The Giants should be very careful about how much joy they take in the dire state of affairs in Dallas in the days leading up to Monday night's showdown at JerryWorld.
They shouldn't be careful because the Giants might lose, because everyone is aware that such a possibility exists. They shouldn't be careful because the Cowboys are a desperate team. Desperate teams are dangerous, but, again, everyone who knows football should already have that in mind.
No, the reason why the Giants and their fans should be mindful is because only those with memory loss can look at the Cowboys and not see a glimmer of where the Giants were after losing to the Titans. There are the same calls for the coach's head on a pike, the same questions about the effort, desire and professionalism of the players on the roster and, if you take a listen to Jerry Jones and Wade Phillips, there are the same attempts being made to rewrite history.
Phillips, whose motivational speaking leaves more than a little to be desired, said that the Cowboys are better than other 1-4 teams and Jones went even further.
"We're being dominant in our fronts in many cases. Dominant. And you win the game usually when you are playing that well," Jones said. "We took the tape apart yesterday and looked at the play of every player, looked at his effort, looked at the things that we're doing and those usually win ballgames."
The gut reaction is to ask for some of what these guys are smoking and hit the Planetarium, but just think back three weeks before making any rash conclusions. They sound delusional, but so did Tom Coughlin, Justin Tuck and every other member of the Giants who proclaimed that everything was going to be alright in the aftermath of the loss to the Titans. They were saying that the Giants were the better team, that they were playing spectacular football and that they just needed to catch a few breaks to be right back on top of the world.
And they were right on that last point. They weren't far from being back in the thick of the hunt for the finest meats and cheeses in the land because they were better than they'd shown in the first three weeks and because the nature of the NFC this season is that no one is that far from being out of it. That goes for Dallas too.
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Win on Monday and the Cowboys are 2-4 in a conference where every team has at least two losses. That's hardly up the creek without a paddle. In fact, it's only a little further up the creek than the Giants were before paddling back into the current just fine.
So don't spend any time gloating about what's come before and just focus on the fact that a win means the Giants are one step closer to their own goals.
Josh Alper is a writer living in New York City and is a contributor to FanHouse.com and ProFootballTalk.com in addition to his duties for NBCNewYork.com. You can follow him on Twitter.
