Late-Game Heroics Help Flawed Giants Remain in Control in NFC East

I feel for New York Giants fans.

In the fourth quarter alone—in five games this year—the Giants have caused sales of bismuth subsalicylate to skyrocket in the Tri-State area.

That's Pepto-Bismol, for those of you who don't care for $2 words.

Sunday night's tilt with the San Francisco 49ers was no exception. The Giants took a late lead on a chip-shot Josh Brown field goal, only to promptly hand that lead back to the 49ers with another fourth-quarter defensive faceplant.

However, thanks to quarterback Eli Manning's late-game heroics and Larry Donnell's phenomenal scoring grab, the Giants eked out a 27-23 win, and with their third straight victory, a Giants team with more warts than shine took over sole possession of first place in the "NFC Least."

Mind you, the Giants don't exactly look the part of a first-place team. After Sunday night's affair, the Giants rank 24th in the NFL in rushing offense, at 93 yards a game. They couldn't even manage that against a 49ers defense that isn't close to what it once was.

And the defense. Oh, good golly, the defense.

As it took the field against San Francisco Sunday night, the Giants did so with the only pass defense in the NFL allowing over 300 yards a game. Granted, some of that is due to injuries that have hit the Giants at every level, including all but obliterating the team's pass rush.

But it's bad. Really bad. And as NBC pointed out during the broadcast, in the final stanza this year, things have gone from bad to flat-out horrifying:

And it happened again Sunday night. After Brown's field goal put the Giants up three, Big Blue proceeded to let Colin Kaepernick and the 49ers march the length of the field to take the lead. It was the third 80-plus-yard drive the Giants allowed to San Francisco in the game.

This is the same Colin Kaepernick who was rumored to be in danger of losing his starting job—to Blaine Freaking Gabbert.

What? It's his middle name. Look on his birth certificate if you don't believe me.

Every member of that defense owes Eli Manning dinner. In fact, the whole team does, because Manning put the team on his back against the 49ers.

Yes, there were mistakes. A first-half interception in the red zone. A near-interception that would have put the kibosh on the game-winning touchdown drive that culminated in that sick grab by Donnell.

There were also 441 passing yards, three touchdown catches and a passer rating of over 110. And that's without wide receivers Odell Beckham Jr. and Rueben Randle for much of the fourth quarter.

It was the 27th time in his career Manning has led the Giants back from the brink. It made him the winningest quarterback in franchise history:

After the game, Manning said the comeback felt good, even if there have been a couple that felt better:

The really crazy part? The part that should cost both fans of the Giants and the rest of the NFC equal amounts of sleep?

This team sort of resembles the 2007 and 2011 incarnations.

The 2007 Giants, just like this year's squad, dropped their first two games before going on a winning streak. The 2011 Giants finished the regular season an uninspiring 9-7. Both those teams had multiple problems and were hit hard by injuries. The combined record of the two teams was a not-at-all impressive 19-13.

Their 8-0 combined playoff record and two Super Bowl wins, on the other hand...

And that's the thing. For the Tom Coughlin/Eli Manning Giants, the problem hasn't been success in the playoffs. It's been getting to them in the first place. The team hasn't since it last lifted the Lombardi Trophy.

This year has the makings of a different story, though. Despite their early collapses (the Giants are the first team in NFL history to lose their first two games after holding double-digit leads in the last quarter) and defensive struggles, the Giants have taken sole control of first place.

The Dallas Cowboys have dropped three straight after being gutted on offense by injuries. The Philadelphia Eagles are even more all over the place than the Giants. And Washington?

May I present Kirk Cousins.

The prosecution rests.

Flawed though they may be, right now the Giants are the most complete football team in the NFC East. I wrote that two weeks ago when they notched win No. 1 of the year.

Nothing has happened since then to change that assessment.

In fact, there's reason to believe that hold will only grow stronger. The Giants should start getting healthier on defense soon, and in the meantime the team's next four games (at PHI, DAL, at NO, at TB) are all against teams that presently sport losing records.

It's those next two that loom especially large. They could allow the Giants to both swell their division lead to at least two games and earn a head-to-head win against all three other teams in the division.

Are those wins guaranteed? No. Nothing is going to be for this year's Giants. But as he showed tonight, Manning gives New York something no other team in the NFC East has, at least while Tony Romo's broken collarbone keeps him sidelined in Dallas: a big-game quarterback. 

That alone may be enough to get the Giants into the playoffs in 2015, warts and all.

And once they get there, the Giants have shown a knack for making the most of the trip.

Gary Davenport is an NFL analyst at Bleacher Report and a member of the Fantasy Sports Writers Association and the Pro Football Writers of America. You can follow Gary on Twitter @IDPSharks.