Keep Pushing.

Look at those stat lines:

Eli Manning: 18-29 for 200 yards, 2 TDs and a pick. Ugly.

Ahmad Bradshaw, our leading rusher: 59 yards, 3.9 YPC. Ugly.

Mario Manningham, our leading receiver: Only 3 catches, for 56 yards. Ugly.

Our secondary was torched to all hell. Bradford threw for 321 yards. Ugly.

Danario Alexander, a virtual no name: 3 catches, 122 yards. Whipped Aaron Ross good. So damn ugly.

But then here's one more statline:

New York Giants, 28. St. Louis Rams, 16. Frickin' Beautiful.

Yes, its only a win. A win that most prognosticators have said we should win. And this may certainly be a point of overreaction here, but here it is.

We play ugly. I've pretty much accepted that as fact. We will not win any stat battles with anyone else. This entire week, we'll hear about how the Eagles will rip us apart. How we lucked into victory. How St. Louis lost the game. We didn't win it. Lucky calls.

You know what I say to that? Bring it. I really don't care.

What this team brings to the table is resiliency. We may be the sloppiest team out there. We may play terribly for most of the game. We may be decimated by injuries. But our one saving grace may just be this mindset.

In the pregame, during John Gruden's interview, Tom Coughlin gave this quote: "We need that mental toughness...to go along with that physical toughness." I'll admit, when I saw that, I chuckled a little. No duh. But damn, after tonight, those words resonated the most strongly.

Toughness. Grit. Scrappiness. Fight. Overrated words, sure, but ones that fit this team perfectly. 

Eli Manning starts off horribly. He started off the game going 2 for 11 with a surefire TD gone INT. Same old Eli. I wasn't in the game threads, but I can imagine a lot of jeering and anger. I sure as hell had a potty mouth myself. But, do me a favor and look at Eli's final stat line. He went 16 of 18 with 2 TDs to finish off the game. He has the shortest memory of any QB I have seen. He is unshakable. For all the hate Eli gets (and deservedly so in the beginning), he sure as hell has a way to shut people up. Big time.

Every time you take a step back, you just keep pushing.

Aaron Ross had a game on par with C.C. Brown. He was atrocious. No getting over that. He was even pulled from the game. During his benching, Jacobs and Bradshaw came over to talk to him. Apparently he was dejected. Corey Webster took him, and yanked him over to the DB meeting, got in his face, and he came back in and played much better.

Every time you take a step back, you just keep pushing.

The Giants kept bending on defense. Huge plays. Everybody was getting torched like all hell. When it came to the red zone, though, they absolutely shut shit down. The blitzes were hitting home. The corners blanketed the receivers. They refused to break. The rookie Greg Jones was having none of it. Justin Tuck and Jason Pierre-Paul were having none of it. The maligned safeties came on run blitzes and were....having none of it. With that many trips to the redzone, to give up one TD on a perfectly thrown ball on Michael Coe ain't terrible.

Every time you take a step back, you just keep pushing.

It seemed like we had a 3 and out on every offensive possession. The Giants were getting blasted by the fanbase over the past week. They were getting blasted by the media. And tonight, they were getting blasted by the stadium. They looked listless. Emotionless at times. The defense looked absolutely gassed against the no-huddle.

But goddamn it. They were resilient. They tuned everything out. The coaches were hit in the face and totally outcoached by Washington. And for much of the time, they were outcoached tonight in the first half. But they made adjustments. Perry Fewell dialed up the blitz and I swear Kevin Gilbride actually forced me to guess on what they were going to do next. Shocking, I know.

Every time you take a step back, you just keep pushing.

Alot of people will call this lucky. St. Louis made a ton of mistakes, so we got lucky. You know what? All teams get lucky now and then. Good teams take advantage of the opportunity. The points off turnovers showed what we did. We took every St. Louis mistake and we took it graciously. They did not and that's the difference. We kept pushing. Even after a few horrendous series, I certainly thought we would do nothing after that muffed punt by Greg Salas. We got a touchdown to Hakeem Nicks. They kept pushing. 

Some people will never be satisfied. They will call for Eli's head unless he completes 90% of his passes for 1,000 yards a game. Tom Coughlin loses a game (forget that since 2005, we have the highest winning percentage in the NFC), people call for his head. The Giants don't care. They don't mind the pressure. God knows they've been under the spotlight for quite some time now. They don't bat an eyelid.

They are getting crushed with injuries. Yet, somehow, they keep. on. pushing. Young players, Jason Pierre-Paul, Hakeem Nicks, Will Beatty, and to an extent Greg Jones and Jacquain Williams, are playing out of their minds. Wily veterans like Justin Tuck, Michael Boley, and Chris Canty are stepping up (and making big plays) in a huge way. An overly taxed secondary has players like Kenny Phillips (who has been nothing if not rock solid) and Antrel Rolle (who is trying his damnedest at a new position) in line.

There are mistakes. There are injuries. There is bad coaching and bad execution. But. And this is a huge "but" (Kevin Boothe-sized), we still have a win. That's all that counts.

Tom Coughlin in another interview was asked if the team was going to tank because of the pressure and the injuries. He said: "We cannot give up. We will not give up. There are no excuses in this locker room"

And as long as the Giants don't give up they have a chance. Despite all the step backs they'll take, if they fight on, there will be hope for this season.

Just keep pushing. Eventually something will give.