Where do the Giants go from here?

I spent the better part of last week telling every Cowboys fan I know (all three of them) that the Giants were going to spend Sunday afternoon humiliating their pathetic team in every possible way, including the very real possibility that Justin Tuck would leave the field at some point wearing Jon Kitna's pelt.

Naturally, the Giants went out and played their worst defensive game of the season, which, combined with several catastrophic offensive mistakes, turned what should have been a season sweep of the Cowboys into a classic mid-season Meadowlands meltdown that creates any number of questions about how good this Giants team really is.

The lesson, as always, is that I'm an idiot.  A handsome idiot, but an idiot nonetheless.

In retrospect, I should have seen it coming, because Tom Coughlin's teams are famous for being unable to handle prosperity.  In the few weeks leading up to the game, there had been a building consensus that the Giants were the best team in the NFC after reeling off five straight wins.  The Cowboys entered the game with a new head coach and in complete disarray, and frankly blew the Giants' doors off with big plays.

The game turned in the second quarter with the Giants poised to overcome a slow start and in position to take a 10-9 lead.  Eli's pass intended for Hakeem Nicks was picked off, run back for a 101-yard touchdown that put the Giants behind two scores and in chase mode for the rest of the game.  Based on the postgame remarks from Eli and Coughlin, Nicks apparently broke off his slant route early, although with the Cowboys corner squatting on the slant, there's a case to be made that Nicks was expecting an adjustment to a corner throw.

Regardless, that play changed the entire game, and with the defense unable to get stops when they needed, the Giants never got the deficit under 13 points from that point on.  There was no pass rush whatsoever, and the secondary was brutal all afternoon in allowing Kitna to throw for 327 yards on only 13 completions.

So, now we're left to wonder whether that putrid performance was an anomaly for an injury-riddled team, or a sign of things to come for a group that hasn't exactly set the world on fire in the second half of seasons under Coughlin.

Based on last week's defensive display, I'm completely terrified about what Michael Vick might do on Sunday night in Philadelphia.  DeSean Jackson has already made a living completely annihilating the Giants secondary, and Vick's running ability poses a major problem for a team with a slow group of linebackers.

Suffice it to say, I'm not expecting much on Sunday night, which may actually be a good thing since the Giants thrive on pessimism.