They didn't have their star running back available for the game; in fact, they left the 6-4, 265-pound Brandon Jacobs (1,002 yards) home, so that he could rest his sore knee and ensure his participation in Sunday night's showdown for home-field advantage with Carolina.

Both teams are 11-3 after the Giants' two straight defeats, and the team that wins this game is going to be the No. 1 seed in the NFC for the post-season party.

Derrick Ward, the replacement for Jacobs, just didn't do enough. Neither did Ahmad Bradshaw. Together, those two, who made up the entire running game, combined for 72 yards in 17 carries. Dallas rookie Tashard Choice, starting for the gimpy Marion Barber, had more than that -- 91 yards in just nine carries.

But perhaps most disheartening of all was the performance of the offensive line. For most of the season, it was generally assumed the Giants had one of the best offensive lines in the NFL. But Sunday night, in addition to not providing ample, or even acceptable, running room, the five-man contingent allowed quarterback Eli Manning to be sacked eight times.

In the previous 13 games, he had been dropped only 15 times.

Now two of the starters are out; at least they were early in the second half Sunday night and it is unknown if they'll return for the game against Carolina. Right tackle Kareem McKenzie left with a back problem, and he has spent much of the season burdened with back spasms. Left guard Rich Seubert, on the other hand, was incapacitated by "illness," which translated into flu-like symptoms, and he should be ready to return to face Carolina.

But after two straight losses, the first time this has happened to the defending Super Bowl champions since the opening two games of the 2007 season, will they have enough to defeat the powerful Panthers?

"We know the talent on this team," said defensive end Justin Tuck in a somber post-game locker room. "We know how we can play, because we have done it. What we need to do now is simply get back to our basics, get back to playing our kind of game, and then just take what we need from our inner strength and natural talent."

If the offensive line has been "exposed," as some of the critics have said, then perhaps the Cowboys showed the football fraternity that left tackle David Diehl is truly mediocre at best when it comes to the speed rushers, the demons of every defense.

Yet if that is true, there is no explanation being offered as to how he managed to do so well during the playoff run, the Cinderella story that was last season.

It is possible that the Giants have hit a severe bump in the road, and that they'll get back on track against Carolina. It is, after all, a home game. That famous "12th man" will be in the game for them, and the injuries, especially to Jacobs, could magically disappear.

If, on the other hand, that doesn't prove to be true, they are still the NFC East champions, still in the post-season party, and maybe one of these weekends -- before it is fatally too late -- they'll discover what it was that put them on a road of 11-1 before all the wheels came off.