New York Giants

Johnette Howard writes of Corey Webster, and how much has changed for both him and the Packers since that game four years ago when he intercepted Brett Favre in overtime.

Packers defensive lineman B.J. Raji says the Giants' offensive line is "not the toughest" against which he's played. Meh. I'm sure he's right, but why do these guys keep saying stuff like this?

Philadelphia Eagles

LeSean McCoy went on the NFL Network and said the team is sticking by coach Andy Reid and that next year will be the Eagles' year. Why didn't he tell us this five months ago? Really could have covered the season a lot differently if we'd known. Next year. Not this year. Next.

The Minnesota Vikings are striking out like crazy in their efforts to find a new defensive coordinator, and Tom Pelissero suggests a possible target that will cause Eagles fans to spit their milk and Cheerios through their noses: Juan Castillo. Seriously, read it.

Dallas Cowboys

Looks as though the "offensive coordinator" part of Bill Callahan's title is a formality, as all of the coverage of the Cowboys' Thursday announcement indicates that head coach Jason Garrett will continue calling plays. Regardless, former Jet Damien Woody has lots of good stuff to say about the Cowboys' new offensive line coach.

The Cowboys also will be in the market for a veteran backup quarterback, as Jon Kitna has told them he's retiring. This is not a surprise.

Washington Redskins

This is day-old news but bears mentioning: Redskins linebacker London Fletcher has won this year's Bart Starr Award for outstanding character and leadership. Fellow NFC East players Nnamdi Asomugha and Jason Witten were also finalists.

What will the teams at the top of the draft do about quarterback -- even the ones who already have one? Dan Daly muses on that and what it could mean for the Redskins' pursuit of their new signal-caller.

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. -- Everybody wanted to know about New York Giants cornerback Aaron Ross, who came out of Sunday's game with a concussion. Well, Ross has passed all of his tests and was cleared to practice with the Giants on Wednesday. It appears he'll be all set to play and start Sunday's playoff game against the Packers in Green Bay.

The only Giants who missed practice were running back D.J. Ware, who also had a concussion Sunday, running back Ahmad Bradshaw, who's only been practicing once a week for the past couple of months because of his foot injury, and linebacker Mark Herzlich, whose ankle injury has kept him out for a while. Ware has a history with concussions, so it's possible he might not be able to make it back in time for Sunday's game. The Giants have used Ware in the screen game and to take some of the pressure off of Bradshaw's bad foot, but they may not be able to count on him this week.

The Ross news is good for the Giants, who can't afford to be any more shorthanded in the secondary than they already are. If Ross couldn't play, that would mean more reps for rookie cornerback Prince Amukamara, who's been a favorite target of opposing quarterbacks when he has played this year. Having Ross healthy along with fellow starter Corey Webster, and then spotting in Amukamara as needed, gives the Giants their best chance against the aerial assault of Aaron Rodgers and the Packers.

New York Giants defensive end Justin Tuck didn't practice Friday, held out due to a shoulder injury. But Giants coach Tom Coughlin told reporters in East Rutherford that he did not expect it to be an issue in Sunday's playoff game against the Atlanta Falcons, and Tuck was listed as probable on the final injury report.

Also listed as probable were tight end Jake Ballard, running back Ahmad Bradshaw, running back Da'Rel Scott, defensive end Osi Umenyiora, cornerback Corey Webster and offensive lineman Tony Ugoh, all of whom the Giants listed as having practiced on a "limited" basis. The only ones among those that bear a second look are Ballard, who has missed the past two games with a knee injury but was able to practice some this week, and Webster, who has a hamstring injury that just cropped up this week. But the Giants believe both of those players will be healthy enough to play, and Webster is not concerned about possibly being limited in the game.

Linebacker Mark Herzlich is listed as "out" and will not play due to the ankle injury that caused him to miss the final five games of the regular season.

As for the Falcons ... well, they listed 18 guys as probable, and all 18 of them practiced Friday, so that's just silly to even look at that list. The two key names higher up on on Atlanta's injury report are those of linebacker Stephen Nicholas, who has a toe injury and missed four of the Falcons' final five games, and cornerback Brent Grimes, who missed four of those last five games with a knee injury. Nicholas is listed as doubtful and Grimes as questionable. According to the estimable Pat Yasinskas, the Falcons appear to have some hope that Grimes will play but little hope that Nicholas will.

We have come to the end. I thought the idea of a weekly running All-NFC East Team would be a fun exercise for this blog, and I believe I was correct. I have had fun with it, at least. And I'd like to offer my personal thanks to Dallas Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo and New York Giants quarterback Eli Manning for helping make it even more fun. Nothing gets the blood boiling around here like a good Romo-Eli debate, and the fact that they both had fantastic seasons and spent the year switching in and out of the All-Division quarterback spot added some juice to this weekly feature.

But this is the final edition of the All-NFC East Team for this year, and there's only one spot for quarterback. The weekly disclaimer that no one ever reads is that this is a team based on overall performance for the whole year, not just the most recent week. So both Romo and Manning remain strong candidates. Romo has the better completion percentage, passer rating and Total QBR, all by pretty wide margins. He threw 31 touchdown passes to Manning's 29, 10 interceptions to Manning's 16. And while he was directly responsible for a couple of early losses that put the Cowboys in a hole, Romo played through broken ribs for a stretch and was brilliant through the second half of the season and in no way responsible for the 1-4 finish that did them in.

Manning had more yards -- 4,933 to Romo's 4,184 -- and took fewer sacks but can't claim this spot based on numbers. Manning's case rests on his five fourth-quarter comebacks, his 2-0 record in games against Romo's team and the fact of the Giants' division title by virtue of winning nine games while Romo won eight. Wins are an important stat for a quarterback. Some argue that they're the most important stat. Some argue that they're the only important stat. And the thing Manning did better than Romo in 2011 was win games.

And so, in an extremely close vote intended in no way to reflect even a little bit poorly on the loser, I have decided to give the 2011 All-Division quarterback spot to the guy who's still playing this week.

Quarterback: Eli Manning, Giants. I think if you asked both men, they'd agree Eli's year was better than Romo's.

Running back: LeSean McCoy. A wire-to-wire winner who never was challenged. Brilliant season lost in the Eagles' team flop.

Wide receiver: Victor Cruz and Hakeem Nicks. The only two receivers in the division to crack 1,000 yards. Cruz finished third in the league with 1,536.

Tight end: Jason Witten, Cowboys. Seemed to get forgotten at times, but still caught 79 passes for 942 yards and five touchdowns.

Fullback: Darrel Young, Redskins. Dallas' Tony Fiammetta got the press, but Young was a consistent mauler all season.

Left tackle: Jason Peters, Eagles. Best left tackle in the league this year. Brilliant season lost in the Eagles' team flop.

Left guard: Evan Mathis, Eagles. Unheralded free-agent signing was key to the Philadelphia run game.

Center: Will Montgomery, Redskins. Kept playing well as the rest of the line crumbled around him.

Right guard: Kyle Kosier, Cowboys. Injuries hampered him, but he deserves some credit for this next line.

Right tackle: Tyron Smith, Cowboys. One of the best rookie performances in the NFL. Expect him to be left tackle next year.

Defensive end: Trent Cole, Eagles; Jason Pierre-Paul, Giants. I know how many sacks Jason Babin had, and no, I have nothing against him. Cole just played better. And Pierre-Paul carried the New York defense in stretches.

Defensive tackle: Cullen Jenkins, Eagles; Jay Ratliff, Cowboys. Jenkins was one of the few real leaders in that locker room. Ratliff is Mr. Consistent.

Outside linebacker: DeMarcus Ware, Cowboys; Brian Orakpo, Redskins. Ware among the sack leaders again. Orakpo and rookie Ryan Kerrigan should be a force in Washington for years to come.

Inside linebacker: London Fletcher, Redskins; Sean Lee, Cowboys. An old war horse who's still the best at what he does, and a youngster who's burst onto the scene.

Cornerback: Asante Samuel, Eagles; Corey Webster, Giants. For all of the grief he takes, Samuel had a very good year in coverage. Webster handled some of the league's toughest wide receivers one-on-one.

Safety: Kenny Phillips, Giants; O.J. Atogwe, Redskins. Injuries limited Atogwe, but he played well enough when in there to earn the spot over the Cowboys' disappointing guys. Phillips has emerged as one of the best in the game.

Kicker: Dan Bailey, Cowboys. He had a tough finish, as did the team, but he was one of the best in the league for most of the year.

Punter: Sav Rocca, Redskins. Real tough call here between him and the Giants' Steve Weatherford. Rocca had just one touchback all year. That's precision.

Kick returner: Brandon Banks, Redskins. Not one guy in this division ran a kick back for a touchdown all year.

Punt returner: Brandon Banks, Redskins. Not one guy in this division ran a punt back for a touchdown all year.

So that's it. Thanks for following the All-Division Team this year. One final time: What did I get wrong?

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. -- The New York Giants could not have asked for a better first half in the NFC East title game. They have done everything they've wanted to do on offense and defense. They have come out fired up behind high-energy stars like Mathias Kiwanuka and Victor Cruz. And when they've made mistakes, the Dallas Cowboys have consistently failed to capitalize on them.

Eli Manning is 15-for-20 for 199 yards and two touchdowns in the game so far. Ahmad Bradshaw has 46 rush yards and two touchdowns -- one on the ground and one through the air. The Giants are rolling with a 21-0 lead and will get the ball back to start the second half.

The Giants have been picking on overmatched Dallas cornerback Terence Newman all night, and Newman has given them no reason to stop. Not that he's the only Cowboy who should be blamed for what's going on here tonight. Here is a list of costly Cowboys mistakes from the first half. It's not for the faint of heart:

• Tony Romo overthrowing Dez Bryant on third down on the first series of the game after Bryant had gotten past Corey Webster and could have had a long gain.
• Newman missing a tackle and allowing Bear Pascoe to hurdle him and convert a third down deep in Giants territory.
• Newman getting smoked by Cruz for a 74-yard touchdown reception.
• Alan Ball failing to corral a muffed punt that would have set the Cowboys up with good field position in Giants territory.
• Abram Elam completely missing a one-on-one tackle and allowing Bradshaw to run in for a touchdown.
• Gerald Sensabaugh failing to pick up a Brandon Jacobs fumble, which eventually bounced back into the hands of Manning.
• Romo going past the line of scrimmage before throwing the ball to Bryant for what looked like a big third-down pickup deep in Giants' territory down 14-0 late in the second quarter.
• Ball downing an excellent Chris Jones punt inside the 5-yard line after going out of bounds, leading to an illegal touching penalty and awarding the Giants the ball on the 20-yard line instead of inside the 5.
• Henry Hynoski pulling a repeat of the Pascoe hurdle job on Newman on the play just before Bradshaw's short touchdown catch pushed the lead to 21-0 with 1:09 left in the half.

It all adds up to this: One team came to play and the other team looks as though it did not. The Giants have been creative and quick and effective with their pass rush, which has deprived the Cowboys of a chance to take advantage of the Giants' secondary or even really find out if Romo's hand is OK. The Giants have kept the Cowboys off of Manning, which continues a trend. The Cowboys didn't sack Manning in the game three weeks ago in Dallas, and haven't tonight. And the Giants have blocked fairly well in the run game when they've needed to.

The game is not decided or out of reach, but a different -- and much more focused -- Dallas team needs to come out of the halftime locker room, or next week's playoff game is going to be here and not in Arlington, Texas.