One big play by Brandon Jacobs just might have turned NY Giants' season around

The play that could end up saving the Giants’ season was supposed to get about 5 yards.  Hey, they had to start somewhere, right?  Brandon Jacobs caught the ball in the flat, turned upfield and figured he could get 15. Maybe 20.  Eli Manning saw him running down the sideline and thought, all right, this could be a big one.  But no one, least of all the Cowboys giving chase, figured he could go all 74 yards for a momentum-changing — maybe season changing — touchdown.

“I’ve never seen him run that fast,” head coach Tom Coughlin said after a 31-24 victory moved his team to within a game of first place in the NFC East. “I just reminded him of that, too.”

So if this rocky season takes an improbable turn to a successful run in the playoffs, we know where it started.
It started with a struggling running back finally breaking free and making an impact when it mattered.

It continued when Jacobs — never mistaken for a ballerina — somehow managed to keep his 265 pounds inbounds at the Dallas 20-yard line.

It ended when he followed a lead block from tight end Darcy Johnson and blasted his way into the end zone.

Jacobs did not have a single play longer than 31 yards this season. This was more than twice that.

So was he winded?

“No, I was good,” he said. “I was able to celebrate AND talk trash, so I wasn’t out of breath at all.”

Yes, the Giants had a little bit of their swagger back after this one, and that was a good sign. They are tied with Dallas in the division now, by virtue of sweeping the season series, and just a game behind the Eagles, who come to the swamp Sunday night.

No one is booking flights to Miami just yet, and they have teased us with games like this before. But this win gives them life again, and it was more than the result. It was how they won.

There was the big special teams play, with Domenik Hixon breaking free for a 79-yard punt return for a touchdown.

There was the defensive stops in the fourth quarter, including a fourth-down, had-to-have-it tackle by cornerback Aaron Ross on Cowboys running back Marion Barber after Dallas had moved into Giants territory.

There were the things they had always done well when they were winning, but were missing in their midseason slump. The confidence seemed to return the moment Jacobs started rumbling down the sidelines.

Jacobs, maybe more than any player, has embodied the funk of this team. The big back has played small too often this year, averaging just 3.9 yards per carry and scaring no one.

He blamed himself for being a “terrible leader,” but this was more than being vocal in the huddle. This was about being a playmaker and restoring what made the Giants special.

The Giants offense hadn’t had a legitimately big play in weeks. With 3:39 left in the third quarter, after Dallas had taken a 17-14 lead, the home team was desperate for one.

Manning was playing it safe when he dumped the ball to Jacobs, who had just 15 catches all season to that point. “You’ll live many days by getting 5, 6 yards in the flat on first down,” Coughlin said.

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