By PAUL SCHWARTZ
This has been a long time coming for the Giants, who have been leaving little hints and displaying various signs that all is not well, despite their winning ways.
It all caught up with them Sunday. There was a will but there was not a way. They believed they would provide about three hours of relief for those dealing with the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, but instead they spent the better part of three hours showing the flaws they have gotten away with in previous weeks but not this time, as evidenced by a 24-20 loss to the Steelers and the end of a four-game winning streak.
“We’ve lost games around here where we’ve played really well and physically battled away and just got beat, but that wasn’t one of them,’’ coach Tom Coughlin said.
No, this wasn’t one of them. The Giants (6-3) actually weren’t playing all that well but still took a 20-10 lead into the fourth quarter, despite another strangely off-kilter game from Eli Manning and a run defense that made Pittsburgh’s No. 3 running back, Isaac Redman (147 yards), look like the second coming of Franco Harris. Perhaps Coughlin’s desire to win this one for the storm-battered region would be enough.
