When they weren’t pulling Eli Manning
off the ground after each of the Cowboys’ eight sacks, the guys who
make the Giants offense go were either getting their runs stuffed
inside or walking off the field following another failed third-down
conversion.

“It was a bad day and our offensive line group has a
lot of pride,” left tackle David Diehl said Wednesday after the
defending NFC East champions practiced for another trip to Dallas on
Sunday night.

This is bound to be a special game. Not only were
the two rivals winners in their season openers this past weekend, the
game will be the first regular-season contest in the new Cowboys
Stadium.

“Last year is last year,” guard Rich Seubert said. “This
is my nine or tenth time going to Dallas. It’s Cowboys-Giants;
Giants-Cowboys. It’s a great matchup and a great history between the
two clubs. It will be fun.”

The Giants last visit to Texas
Stadium wasn’t too enjoyable. Dallas posted a 20-8 win, limiting New
York’s vaunted rushing game to a season-low 72 yards.

“We have a
whole new opportunity here,” Diehl said. “Obviously, we know they are
going to be fired up opening a new stadium and we are going to have to
match that intensity. We have to play good football, come out fast and
play hard. That’s the way you get the crowd out of the game, focusing
and making plays and giving them a reason to be quiet.”

The
Giants didn’t make many plays last time. They were 3 for 13 on
third-down conversions and finished with 218 total yards. Their eight
points was the team’s lowest since late in the 2006 season.

A lot
has changed this time around. When the teams met in December, it was
roughly two weeks after Plaxico Burress accidentally shot himself in
the thigh in a Manhattan night club and the Giants offense was suddenly
without its deep threat.

That wasn’t all that was missing.

“Well
I wasn’t there,” said bruising halfback Brandon Jacobs, who missed the
game with a knee injury and was replaced by Derrick Ward. “I couldn’t
tell you what was wrong because I wasn’t there. Hopefully, this time
around we go down there and play better as an offense and a team.”

Center
Shaun O’Hara said that the biggest problem in the second game — New
York won the first one 35-14 — was that the Giants fell behind and had
to play catch-up, forcing Manning to throw the ball.

“We learned
from it, just like we learned from all the other times we’ve played
them,” O’Hara said. “I think the key for us is to start fast, take some
of the crowd out of it and make sure we don’t turn into a
one-dimensional team. That’s what happened last game. We have to make
sure we run the ball early so we can stay balanced.”

If Dallas’
game against Tampa Bay last week was any indication, New York should be
able to run the ball. The Bucs gained 174 yards rushing, averaging 5.6
yards a carry.

“This is a copycat league,” Cowboys linebacker
Bradie James said. “I’m sure they will try to do a couple of things the
Bucs did. But the Giants are the Giants. They’re going to do what they
know how to do, and they’re going to do it real well. It’s up to us to
match their intensity and outplay them.”

The Giants also need to
do a better job inside their opponents’ 20-yard line. They had three
possessions in what coach Tom Coughlin calls the green zone and scored
only six points. New York turned the ball over early in the second
quarter after failing to gain a yard on two cracks from the Washington
3.

“When it comes to short yardage, I don’t care what defense
they call or what we call, we should be able to get 1 yard,” guard
Chris Snee said. “We weren’t able to do it. That was a point of
emphasis (in the offseason) to be able to improve short yardage in the
green zone and we didn’t off to a good start last week. But we have a
lot more opportunities to get that right.”