By Sally Jenkins
Monday, January 14, 2008

IRVING, Tex.

The trouble with going to Cabo San Lucas before the NFL playoffs is that when you come back, you'd better win. While Tony Romo went to the beach, the New York Giants went to work. Now the Dallas Cowboys have plenty of time to vacation, while the Giants will play for the NFC championship.

You had to wonder if the wholly different approach taken by each team coming in was the deciding factor on the field late in the fourth quarter of this back-and-forth thriller at Texas Stadium. The Cowboys were the sleek and well-rested favorites, especially Romo and tight end Jason Witten, who so famously got some sun in Baja during their off week. The Giants were a toughened and unpretty wild-card team that has fought for respect all season, and does everything the hard way. But in the decisive final period, the Cowboys misfired with fatal penalties (11 total for the game) and an interception, while the Giants were the more disciplined and unyielding team, as they held on for the 21-17 victory.

"We're a tough team to beat, and we didn't make mistakes today," Giants wide receiver Amani Toomer said. "We let them rack up the penalties, and maybe some of that had to do with their week off."

It's safe to say that almost no one in the crowd of 63,660 anticipated this. The Cowboys' fans relaxed like picnickers in the yellow-brown Texas grass outside the stadium, amid the mingling smells of charcoal, butane, and acrid smoke from blackened barbecue. Their team was 13-3 and a top seed, and had beaten the Giants twice this season by a combined 76 points.

The Giants, in contrast, came in with what linebacker Antonio Pierce described as "a heavy chip" on their shoulders. They had started this season 0-2, including a 45-35 loss to the Cowboys, after which most observers wrote them off. "I had a bad taste in my mouth," Toomer said. "I think everyone did." But by the end of the regular season, they were a mean-eyed group who played their starters against the unbeaten New England Patriots even when they didn't have to, and fought to a near draw. They adopted the attitude of Coach Tom Coughlin, who insisted that his team prepare for the "the hard and the difficult by doing the hard and the difficult."

While most observers predicted another Cowboys victory, the Giants burned inwardly. "We were a bunch of guys who wanted it and we were not taking no for an answer," Pierce said.

It was a game of fast strikes, big hitters, and plenty of jawing back and forth. Virtually every other play ended with shoving, or a wounded player on his hands and knees, trying to suck in air and struggle to his feet. The Giants served immediate notice that this would be no walkover on the opening drive of the game, as Eli Manning directed them 77 yards in six plays. He struck an open Toomer, who found an oasis of space in the middle, and then put on a burst of speed into the end zone for a 52-yard scoring play. Just 3 minutes 10 seconds had elapsed.

And when the Giants got the decisive score on a one-yard run from Brandon Jacobs, with 13:29 still left in the game, Jacobs emphatically spiked the ball as hard as he could against a wall.

From there, the Giants dug in and held on, while Romo desperately tried to rally the Cowboys. For much of the game, Romo had dazzled. He did a little of everything as he completed 18 of 36 passes for 201 yards. When he wasn't slinging the ball downfield, he ducked, evaded and scrambled, and he was almost lethally effective on third down, as the Cowboys converted on 10 of 16 tries.

"This isn't about Tony," Terrell Owens said afterward. "You guys can point the finger at him. You can talk about the vacations. And if you do that, it's wrong. It's not fair. It's really not fair. That's my teammate. That's my quarterback. We lost as a team. We lost as a team, man."

Romo had a final last chance at a comeback when the Cowboys got the ball at the Giants 48-yard line, with 1:50 left. He danced around the field trying to make things happen, and when he shoveled the ball to Witten for a gain of 18, and a first down at the Giants 22 with 31 seconds left, you thought he might pull it off. But then came a false start penalty, and two incomplete passes under pressure.

On fourth and 11, with 16 seconds left, he threw one last pass, a rope toward Terry Glenn cutting across the end zone. Giants cornerback R.W. McQuarters jumped up and picked it off with nine seconds left.

It was the worst possible outcome for Romo, who will be relentlessly second-guessed for his decision to take his girlfriend Jessica Simpson for a weekend in Cabo last week. Asked afterward if he would have done anything different, an unrepentant Romo said, "I don't live with regrets. I'm content in my own skin."

Romo now has a monkey on his back: For all of his talent, he has yet to win a playoff game. That monkey has jumped off the back of Manning, who perhaps entered this game with more to prove than any other player. Manning is finally confirming that he's the big-time leader the Giants thought they were getting four years ago.

Manning finally quieted critics who said he was too reticent and lacking in fire. He has now guided the Giants to two playoff victories on the road, and nine straight road victories. He still looks like a kid brother, with his downy chin and side comb-over of fawn-brown hair. But he turned in a virtually mistake-free game, completing 12 of 18 passes for 163 yards and two touchdowns. "It wasn't fancy," he said.

But it was good enough to win. Next, the Giants will travel to Lambeau Field to meet the Green Bay Packers, and if there is a team capable of pulling off an upset there, it's these road warriors. Somehow, the Giants are now one game from the Super Bowl. But don't congratulate them for that. They prefer to keep the chip on their shoulder. "Please don't start patting us on the back," Pierce said.