Spread the news: The methodical Giants offense is powering through the NFL’s toughest division thanks to an unwavering line that puts opponents on their backs and rules the locker room

THE Giants won last season’s Super Bowl and 10 of their first 11 games in 2008 but did not fully move into the radar of public interest until last Saturday morning, and then only because of the news that their best wide receiver, Plaxico Burress, had raised the ante on his regular misadventures by accidentally shooting himself in the right thigh with his own handgun at a Manhattan nightclub. Burress’s gunplay initiated a classic tabloid frenzy that appeared to have legs, and made the Giants suddenly and blessedly interesting. Before that, they had chugged along with dull efficiency. Their marquee player, quarterback Eli Manning, is likably unrevealing, often compared by New York media with Derek Jeter, who possesses the same quality. Their coach, Tom Coughlin, runs a leak-free locker room and controls controversy essentially by refusing to acknowledge its existence. There had been no shortage of more exotic NFL story lines, ranging from Brett Favre to Adam Jones to the hapless Lions to the Titans’ winning streak. The Giants could wait.

Now at last came the Burress Affair, just as his team was preparing to play an NFC East road game in Washington. While Burress, who caught the game-winning touchdown in New York’s 17–14 Super Bowl win over the Patriots, was not going to play against the Redskins because of a hamstring injury, the swirl of negativity that accompanied his self-inflicted wound rose to the level of that most universal obstacle, the Distraction.

Except, not so much. On a miserable Sunday at FedEx Field, with windblown rain and temperatures that hovered in the low 40s, the Giants took a Redskins team that has been in the playoff mix all season and simply toyed with it. New York went ahead 13–0 early in the second quarter and was never threatened, churning out more than 400 yards against a defense that had been one of the NFL’s best, yielding fewer than 280 yards per game. It is tempting to invoke the cliche that the Giants had tightened their bonds in support of Burress and won the game in his honor?”We were missing a fallen comrade,” said running back Derrick Ward?but it was not that type of work; it was cold and bloodless, the undressing of a lesser team.

“We’ve been through the gamut,” said center Shaun O’Hara, while stripping off his drenched and muddied uniform afterward. “We went through plenty last year, and look where we finished. There’s experience. There’s leadership. Call it whatever you want. When it’s time to play, this team cranks it up.”

This team is 11–1 for the first time in its 83-year history, with seven consecutive wins and a three-game lead over resurgent Dallas in what remains arguably the strongest division in the NFL. Manning passed for 305 yards against the Redskins, and massive tailback Brandon Jacobs pounded out 71 yards on the ground despite a sore knee that clearly has not healed. The same defense that made Tom Brady look human in the Super Bowl 10 months ago sacked Jason Campbell four times and intercepted him once.

And the heart of this unglamorous team beats in a most unglamorous place.

A SNAPSHOT: ON Oct. 4, the day before a home game against Seattle, the Giants’ offensive line got together for a private videotape session. The first string?center O’Hara, left guard Rich Seubert, left tackle David Diehl, right guard Chris Snee and right tackle Kareem McKenzie?has started 31 of the last 32 games as a unit. They are typical of the breed: large and lumpy (in a way that belies their considerable strength) but also tough and smart. This is how they prepare as a group. “It’s good to watch tape alone, and we all do that,” says Seubert, “but you can really get on the same page when you watch together.” What they saw on this Saturday was a blitz package the Seahawks had used effectively against New York in 2005 and ‘06. In the film session they identified the look and created a name for it, so that any one of them could call out along the line if he saw it coming.

(The line is a noisy place. Before the snap, Manning will identify the middle, or Mike, linebacker, and often change the play or blocking scheme. Beginning with O’Hara, the line will then shout out confirmation of any change, or further changes of their own, based on the defense. Grunts and groans follow.)

Whatever the code name?”Defensive linemen are pretty smart,” says McKenzie. “If I tell you, I’ll have to kill you”?early in the game the Giants came to the line of scrimmage and, almost in unison all five offensive linemen barked the designated word. It happened at least twice more in that game, and on each occasion the Giants adjusted and picked up the blitz, en route to a 44–6 victory. “When you recognize a blitz presnap, and everybody is on the same page,” says O’Hara, “that’s the best feeling in the world.” It is a rare and potent synergy at a place on the field where cohesiveness is essential. And this team has it. “They’re a group of guys who work unbelievably well together,” says Steelers defensive end Aaron Smith, who got a firsthand look in a 21–14 loss on Oct. 26. “Strength in numbers, you know?”

The rest of the league knows. With no small amount of help from tight end Kevin Boss and 266-pound fullback Madison Hedgecock, both integral to the running game, the Giants’ O-line has helped Jacobs (950 yards), Ward (630) and Ahmad Bradshaw (310) lead an NFL-best ground attack that averages more than 160 yards per game. Manning has been sacked 15 times, seventh-best among NFL quarterbacks who’ve started all 12 games. “They’re probably as good as any line in the league,” says Baltimore defensive coordinator Rex Ryan, whose typically stout unit gave up 207 yards on the ground in a 30–10 loss on Nov. 16.

The line was built piece by piece. Seubert, 29, arrived first, in 2001, an undrafted free agent from Western Illinois. He became a starter in ‘02, but six games into the following season he broke his right ankle, fibula and tibia and wouldn’t become a full-time starter again for another four years. Seubert still has a steel rod running from his ankle to his knee. Diehl, 28, was drafted in ‘03 from Illinois and has missed one practice in six years. Snee, 26, was drafted in the second round from Boston College in ‘04, started 11 games as a rookie and married Coughlin’s daughter, Kate. O’Hara, 31, once a walk-on at nearby Rutgers, was signed as a free agent from Cleveland in ‘04; McKenzie, 29, was a free-agent pickup a year later, after he had spent four seasons with the Jets.

This group started its first game together in December 2005; none has made a Pro Bowl. Their work is difficult for a layman to evaluate, taking place in 60 scrums every game. “This is no miracle,” says retired NFL offensive line coach Jim McNally, who was with the Giants from 1999 through 2003 and helped draft Seubert and Snee. “You have four or five really tremendous athletes up there.” It’s true: Seubert ran a 4.92-second 40 in college, O’Hara was high school all-conference in basketball and Diehl says he has “always been able to move, even though I was bigger than everybody else.”

McNally says, “Defensive linemen are always better athletes than offensive linemen. But with these guys, they give you a fighting chance.”

The line’s collective athleticism allows the Giants’ coaches to be more creative than most in setting blocking schemes. Linebacker Jeff Ulbrich of the 49ers, who lost to New York 29–17 in Week 7, says, “They do some things I’ve never seen before: They pull the front side guard and the back side guard; both jab step and both come around. They have enough athletic ability to do stuff like that.”

The offense, like any effective attack, comprises complementary parts. “Jacobs will get you two or three yards if you don’t block anybody,” says Arizona defensive coordinator Clancy Pendergast, whose Cardinals lost at home to the Giants 37–29 on Nov. 23. Burress, now out of the mix, gave Manning a quick outlet against most blitzes. Amani Toomer provides sure hands and a deep threat, and Domenik Hixon is emerging as a capable possession receiver. But most of all the Giants’ hogs cover up each other’s mistakes. “You know what the guy next to you is going to do,” says McKenzie. “That comes from all the time you spend together.”

With this group, that extends to time off the field. They eat meals together, lift weights together, even on occasion tailgate in the stadium parking lot after games. They prank each other and their teammates, like frat boys run amok. Following an October pig roast at the stadium, O’Hara stuffed the carcass’s head into a trash bag and buried it in Seubert’s locker. As a unit, they stalk the locker room, stealing equipment and car keys and, says O’Hara, “changing the characters on cellphones to Chinese.”

Teammates respond. The offensive linemen’s cleats were painted purple before the Super Bowl, and during training camp a thick layer of Vaseline was applied to Seubert’s car’s windshield. Evidence points in one direction. “The quarterbacks,” says Seubert. “I asked a witness. I’m sure that’s who it was.”

Manning demurs, like a mobster on trial. “Somebody did those things,” he says, “but that’s all I know.”

McKenzie discourages pranks with his response. “I come back at a higher level,” he says. “You throw a roll of prewrap at me, I’ll throw real tape at you.” (Or worse: “You hit Kareem in the [crotch], he’ll grab yours,” says backup lineman Grey Ruegamer.)

All of the nonsense has a purpose. “This is our job. This is our livelihood,” says Diehl. “But it’s Football. And we’re together all the time. It’s got to be fun.”

THE PROUD, buttoned-up Giants organization faces major decisions off the field in dealing with Burress?who on Monday was charged with two counts of second-degree criminal possession of a weapon?and to a lesser extent, linebacker and defensive captain Antonio Pierce, who was with Burress on the night of the shooting. Moreover, the remaining schedule is brutal, beginning with a home game this Sunday against the schizophrenic Eagles and then a trip to Dallas before finishing at home against Carolina and at Minnesota. The four opponents are a combined 13 games above .500, and all four are in playoff contention.

But the Giants’ whipping of the Redskins would seem to underscore that they are not only close to distraction-proof but also capable of blowing through the loss of any one player (with the probable exception of Manning). “We have a lot of guys on this team who are capable of making plays,” says Toomer, who caught five passes for 85 yards in the win over Washington.

More practically, the Giants’ stability is tied to the line, which as a unit is less prone to the hot and cold streaks of a skill player. “We forget about the last play, the last series, the last game, the last season,” says Seubert. “We just worry about the next one.”

The Redskins’ defense attacked the Giants in precisely the same way that the Cardinals’ did a week earlier: with safeties down low near the line of scrimmage, putting eight men in the box to stop the run. “I thought they had 12 men down there at times,” says O’Hara. “But that just gave us a chance to prove that we’re not a one-dimensional team.”

Manning was sacked twice, for a total of nine yards, but often had several seconds to dawdle through his route progressions. On New York’s first play of the second quarter he completed a bubble screen to Ward on the right side, and McKenzie and Snee escorted the back on a 48-yard gain, like twin steamrollers moving up the soggy field. The Giants were stuffed for only 28 yards on 15 carries before halftime but got 80 yards on 20 carries in the final two quarters.

“The way they played us, there are going to be negative plays,” says Diehl. “Arizona did the same thing. You just keep moving it and moving it, and sooner or later you wear them down and things start to crack for you.”

One year after the NFL was identified by celebrity headliners in New England?Brady, Moss, Belichick?the pendulum has swung back. This year’s model is star-free, built on a foundation of wide men whose work is measured by their teammates’ statistics. “We don’t do anything significant,” says McKenzie. “We just do our jobs.” Here is a working-man’s machine that just doesn’t break down.

The line’s athleticism allows the Giants to be more creative in their blocking schemes. “They do things I’ve NEVER SEEN BEFORE,” says Ulbrich.

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