EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. (AP) – A few hours before kickoff, Bill Parcells stopped at one of his teen haunts in nearby Teaneck for ice cream. Nobody but the old coach could have guessed it wouldn’t be the only stop on this visit that left a sweet taste in his mouth.

The 35-32 upset of Parcells’ first team, the Giants, by his latest, the Cowboys, in overtime Monday night was a reminder that while you can go home again, you better bring plenty of tough, talented and angry guys along. Plan B, apparently, is to have Parcells lead whoever shows up.

The sudden-death win against a division rival on the road not only buys Parcells more time for the rebuilding effort; it means the skeptics in his locker room will buy into the philosophy he’s been peddling for a little while longer.

“Stamina and staying power, stamina and staying power – he’s been preaching that every day since training camp began,” Dallas defensive tackle La’Roi Glover said. “He keeps asking, ‘Who can take a shot to the chin and come back?’

“With our style of football, we know the games will come down to the fourth quarter and we’ve got to be ready.” Glover paused. “That’s coach Parcells talking, too.”

In the coming weeks, once the emotion wanes and the Cowboys get pounded by more poised and powerful opponents, people will ask whether Parcells, 62, can still coach over the long haul. But not now. Now, it’s the Giants and coach Jim Fassel who have a lot to answer for.

Fassel’s clock management at the end of regulation begs second-guessing. Even more begged to be made of the dispute between coach and kicker over how the final kickoff in regulation wound up out of bounds.

That miscue gave Dallas a chance to drive for the field goal that forced the extra period. Fassel said afterward he wanted a squib kick down the middle; Matt Bryant said he was told to angle it toward the left sideline.

What the rest of New York will wonder instead is how Parcells brought his undermanned, inexperienced and overmatched squad to the Meadowlands, yet somehow coaxed the Giants to play even worse.

On the Cowboys’ first play from scrimmage, Troy Hambrick ran right and lost 3 yards. On the second, he went left and lost 2. On the third, tackle Flozell Adams was whistled for a false start, losing 5 more yards before the play began.

Then, just to prove things could get worse, quarterback Quincy Carter opened the Cowboys’ second series by completing his first pass to Giants cornerback Ralph Brown, who returned it 29 yards for a touchdown.

But the crazy portion of the program was just beginning. With a light drizzle becoming a downpour late in the first quarter, the Cowboys scored the first of 23 unanswered points. Then, just as inexplicably as they built the lead, they handed it back, falling behind 32-29 with 11 seconds to play in the fourth quarter. That’s when the Cowboys were supposed to wilt.

Parcells said repeatedly his biggest challenge in Dallas would be changing the losing culture that took hold through three previous 5-11 seasons.

“You can talk about how to win, but until you learn how to do it, all you’re doing,” Parcells said, “is talking.”

The Cowboys he inherited don’t fit his ideas of offense or defense. The offensive line is too big – “he hates fat, sloppy offensive linemen,” one former Parcells sidekick said – and the defensive line and linebackers aren’t big enough.

He can’t turn the personnel over fast enough to make a difference this season, and he’s been surprisingly compliant about letting his coordinators run schemes tailored to the personnel on hand. On the surface, Parcells’ handiwork appears limited to assuring players they’re better than they are. Anything else remains a proprietary secret.

Asked what he was getting for the $17.1 million he forked over to lure Parcells back to the sideline from the broadcast booth, Dallas owner Jerry Jones struggled.

“I’ll say this,” he said finally. “I’m glad he was on our sideline tonight instead of the other one. We’ve got a young team that was down with 11 seconds left and they didn’t quit.

“I give him a lot of credit,” Jones said. Then he swallowed hard. “THE credit.”

But afterward, Parcells was trying to tamp down the euphoria.

“We weren’t too resilient last week,” he said, recalling the Cowboys’ season-opening loss to Atlanta. “So I don’t know whether it’s a temporary thing or something that we can take with us.”

Wave after wave of former Giants showed up before and after the game to exchange hugs. They, too, talked how he dragged things out of them – desire, effort, cool under pressure – they didn’t know they possessed. They didn’t know how, either, but they didn’t care.

One of them, Bart Oates, said he expected his old boss to be more nostalgic about his return. But he noted the Jersey kid did stop off at Bischoff’s for the ice cream. Oates didn’t say whether Parcells paid for the treats, but no one should doubt that he stole a “W” from the Giants.

And no doubt he was already plotting how to do the same to the Jets.

“If you’ll excuse me, I’m going to take a shower now,” Parcells said with a weary grin. “I’ll be back in two weeks.”

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Jim Litke is a national sports columnist for The Associated Press. Write to him at jlitkeap.org

AP-ES-09-16-03 1457EDT