Giants - Last week.
It was wack-a-mole time for the Giants. You know that carnival game where you knock one back and another pops up. There was Tom Coughlin who had finally wacked Tynes back in place - Tynes made two field goals and all the extra points against Dallas. But suddenly rookie mistakes in the secondary and penalties popped up like mad - wack-wac. Suddenly Manning can't get the ball off on time - wak-wak, but wait it keeps happening - wac-wac-wack. It's not working. Oops time's up and Coughlin was all out of wacks.
The Giants lost this game 31-20 to the Cowboys after being tied at 17-17 at the half. Coughlin turned to face the reporters eager to wack him now, asking about statement games and second-half declines and all. Game over but Coughlin wacked back. He made an opening statement, answered only two questions and stormed off the podium, probably just anxious to get more quarters for next week's wak-a-mole game against Detroit.

Glass half full or empty?
Tom Coughlin bristled when a reporter asked if Dallas was a statement game that he let get away? "That is your verbiage again." Coughlin replied. Well Detroit coach Marinelli has no such problem, and actually called Sunday's game with the Giants "a statement game." The Lions have doubled their victory total from last season, and even coming off their 31-21 loss at Arizona Marinelli said. "This was all about fundamentals, and those are correctable. That's the good news."
Meanwhile Tom Coughlin didn't have any good news quotes after last week's loss to the Cowboys. "I'm not going to get into it, but the rookie errors stand out," Coughlin said. "We made some real critical errors there and if guys are going to play, they have the responsibility as well. It is a team game. We didn't play well enough to win and we have a lot of work to do and a lot of improving to do in a lot of different areas."

Detroit - Offense.
The Lions gave up 63 sacks, and with all three top running backs suffering injuries, ranked last in rushing last season. Despite the 6-3 winning record, they haven't improved on this very much in both areas. To date, Detroit has given up 40 sacks, the most in the NFL. Still, their quarterback Jon Kitna has a great attitude. "I love throwing -- I'd do it on every play if I could -- but it is brutal on our offensive linemen. They don't get the chance to fire out and punish guys like they do on running plays. We need to be able to do both." He's right about that. Even though they average 6.02 yards per play on first down, third best in the NFL, they convert only 32.1 percent of their third downs, which is third worst in the NFL.
Detroit ran the ball only eight times and rushed for minus-18 yards in their 31-21 loss at Arizona last week (the lowest in the NFL since sack yardage stopped being included in rushing totals 60 years ago), but who knows? Kitna doesn't mind being sacked and offensive coordinator Mike Martz really loves the passing game and they are playing against a suspect Giants secondary. Wide receiver Roy Williams can make some big plays in between Kitna being sacked.

Giants Offense.
It's always exciting to see Eli Manning complete a pass to Jeremy Shockey and he did that 12 times last week. However, with the game on the line in the second half, the Giants needed Manning to step up like his brother Peyton. Instead he looked like a rank amateur with three delay-of-game penalties. Plaxico Burress coming into into that game with eight touchdowns caught 4 passes for 24 yards in the first half and none in the second. Playing on a bad right ankle all season may have finally caught up with him.
Amani Toomer had three catches for 37 yards. The Cowboys kept pressure on Manning and sacked him five times in the game and the offense came up with just 3 points in the second half. Even with Brandon Jacobs effectively rushing for 95 yards on 23 carries and catching one of Manning's passes for a ten yard gain, the Giants came up way short in points. They will need to raise the bar on that, because Detroit averages 31 points per game playing at home.

Giants Defense.
Tony Romo threw four touchdown passes and he was 20-of-28 for 247 yards against the Giants defense last week., His quarterback rating was 123.1. The Giants couldn't get to Romo and Osi Umenyiora said, “I think most quarterbacks probably today would have been sacked maybe four, five, six times, but he sees the rush and he just escapes and he makes plays." Well, Kitna is at least like most other quarterbacks. He's been sacked 37 times this season, and he also leads the league in fumbles with 11. Somehow, Kitna still has completed 67.8 percent of his passes, the third-best rate in the NFL, for 2,294 yards, 12 TDs and 8 INTs.
The Giants secondary must have smiled hearing that Detroit has allowed an NFL-high 40 sacks while the Giants lead the NFL with 32 sacks. Now if rope-a-dope works in the NFL, the Giants pass defense could fall prey to it and wear themselves out. If Kitna is still standing in the final quarter, they better watch out.

Detroit Defense.
The Lions rank 26th in the league with 354.7 yards per game allowed. But they can get to the quarterback and force fumbles. They have forced 17 fumbles and opponents have lost the ball 12 times on their own with the Lions recovering 13 of them. They have 26 sacks which ties them for third in the NFL, and they are second in the league with 15 interceptions. Don't think that they haven't seen some film on how Eli Manning was confused by the Dallas defense last week leading to problems getting the blocking schemes set and being flagged for delay of game. The Lions have been stopping the run well, but even if the Giants are effective there controlling the ball they have to watch for turnovers against this team and the Lions have scored 97 points off turnovers.

Take away.
Detroit has forced an NFL-high 28 turnovers, and leads the NFL in points-off-takeaways with 97 points, and the Giants are fourth with 71. This helps both teams as Detroit is ranked ranked No. 7 in the league with 24.6, and the Giants are No. 8 with 24.4 in points per game.

Giants or Lions?
Last week the Giants were in a battle with Dallas to get an edge up on the division race. Now they are down two games and a tiebreaker to the Cowboys. This week the edge would be for a potential wildcard spot over Detroit who is also two games behind their NFC North division leader, Green Bay. The two teams are 6-3 and tied for third in the NFC, The Giants have been winning games they should win, but does Detroit fit in that category? The Giants are 1-3 this year against teams with plus-.500 records. The Giants host (3-6) Minnesota next week.
The Lions are 4-0 at home, but that will really be put to the test in their next two games. They also have to be really concerned about sustaining injuries in the Giants game. Detroit gets a real short week playing just four days later at home on Thanksgiving Day against the Packers. The Goo Goo Dolls will perform during their halftime show and will perform "Better Days" and "Stay With You". Lions fans will be hoping that the 'better days' weren't in the first part of their season but that they still lie ahead as they try to move forward towards the playoffs.

Notes.
Giants three losses have come to teams with a combined 16-2 record.

Giants from 2003-06 have gone 8-24 in the second half of the season after posting a 21-11 mark in the first half.
Giants last season went 2-6 in the second half after a 6-2 start.

Tom Coughlin is 1-2 against the Lions in his career, including 0-1 with the Giants.

Detroit is overall 21-17-1 -- 1-0 in playoffs against the Giants and has won the last two meetings, both at Giants Stadium.
Giants have won three straight in Detroit dating back to 1988.

Detroit is 4-3 against NFC teams, 0-2 against the NFC East.

Detroit hasn't reached the playoffs since 1999 when they were a wildcard team with an 8-8 record.
Detroit finished with a 9-6 record in 2000, but out of the playoffs.

Giants and Lions would be the NFC's two wild-card teams if the season ended today, with both holding a one-game lead over Washington.

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