Phillips Remains Optimistic

No NFC Championship Game at home, no shot at a record sixth Super Bowl.

That 13-3 regular season? The NFL-record 12 Pro Bowlers? All wasted.

The Dallas Cowboys woke up to those cold realities Monday, a day after being eliminated by the New York Giants, a team they'd already beaten twice.

"For it to fall apart like it did is mind-boggling," TE Jason Witten said. "You don't know what to do now."

Trying to figure out how it happened was the first step.

"I think we clinched so early we got a little complacent," said WR Patrick Crayton, his point backed up by a 1-3 finish.

"We made too many mental errors," said special teams captain Keith Davis, pointing to 11 penalties against the Giants.

"We just didn't make enough big plays," veteran LB Greg Ellis said.

Then there was Coach Wade Phillips' take: "After looking at the tape, I feel like the best team lost the game."

Phillips offered all sorts of nuggets to try masking the pain of both the loss and the elimination, from stressing Dallas' statistical success against New York (only 57 yards allowed in the second half) to the Cowboys making the final eight for the first time since 1996.

OK, so it was a bye that got Dallas into the second weekend, not an actual postseason victory. But Phillips wasn't interested in those deflating facts, nor the tidbit that the Cowboys just tied the NFL playoff futility mark by dropping its sixth straight game.

"The arrow is pointing up on this team," he said.

WINDING ROAD: In contrast to the other three conference finalists, the New York Giants' path featured numerous twists and turns, including:

•An 0-2 start that would have been 0-3 if not for a goal-line stand in the final minute at Washington to preserve a 24-17 victory.

•Season-ending injuries to the team's then-leading rusher (Derrick Ward), Pro Bowl TE (Jeremy Shockey) and starting OLB (Mathias Kiwanuka), plus rookie S Craig Dahl (ACL), who had filled in when James Butler was injured.

•A 22-10 loss to Washington on Dec. 16 that temporarily denied the Giants a playoff berth and featured a dreadful 18-for-52 performance by QB Eli Manning.

•Injuries to C Shaun O'Hara and CB Sam Madison in a 38-35 loss to New England in the regular-season finale that forced both starters to miss the wild-card game against the Bucs the following week.

The Associated Press