Giants defense hasn't lost a step

Ah, opportunity.

That knocked for the defensive line after Osi Umenyiora was lost for most of the season in August with a knee injury. It hammered on the back door when defensive end Michael Strahan declined the Giants' pleas to unretire and help the Giants return to the Super Bowl.

As it turns out, the Giants didn't need him as badly as they thought.

They're giving up 260.4 yards per game with 30 sacks, both first in the NFC. They're giving up 16.1 points, which is second. They're first against the pass and third against the run and fourth on third downs.

The Eagles host them Sunday night for the first time this season. It might not be 12 sacks - the record-tying number the Giants amassed in the teams' first meeting last season - but the Eagles know there is plenty in store.

"I see a lot of mistakes from opposing offenses," Eagles quarterback Donovan McNabb said. "Credit the scheme Spagnuolo has been putting those guys in, and those guys being able to execute."

That, of course, would be Steve Spagnuolo, the former Eagles secondary, then linebackers, coach who, in his second season as the Giants' defensive coordinator, turned around a defense mired in mediocrity. In his six seasons working under defensive coordinator Jim Johnson, Spagnuolo absorbed Johnson's sack-stressing philosophy, which, ideally, leads to interceptions.

The Giants have 11, fourth in the conference. Corey Webster leads the team with three, and he could have more.

"Corey has exceptional hands," Coughlin said. "We have said that from Day 1. Even if he, at the last second, catches a glimpse of the ball he has those kind of hands where he can make a play on the ball, which we are seeing right now."

Like many members of the Giants' defensive core, familiarity with Spagnuolo's complex scheme has led to a more natural performance of its tenets. Webster's late-season surge, coupled with his play in the playoffs - his overtime interception of Brett Favre led to the Giants' win in the NFC Championship Game - has transformed him from potential bust (four picks in his first 3 years) to potential star.

As such, he's poised to make a ton of money, since he will be a free agent after this season.

"Guys understand what coach Spagnuolo wants you to do," said middle linebacker Antonio Pierce. "There is no uncertainty as far as what your job and what your assignment is."

Or what it might mean, said Pierce:

"Another good thing is we have a lot of guys who are free agents, and, hey man, it is always good to play well in your free-agency year. I'd be lying to you if I told you otherwise. Our [defensive backs] and other players on our team are playing very well for a lot of reasons."

Webster, in particular, is hot. Two of his interceptions this season came Sunday against Dallas.

"Collectively, their secondary - I think they have great communication between them," Eagles coach Andy Reid said. "Very seldom do you see a missed alignment or a missed pattern read. They put themselves in a position to make plays."

That all begins up front, where the emergence has been most obvious.

Defensive end Justin Tuck built on his breakout, 10-sack 2007 with 8 1/2 already this year, which is third in the conference.

A third-round pick out of Notre Dame, Tuck managed one sack in his first two seasons before last year. Then again, breaking out with Strahan and Umenyiora in the mix is a little less impressive than continuing to produce without either.

"He has come from a guy that might have been a question mark in the draft - whether he was going to make it or not make it, or be a great player or not a great player - to being a great player," said Reid. "He is a Pro Bowl player and he is right at the top of his game right now and his position."

On the other end, the Umenyiora gap is being filled by Mathias Kiwanuka, who moved to linebacker in 2007. He has 5 1/2 sacks, his career high.

"For Mathias to go back to the position he was drafted in, I think has recharged his batteries a little bit," Coughlin admitted. "He is a guy that has outstanding endurance. And if you see a lot of things he is doing, he is able to do late."

The ends wouldn't have those sacks without outstanding pressure from the middle from a slimmer, fitter Fred Robbins, whose career-high 5 1/2 sacks rank second among the NFC's defensive tackles.

It is Robbins, really, on whom defenses have to key.

"The thing that really sticks out," McNabb said, "is that Robbins is playing well, which takes a lot of pressure off of the other guys when you can be able to get a pressure up the middle."

Well, that's one of the factors. The other is in their popular brigadier general, who, these days, continually tries to deflect any win it for me sentiment.

"I think that is a little overblown now," Spagnuolo said. "Maybe that was a big thing last year."

Maybe it still is.

"We want to win for Spags," Tuck said. "If Spags weren't here, we would still want to. But, yes, we want to win for Spagnuolo."

The last time they expressed that sentiment, they got 12 sacks.

"I certainly don't expect anything like that," Spagnuolo said.

But, from this reassembled cast, he'd take it. *