The score was hard to ignore. The Giants came up short 38-35 at home against an unbeaten team.
That type of loss helped propel the Giants four years ago, so perhaps the team could take something positive out of their loss to the Packers on Sunday? Surely the loss by the Cowboys helped cushion the blow.
The attitude from the Giants depended on who you listened to.
“I learned a lot about this team,” safety Antrel Rolle told Newsday’s Tom Rock with a smile. “Everybody as a whole, the coaching staff, players, we have faith in each other. We went out there and we fought and we gave the Super Bowl champs a run for their money. And we will see them again. We will see them again.”
That was the positive angle. Defensive lineman Chris Canty was glum.
“We didn’t make enough plays to be successful, and at the end of the day, that’s all that matters,” Canty said. “We have to get a win. This football team just needs to win a game.”
Tom Coughlin said there are no such things as moral victories.
“There’s no solace in playing well and losing,” Tom Coughlin said. “We’re way past that.”
Then again, Coughlin was generally upbeat and optimistic overall. He said he thought the loss could “pull us together.” Defensive end Dave Tollefson couldn’t forget Green Bay’s final drive.
“Eli [Manning] and the offense do a great job, go down there and score to tie us up and we just — pffft,” Tollefson told Mike Garafolo of the Newark Star-Ledger. “Come on now, we’re better than that.”
They have four games left to prove it. The one fact all Giants can agree on: All the losses from NFC contenders helped the team out.