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Free agency begins Tuesday at 4 p.m. ET

Dallas Cowboys

Key free agents: WR Laurent Robinson, S Abram Elam, LB Keith Brooking, LB Anthony Spencer (franchise)

Where they stand: Dallas needs serious help in the secondary and will have to decide whether it wants Elam back at safety while it pursues at least one cornerback. The Cowboys are expected to release Terence Newman, and they could look to add depth at that position and a new starter. Franchising Spencer indicates that while they would like to improve their pass rush, they won't be players in the Mario Williams market. Expect their free-agent focus to be on defensive backs and possibly some upgrades on the interior of the offensive line. They would like Robinson back as their No. 3 receiver, but if he's going to get No. 2 receiver-type offers, they'll likely let him walk.

What to expect: The top two cornerback targets are likely Kansas City's Brandon Carr and Tennessee's Cortland Finnegan. You can't rule out Dallas making a play for Saints guard Carl Nicks, who'd be a huge help to their offensive line. But someone like Baltimore's Ben Grubbs is likely to be more attainable financially. What the Cowboys really need on the line is a center, but it's not a great market for those unless they can get their hands on Houston's Chris Myers. The Cowboys likely will hunt for some second-tier safeties and inside linebackers to add depth, then target defensive back again early in the draft.

New York Giants

Key free agents: WR Mario Manningham, OT Kareem McKenzie, CB Aaron Ross, CB Terrell Thomas, LB Jonathan Goff, P Steve Weatherford (franchise).

Where they stand: The Super Bowl champs must get their own cap situation in order first, as they project to be about $7.25 million over the projected cap. That may mean tough cuts of people like Brandon Jacobs or David Diehl, or it may just mean some contract restructuring (like the big one they apparently just did with Eli Manning). Regardless, don't expect the Giants to spend big to keep Manningham or Ross. They're likely to bring back Thomas on a team-favorable deal as a result of the knee injury that cost him the entire 2011 season, and they'll probably let McKenzie walk and try to replace him internally (which favors Diehl's chances of sticking around).

What to expect: Just like last year, don't expect the Giants to be big-game hunters. They like to grow their own replacements. If Manningham leaves, they won't go after the top wide receivers but might try to find a bargain or two to supplement the young players from whom they're expecting more production next season. They could find a midlevel safety if they don't bring back Deon Grant, and if Jacobs leaves they'll probably bring in a veteran running back or two to compete in training camp with their youngsters. They liked Ronnie Brown last year as a possible Ahmad Bradshaw replacement when Bradshaw was a pending free agent, so there's a name to watch for if you want one.

Philadelphia Eagles

Key free agents: G Evan Mathis, DT Trevor Laws, DT Antonio Dixon (restricted), WR DeSean Jackson (franchise), QB Vince Young

Where they stand: Other than Mathis, whom they're working to try and re-sign before he his the market, the Eagles don't have many internal free-agent issues to worry about. They franchised Jackson because they're not ready to give him a long-term deal just yet. He's a candidate for a trade, but it would have to be a very nice offer. If they traded him, they'd hunt for a wide receiver, but they may do so anyway -- just at a lower level (think Plaxico Burress). The interior of the defensive line is in fairly good hands with Cullen Jenkins and Mike Patterson as starters, but they could stand to add depth to that rotation. And while they signed Trent Edwards a couple of weeks ago, they'll keep looking for a better veteran backup quarterback option with Young sure to be gone.

What to expect: Do not -- I repeat, do not -- expect the Eagles to be the same kind of player they were in free agency a year ago. Andy Reid made it very clear several times during the 2011 offseason and season that last year was unique, and the Eagles don't like to do business that way in general. They do need linebackers, and they have the cap room to play on guys like Stephen Tulloch or Curtis Lofton or even, if they wanted to get really nutty, London Fletcher. But while you can expect them to add a veteran or two at the position, don't be surprised if they sit out the higher-priced auctions this time around.

Washington Redskins

Key free agents: S LaRon Landry, LB London Fletcher, DE Adam Carriker, TE Fred Davis (franchise), QB Rex Grossman

Where they stand: Mike Shanahan said in December that Fletcher was a priority, but he remains unsigned with less than a week to go before free agency. Presumably, they'd still like to lock him up before he hits the market. If they can't, they'll have to replace a major on-field and off-field presence. Carriker is likely to be back, but the Fletcher situation has to be settled first. Landry likely is gone unless he wants to take a low-base, high-incentive deal to stay. The Redskins are sick of not knowing whether he'll be able to take the field from week to week. Grossman could return, but only as a backup to whatever quarterback upgrade they find.

What to expect: The Redskins could have more than $40 million in cap room with which to maneuver in free agency, and they're going to need it. They need a quarterback, of course, and if they can't make the trade with the Rams to move up to No. 2 in the draft and pick Robert Griffin III, they'll look at Peyton Manning and Kyle Orton and possibly Matt Flynn, though he doesn't appear to be high on their list. What Shanahan really wants is a true playmaking No. 1 wide receiver, which is why the Redskins have their eyes on Vincent Jackson and Marques Colston, who are at the very top end of that market. They'll be able to outbid almost anyone for those guys if they want to, but they may have to get quarterback figured out first if they want to persuade one of them to take their offer over similar ones. They'll also hunt for help on the offensive line and in the secondary, as they need depth in both places.

Over at ESPNNewYork.com, they're running one of these interactive "Take 'em or Trash 'em" features, where you can go clicking through the New York Giants' roster and pick which players you'd keep and which players you wouldn't for next year's team. Ohm's keeping everyone but free-agent right tackle Kareem McKenzie, but it's probably not realistic to think the Giants can bring back their Super Bowl champion roster that unscathed.

The Giants appear to have 21 unrestricted free agents, one restricted free agent (cornerback Bruce Johnson) and two exclusive rights free agents (tight ends Bear Pascoe and Jake Ballard). I could run through the whole unrestricted list, or I could refer you instead to Brian McIntyre, who tracks this stuff, and you can look through the whole list there if you want. I'm picking out a couple of the unrestricteds of interest and addressing them here:

WR Mario Manningham. If the Super Bowl hero wants top wideout money, he'll likely have to get it elsewhere. My guess is someone's willing to pay him more than the Giants are willing to pay their No. 3 wide receiver.

WR Domenik Hixon. Can he come back from a second serious knee injury in two years? That's the question. If he can, he could compete with Ramses Barden and Jerrel Jernigan to be Manningham's replacement.

McKenzie. He'll be 33 in May. He looked slower this year. Great Giant, great champion, but they need to keep refreshing things on the offensive line. Last year's casualties were Shaun O'Hara and Rich Seubert. McKenzie is likely this year's.

LB Jonathan Goff. If healthy, he should reclaim his role as starting middle linebacker.

CB Terrell Thomas. If healthy, he should reclaim his role as a starting cornerback.

CB Aaron Ross. No doubt he has value, and he played very well this year after Thomas went down in preseason. But if Thomas is back and Prince Amukamara is ready to take the next step, is there room for Ross?

P Steve Weatherford. Reports out of New York this week indicate they're already at work on a new deal for Weatherford, as they should be.

S Deon Grant. They moved on from Grant last year, only to re-sign him late in the preseason. He's well-loved in the locker room and a valuable veteran leader on which the coaching staff can lean. But he only comes back if he'll come back cheap.

Good afternoon. NFC West blog headquarters will be relocating from the Northwest to Indianapolis for Super Bowl week.

The plane I'm riding in, a Boeing 757, is traveling 565 mph at 35,637 feet, according to tracking software. I'll be connecting through Atlanta, so this will be a full travel day.

Once situated in Indy, I'll be helping with our Super Bowl coverage, with an eye toward this division. Josh McDaniels, David Baas, Bear Pascoe, David Carr, Rocky Bernard, Jimmy Kennedy, Deon Grant, Antrel Rolle, Isaiah Stanback, Deion Branch, Niko Koutouvides, Tracy White and Andre Carter are among the NFC West alumni currently with the Super Bowl participants.

Quite a few current NFC West players will be filtering through Indianapolis for various events during the week. I'll be catching up with some of them.

The week will conclude with Hall of Fame voting, followed by the Super Bowl itself. I don't have a strong feeling as to which team will win the game. Both should like their chances. I did pick New England to win it all before the season -- one of the few predictions that remains on track -- so I'll likely stick with the Patriots when ESPN solicits staffers' predictions later in the week.

Here's hoping this Sunday treats you well.

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.

GREEN BAY, Wis. -- Deep in the bowels of Lambeau Field on Sunday night, America's youngest 65-year-old practically bounced up to the podium, a grin creasing his famously red face as he broke down his latest huge coaching achievement.

When you push yourself as hard as Tom Coughlin pushes himself, you have to revel in nights like this. The New York Giants had just crushed the 15-1 Green Bay Packers, 37-20, to move into the NFC Championship Game, and Coughlin finds himself in the middle of a postseason run every bit as delightfully surprising as the one on which he took the Giants four years ago.

"Just very happy," Coughlin said, and who can blame him? This is a remarkable coaching achievement he's pulled off. His team looked dead in the water just four weeks ago, sitting at 7-7 and in second place after a miserable home loss to the Redskins. The story in New York was about whether he would be fired if the Giants didn't make the playoffs, and the consensus seemed to be that the Giants would have little choice.

Four games and four victories later, such talk has turned preposterous. Coughlin, whose contract runs through 2012, has put himself in line for a multi-year extension. This run with this team is establishing him -- if he hadn't already done so -- as one of the elite head coaches in the game. If he wins his next two games, he becomes a two-time Super Bowl champion and, quite frankly, people are going to start to ask whether he belongs in the Hall of Fame.

"There's nobody outside of this room who believed we could get where we are right now," Giants left tackle David Diehl said. "You go back a month, and it was all, 'Should Coughlin be fired?' But he knew what we had here, and we knew what we had here, and we used all of that for motivation."

The mark of a great coach is his ability to identify the kind of team and the kind of players he has and coach accordingly. Bum Phillips famously said that what made Don Shula great was that "he could take his'n and beat your'n, or he could take your'n and beat his'n." Coughlin is of that school. At a time when so many coaches seem to be slaves to their own system, or seek to have control over roster construction, Coughlin sees his role more simply. His is not to mope and complain that the team didn't do more in free agency, or that defensive starters dropped like flies in the preseason. His is to figure out how to win with what he has. And as he did four years ago, when he tore through Dallas and Green Bay before taking out the undefeated Patriots in the Super Bowl, he has figured out how to push exactly the right buttons with a roster that didn't look playoff-caliber for most of this season.

"The way the leadership part works is, it starts with the coach," Giants safety Deon Grant said. "And what we have here is a coach who knows his team. He knows how to talk to the veterans in this locker room, when to challenge people, when to lighten up. You want a leader who believes in you, and in order to believe in you, he's got to know you."

Coughlin knows his team. He knew, after that Redskins loss, that the way to approach the following week was to build his players up rather than tear into them. They have responded, and are playing with a champion's level of confidence at exactly the right time of year. No fewer than four players in their locker room said Sunday night, "I knew we were going to win this game," and every single one of them was convincing and sincere.

"We've got a lot of confidence right now," running back Ahmad Bradshaw said. "We've been here before, a lot of us, and we've been here together. And I think that helps us a lot."

This really is starting to feel like four years ago all over again, and the reason why is the seasoned, even-keel performance of the leaders who keyed that playoff run. Eli Manning is playing quarterback at an incredibly high level, and Coughlin is delivering the right message during the week and projecting cool, experienced certainty during the games.

"Our coach is always consistent with his message," defensive lineman Chris Canty said. "That's a big deal, because it makes it easy to buy in. Confidence comes from demonstrated performance, and we have people in our building who have some pretty good records."

Sunday was Coughlin's sixth career playoff road win, one short of the all-time record held by a guy you may have heard of named Tom Landry. That's heady company, and it says a lot about the advantage Coughlin gives the Giants at this time of year. To have a coach who's not going to be surprised or thrown off by any situation, who has shown a sincere belief in you and earned your reciprocal belief in him -- that's the kind of stuff that allows a team to keep its head in intense playoff games.

"Success breeds confidence," Coughlin said. "And right now they're a pretty confident group."

That starts at the top, and while he would scoff at the notion, the fact that the Giants are one of the final four NFL teams left standing is a direct result of one of the finest coaching jobs of Coughlin's fine coaching career.

A quick look at the second-to-last injury report of the week:

New York Giants: Two players were added to the report: Cornerback Corey Webster (hamstring) and safety Deon Grant (quadriceps). Both were limited Thursday in practice. Running back D.J. Ware (concussion) returned to practice. Running back Ahmad Bradshaw (foot/back) and linebacker Mark Herzlich (ankle) both sat out for a second consecutive day.

Green Bay Packers: All but two players were full participants in a practice held indoors because of snow and wind. Receiver/kick returner Randall Cobb (groin) and linebacker Robert Francois (hamstring) were limited.

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. -- Stars ignite quickly in New York, and when new stars get hot they burn bright enough to obscure the ones that were there already. So it is with Victor Cruz, the New York Giants wide receiver who's salsa dancing on the morning talk shows and making tabloid headlines with the birth of his first child.

Cruz is so hot right now that people have nearly forgotten about Hakeem Nicks, who was the budding star No. 1 receiver around these parts not four months ago. But Nicks doesn't mind. Part of the reason this all works -- and a large part of the reason the Giants find themselves preparing for a divisional-round playoff game Sunday against the Packers in Green Bay -- is that neither of the Giants' star wide receivers is the kind of guy who acts like, well, a star wide receiver.

"We're great friends," Cruz said Wednesday. "We talk all the time. We text each other all the time. When I'm watching film, I'll text him and ask him about something. And because he has a little girl himself and I just had one, I ask him for advice all the time on that. So he's a guy that I definitely look at as a friend -- a guy who's behind me and supports my career 100 percent."

Yeah, these two guys are a real coach's nightmare. Nicks spends his spare time in the film room, as he has since high school, obsessing over the finer details of his craft, because he never wants to miss an opportunity to get better. Last summer, Cruz took it upon himself to attend every one of Eli Manning's player workouts during the lockout, buddying up to the Giants' quarterback just in case he was going to get an opportunity. Just in case the Giants didn't bring back Steve Smith or sign Plaxico Burress or give Domenik Hixon the preseason reps at slot receiver or any of the other things they planned to do before giving Cruz a shot.

The Giants' star wideouts are workaholics. They're humble. They're generous and engaging and easy to like. In short, they bear absolutely no resemblance to the cliched profile of the diva wide receiver.

"I think the main thing with both of those guys is that they want to be successful, and they want to be successful as a team," Giants safety Deon Grant said. "They don't consider themselves individuals. They know the best way for them to be successful is if we're all successful. And that's a special thing, to have guys that think that way. That's why this is a special group of guys we have in here."

There is a remarkable lack of ego about these Giants. The quarterback doesn't carry himself like a star. The coach doesn't hold himself out as the smartest guy in the league. Even the remarkable self-confidence the Giants have been expressing outwardly over the past few weeks has rung sincere -- a genuine outgrowth of their own improved play on the field. They believe in themselves and each other, and nowhere is that more evident than in the mutual admiration society that is their wide receiver corps.

"We are a dangerous corps," Nicks said. "I feel like we're all No. 1 receivers. With our offense, if you try to take one guy away, it opens it up for the other two guys. You try to take two guys away, it opens it up for the third receiver and the tight end as well."

The third receiver is Mario Manningham, a player of considerable skill in his own right who began this season apparently poised for his own stardom before Cruz raced past him as well. Manningham has struggled with knee injuries through the second half of the season, but he had a big game last Sunday in the victory against the Falcons, and says he doesn't mind if people would rather talk about Nicks and Cruz.

"I hope they forgot about me," Manningham said of the Packers. "I like not being under the microscope."

Microscope, spotlight, whatever. The Giants' receivers are perfectly suited to roll with any or all of it. In a town that pumps up its stars to unsustainable levels of fame and expectation, the men who are turning Manning's short passes into long touchdowns every week remain grounded. They remain humble. They remain good friends and good teammates who believe hard work and dedication are the paths to success. For goodness' sake, they are NFL receivers who don't mind if somebody else catches the ball.

"Our coaches are always preaching the mantra of taking the names off the backs of the jerseys," Giants tackle Kareem McKenzie said. "Those guys, because of their personalities, they're a great example of that."

They're exactly what the Giants need. And that's a huge part of the reason the Giants are still playing.

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. — They gave up 360 passing yards the last time they played the Green Bay Packers, and that wasn't even the worst day of the season for the New York Giants' secondary. It is not the strength of their team, and the main reason it's looked better lately is the effective aggressiveness of the defensive line as it pressures quarterbacks. But while he's clearly not ready to proclaim that all is well on the back end, Giants coach Tom Coughlin believes his secondary will be better in Sunday's playoff rematch in Green Bay than it was in the 38-35 Week 13 loss at the Meadowlands.

"We're definitely going to be tested in the secondary, obviously," Coughlin said before Wednesday's practice. "There has been improvement — a plastering effect, if you will. Much better than it was a few short weeks ago. I think that's the growth of the confidence that comes from the pass rush, to the ability to stop the run and then to be able to execute on the back end — knowing full well that naturally there's yardage to be gained but nevertheless that we stay away from the big play."

Against the Packers, with their dynamic and myriad receiving threats and quarterback Aaron Rodgers' pinpoint accuracy, that's the best for which you can hope. The Giants must trust their pass rushers to harass Rodgers and then make sure their cornerbacks and safeties don't get burned for anything too deep. Rodgers can beat them by throwing short all the way down the field, but at least if you force him to play that way you're giving yourself more chances to make a play to stop him or get a turnover.

"We have to do our job in the secondary and make sure we take away their wide receivers," safety Antrel Rolle said. "I understand they're an awesome opponent, but then again so are we. I wouldn't put any opponent on a pedestal."

One thing the Giants have going in their favor is that they're much healthier on defense than they were in the first Green Bay game. That day, linebacker Michael Boley was still coming back from a hamstring injury. Chase Blackburn had just been signed off the street. Osi Umenyiora was out with an ankle injury. Safety Kenny Phillips hurt his knee in the second quarter and had to come out of the game. Safety Deon Grant said Wednesday he remembers the all-hands-on-deck feeling from a game in which he had to spend some time at middle linebacker.

"A lot of guys were just out there guessing," Grant said. "So I think the biggest thing this time will be the ability to play full-speed and just being concise on everything with everybody in the right place and knowing what they're supposed to do."

Will it be enough to slow down Rodgers & Co.? We'll find out Sunday. But the Giants definitely go into this game feeling better equipped to do so than they did six weeks ago.

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. -- A few thoughts on the New York Giants' wild-card round playoff victory over the Atlanta Falcons at MetLife Stadium.

What it means: The Giants' formula worked. They believed they came into the playoffs playing defense and running the ball as well as they have been at any time this year, and they went out and played their best defensive game and best rushing game of the year. They knew that the key would be to pressure Atlanta quarterback Matt Ryan with their front four and they did that. And when they were having trouble in pass protection, they were able to switch to the run game to keep the Atlanta front four off of Eli Manning.

Nicks' turn: The Giants' big-play receiver the past few weeks has been Victor Cruz, who had a 99-yard touchdown catch on Christmas Eve against the Jets and a 74-yard touchdown catch last week in the division-clincher against the Cowboys. This time, it was Hakeem Nicks who delivered the backbreaker against the Falcons, catching a short Manning pass with less than three minutes left in the third quarter and taking it 72 yards to the end zone for the score that put the Giants up 17-2.

Smothering: New York's defense pitched a shutout, as the Falcons' only points came on a safety and their offense never got near the end zone. The Giants got pressure up the middle with defensive tackles Chris Canty and Rocky Bernard. They stuffed the Falcons on two key fourth-and-short situations (the second of which almost immediately preceded the big Nicks play). And while they lost two key secondary pieces in Deon Grant and Aaron Ross to injuries, the defensive front made sure Ryan didn't have a chance to take advantage of it.

Ground game surfaces: The Giants ranked 32nd in the 32-team NFL in rushing yards this year, but this looked like a different team. They'd been better running the ball over the final five games of the season, but this was a dominating rushing performance. Brandon Jacobs ripped off a key 34-yard gain and converted a fourth-and-1 on the Giants' first scoring drive. He and Ahmad Bradshaw split carries and both ran with power and determination behind an offensive line that's blocking for the run better and better each week.

Looking ahead: Those injuries to Ross and Grant -- which are a concussion and a groin injury, respectively, could be a problem if they linger into next week. Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers is far more mobile than Ryan is, and he should be able to buy more time to find his receivers deep in the secondary even if the Giants can pressure him the way they hassled Ryan. But that's a worry for next week. Right now, the Giants are flying high and into the second round.

What's next: The Giants travel to Green Bay, Wis., where they will play the 15-1 defending Super Bowl champion Packers at 4:30 p.m. ET next Sunday. A victory would put the Giants in the NFC Championship Game against either the Saints or 49ers.

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. -- Well, Saints-Lions this one ain't. The New York Giants lead the Atlanta Falcons 7-2 at halftime of their wild-card round playoff game here at MetLife Stadium, and they do so because they were able to crack the Falcons' defense once and the Falcons haven't been able to crack theirs at all.

It's been a defensive struggle both ways, as the Giants' defensive front has dominated the Falcons' offensive line the way it knows it needs to and the Falcons' defensive front has returned the favor against a shaky-looking Giants pass protection unit. The first points of the game were a Falcons safety when Giants quarterback Eli Manning was called for intentional grounding in the end zone while under pressure, and neither offense was able to score until Manning found Hakeem Nicks in the end zone for a 4-yard touchdown pass with 2:47 left before halftime.

The reason the Giants were able to get those points is that they found something in the run game. Manning escaped trouble and ran for 14 yards earlier in the drive (remarkable, considering he only ran for 15, total, in the regular season). And running back Brandon Jacobs' 34-yard run was the biggest play of the first half. Jacobs also converted a big fourth down just before the touchdown pass with a spin move after being stuffed behind the line.

The Giants ranked 32nd in the NFL this year with 89.2 rush yards per game. But they have 75 already in this game, and if they can keep having success on the ground, they have to like their chances.

The Falcons will get the ball back to start the second half, but as of now there's little proof that that will help them. Quarterback Matt Ryan has been pressured from the sides and especially up the middle, with Giants defensive tackles Chris Canty and Rocky Bernard having delivered big hits already. He hasn't had time to look downfield and find his big-time receivers for big plays, which means the Giants are executing their defensive game plan exactly the way they want to. The Giants have more work to do, but to this point things have gone about as well as they could have wanted them to go. They have weathered the early assault from the Atlanta front and found a way to overcome it.

Two injury situations to watch: Atlanta safety William Moore and Giants safety Deon Grant both have left the game. James Sanders has stepped in for Moore, and there seems to be little drop-off there. But if rookie Tyler Sash has to play the rest of the game in Grant's place, the Giants' secondary could be very vulnerable. If, that is, Ryan gets enough time to take advantage of it.

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. -- The New York Giants' players were a little nervous when they gathered, three Tuesdays ago, for their weekly meeting with head coach Tom Coughlin. Two days earlier, they'd been embarrassed at home by the Washington Redskins in a loss that put their playoff hopes in jeopardy. Their experience with Coughlin told them that he could be a little harsh in these types of situations, and they braced for the worst.

But Coughlin surprised them by going positive. His speech that day was about the opportunity that lay in front of them. Two games, against the Jets and the Cowboys. Win them both, and you're division champs. You're a group of young, talented men that have the world by the tail. It's the week before Christmas. Relax and have fun out there. There's no better spot to be in than December in the NFL with a chance to make the playoffs.

Coughlin says it wasn't the first time he's ever gone positive with his message to his team, but he admits it runs counter to his stern reputation. So why did he do it this way this particular time?

"Because I know the team," Coughlin said Wednesday. "I know the people."

He also knew what time of year it was, and that factored into the decision to set an upbeat, supportive tone. Knowing his team was effectively playing playoff games from that point forward, Coughlin decided to see if he could build an emotional wave for the Giants to ride into the postseason. It worked, and as a result the Giants go into Sunday's wild-card playoff game against the Atlanta Falcons in their strongest mental state of the year.

"That's why he's been coaching as long as he has," Giants safety Deon Grant said. "He knows what to say and when to say it. A message like that, I'm not sure it would have been heard the same if he came out with it in the middle of the season. But he knew the message was right for the people he was talking to and for the time of year it was."

You look for reasons to believe your team has an edge at this time of year, and the Giants have some things going for them. They have a quarterback who's been through this before and won a Super Bowl, and who's playing as well as he ever has. They have that defensive line healthy and wreaking havoc on quarterbacks. And they have a 16-year veteran head coach who's also won a Super Bowl and who's proved once again that he knows which buttons to push and when.

"We responded, didn't we?" said Giants guard Chris Snee, who in addition to playing for Coughlin is also married to the coach's daughter. "We came in with a lot of enthusiasm and a lot of energy the past two games, and it showed. That's something that's got to stay with us throughout this whole playoff stretch, and I think it can."

This is one of the benefits to having a veteran coach who's been in a variety of situations. He has perspective. He can assess a lot of different options, weigh them against the circumstances and his own experience, and choose the appropriate course of action. Contrast it with Cowboys coach Jason Garrett, who's been a head coach for a year and a half and couldn't get his team fired up for the game against the Giants that decided the division title. Garrett may have said the wrong thing, may have not said enough. Heck, he may have said the right thing and his team just didn't respond to it. But Garrett's first failure under pressure is the first clinking penny hitting the bottom of his empty piggy bank of experience. Coughlin's piggy bank is hernia-inducingly heavy, and that appears to have paid off for him in the form of a division title.

"It speaks a lot for Coach Coughlin," said Giants safety Antrel Rolle, whose relationship with his coach has had its trying moments over the past two years. "Guys are going out there and fighting for him, fighting for this team. It speaks a lot about him."

Three weeks ago, the story in New York was about whether Coughlin was at risk of losing his job if the Giants missed the playoffs for a third year in a row. He's only signed through 2012, which is about as close to lame-duck status as NFL head coaches get, and much was being made of his second-half record since becoming Giants coach. But Coughlin doesn't suffer nonsense, and there was no point in getting caught up in any of that. Rather than worry about what might happen if the Giants kept losing, Coughlin thought about how great it would be if they won -- just two more games, both at their home stadium. Then he brought that message into a team meeting. He pulled Justin Tuck aside and told him it was time to start thinking positive instead of moaning about all of his nagging injuries. He set an enthusiastic, supportive tone at exactly the right time, knowing it was the right thing for his particular team.

"I think he's had this team the whole time," Snee said. "The road was bumpy, but when it came to gut-check time and we had to win two games, we delivered. He's never for one moment allowed us to think the coaching staff has lost belief in this team, and we've believed in them the whole time."

That's good coaching, folks. The kind of coaching that makes you think a guy deserves a multiyear extension this time, instead of just the one year. But Coughlin's not worrying about that right now. He's working on making sure he makes the right moves to extend this Giants' playoff run as far as he can. Based on what we've seen over the past month, it might be foolish to bet against him.

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. -- Antrel Rolle didn't like my question. It was about the consistently permissive play of the New York Giants' secondary this season, and Rolle responded by asking me how many passing yards Washington Redskins quarterback Rex Grossman had in Sunday's 23-10 Redskins victory. When someone else told him it was 185, he laughed and shook his head, indicating that the number had rendered my question foolish.

Whatever. I don't love being talked down to by football players, but it's hardly the first time and I can take it. What I dispute is not Rolle's understandable attitude but rather his flawed premise. Just because Grossman didn't throw for 350 yards doesn't mean the Giants played a good defensive game. Grossman is not Drew Brees or Aaron Rodgers or Tony Romo -- the three guys who picked apart the Giants' defense the past three weeks. I guess if you want to get technical, he's not even Vince Young, who got 258 against them the last time they lost a home game to a division opponent they should have handled without any trouble.

Grossman is the quarterback of the Redskins. And when the Redskins' offense is at its best, it's not throwing for tons of yards. It's running and controlling the clock and converting every third down in sight with a smart, not spectacular, throw. Grossman got picked off twice early in the game on deep throws and then he and the Redskins' coaches made the very smart decision to cut those out. And thereafter, the Redskins did absolutely everything they wanted to do on offense the rest of the game. They dominated the Giants, and just because they were low-key about it doesn't mean Rolle and his defensive teammates shouldn't be ashamed of themselves.

The Giants (7-7) had the chance Sunday to step up and win an important game -- they're now a game behind Dallas (8-6) in the NFC East with two to play -- and they failed because they are insufficiently equipped and inconsistently motivated. What's even more maddening about these Giants than their inability to stop opposing offenses is their inability to figure out why they can't.

"They just kind of started bleeding us a little bit," defensive end Justin Tuck said. "I don't know how to tell you what went wrong. We just didn't make enough plays, I guess. That was our Achilles' heel all day. We didn't keep them off the football field."

The Redskins played exactly the game they wanted to play, and the Giants could do nothing to stop them. They can do nothing, right now, to stop anyone. Their defense is a sieve, and their only hope of winning a game right now, no matter the opponent, is for Eli Manning and the offense to go absolutely bonkers. On Sunday, Manning threw three interceptions, Hakeem Nicks dropped a sure touchdown pass and the Giants couldn't make one of Manning's patented comebacks. Bad game for the Giants' quarterback? Sure. But everybody's entitled to one, and you'd like to think that, when it happens, the other parts of your team will pick you up. Right now, there's no other aspect of the Giants capable of doing that, and when Manning doesn't play great, they have no chance.

"You just keep working at it and keep trying," Giants coach Tom Coughlin said when asked about the problems in pass coverage. "We keep maneuvering around and changing coverages and trying to get people in the best possible spots. We're trying to understand what the opponent will try and do to us. That continues."

But there continue to be no answers. The Giants have been running rookie cornerback Prince Amukamara out there for significant numbers of key snaps. He continues to play like a rookie who missed the first half of the season with a foot injury, still working to learn the communication nuances that are vital to his ability to do his job. And opposing teams are targeting him relentlessly -- enough that Coughlin stuck him on the bench for much of the second half.

"It seemed like they threw the ball in that direction and we were not having a lot of success," Coughlin said. "But it wasn't just him. It wasn't just Prince."

Which is the problem. The Giants could carry a rookie at the No. 3 cornerback spot if starting corners Corey Webster and Aaron Ross were covering better. Or if Rolle and Deon Grant were making plays at the safety position. Or if they had anything at all at linebacker. Or if their pass rush was at full strength. But because of injuries and an initial lack of depth, the defense is too shorthanded at too many places. And the starters who are playing (such as Rolle) seem concerned about the wrong things. Who cares how many yards Grossman had if he was 7-for-10 on third down?

"I don't think they did anything special today," said Rolle, who claimed after the Week 1 loss in Washington that the Giants would beat the Redskins 99 times if they played them 100. "We could have made things a lot more difficult for them than we did."

That right there is the point, Rolle. The Giants' defense is making it too easy for the opposing offense and the opposing quarterback, no matter who it is, every single week. Just because Sunday's game wasn't some epic shootout doesn't make that any less true than it was against the Saints or the Packers or the Cowboys. When the Giants need to make a stop, they can't. And while they still have a chance to win the division by winning their final two games, at some point the fact that they're a very bad defense is going to cost them.

Larry Fitzgerald and Antrel Rolle were teammates for years with the Arizona Cardinals, so Fitzgerald is looking forward to seeing Rolle on Sunday when Rolle and the New York Giants head to Arizona for their Week 4 game. Whether the Giants are looking forward to seeing Fitzgerald is another story. As one of the elite wide receivers in the league and the clear No. 1 target for Arizona quarterback Kevin Kolb, Fitzgerald looms as perhaps the most important person on the field for the Giants to stop if they want to come out of this game 3-1.

Stopping him is easier said than done, but with Rolle, Kenny Phillips and veteran Deon Grant at safety, the Giants have enough depth there to give them a puncher's chance. As Mike Garafolo points out in that link up there, the only way teams seem to have a chance against Fitzgerald is to use bracket coverage against him, doubling him with a cornerback and a safety on pretty much every play.

Fitzgerald is 6-foot-3, which gives him a three-inch height advantage on each of the Giants' starting cornerbacks, Corey Webster and Aaron Ross. The Giants would be wise to assign Webster to him for a couple of reasons. First, Webster has the leaping ability to at least compete with Fitzgerald and give him a chance to help make up for the height differential. And second, Ross is still finding his way as a starter in place of the injured Terrell Thomas. Ross had a rough game in Week 2 against the Rams but played well in Week 3 against the Eagles, and it would probably make more sense to keep him on other Cardinals receivers and help him continue to build confidence.

But even if they assign Webster to Fitzgerald, he's going to need help, and that's where one of the Giants' defensive strengths comes in. Their depth at the safety position, and their ability and willingness to put three safeties on the field when they go down to two linebackers on passing downs, should enable defensive coordinator Perry Fewell to constantly have a safety help out Webster over the top against Fitzgerald. There's no guarantee it will work, of course. Fitzgerald wouldn't have fashioned the career he has so far if he weren't able to beat double-teams. But unlike a lot of teams, the Giants have a lot of options and flexibility when it comes to making those double-teams as strong as possible. Phillips, Rolle and Grant are as solid a group of safeties as there is in the league.

You can't fake this stuff up.

The St. Louis Rams' Bryan Kehl has called out New York Giants defensive coordinator Perry Fewell personally for coaching players to fake injuries.

Deon Grant, Giants safety, has responded by calling Kehl, briefly his teammate with New York last season, a lying coward.

Fewell, meanwhile, is skirting the issue with the flair of a slippery politician.

The Rams have not complained to the league formally, according to an NFL spokesman. No investigation is planned.

Back in a bit. Need to get this injury checked out.

No, I don't believe Deon Grant when he says he was really hurt, and I'm not sure why he went to such great lengths to deny something everyone knows to be true. He obviously faked an injury Monday night to slow down the Rams' no-huddle offense as it was nearing the goal line and give his New York Giants a chance to make the substitutions they hadn't been able to make. Methinks he doth protest too much, and in the face of a mountain of evidence.

Rams quarterback Sam Bradford said he heard Giants players yelling, "Someone go down! Someone go down!" Rams linebacker Bryan Kehl, who played for the Giants last year, said Giants defensive coordinator Perry Fewell coaches that. Giants players were smiling about it when asked after the game. Even the league office knows what happened, which is why they sent a useless memo Wednesday reminding teams that faking injuries to stop the clock is against the rules. They were basically telling the Giants, "We know what you did, and we know you know it's cheating, but we can't do anything about it so we're sending this memo so fans think we're on top of this. Please don't do it again."

Thing is, though, they will. And so will other teams when they find themselves in the position the Giants are in right now. The Giants, quite simply, are desperate. A lackluster offseason followed by an inconceivable rash of injuries has left them with a roster that will be outmanned in most weeks. So if they're going to win, they know they're going to have to use every possible avenue available to them. And while no one in the organization can officially condone or admit to a tactic that amounts to cheating, competitive athletes in this or any other sport are almost always willing to break rules if they're unenforceable. It's not cheating, the old saying goes, if you can't get caught.

The Giants still have a lot of very good players on their roster, but overall right now they're an average-to-below-average team that's losing a key player every other week to a season-ending knee injury. They know what trouble feels like, and they were feeling it early Monday night when Grant and rookie linebacker Jacquian Williams flopped the way soccer stars flop to draw phantom penalties. They were fortunate, as it turns out, to have been playing the Rams, who are a bad team that has very few good players and can't seem to get out of its own way. But they don't get to play the Rams every week. Things are going to get keep getting desperate for the Giants, over and over again, and when they do, you can bet they'll be looking for any edge they can create.

Should they fear NFL repercussions? Of course not. The NFL can't enforce this rule. They can't have an official judge on the spot whether a guy is hurt and throw a flag, and they can't fine a team for faking injuries and risk having the accused faker come back with a torn ACL. (Which, especially if it's the Giants, is far too likely to chance at this point.) There's enough evidence and eyewitness testimony right now about the Monday night game that the league could punish the Giants if they wanted to. Instead they send out a memo in the hopes that the Giants will get embarrassed and stop doing it. But it's not going to work. As long as the Giants are as desperate as they are right now, fear of unlikely punishment isn't going to stop them from doing what they think they need to do to win.