It’s getting so that you can’t tell the difference between a Giants victory and a Giants defeat unless you watch the last couple of minutes. Everything up to that point seems pretty much the same. Their 30–24 overtime thriller against the Philadelphia Eagles was practically a replay of the previous week’s 26–21 loss to the Indianapolis Colts with one important difference: This time the Giants didn’t get a bad call from an official near the finish to screw things up.

Once again, the Giants looked completely dominated and thoroughly whipped in the first half, then showed remarkable poise with an assured second half comeback that left the issue in doubt until the very end. Once again, Eli Manning proved that with the game on the line, he is capable of taking control and making up for a long list of mistakes. And the Giants’ list of mistakes yesterday was very long.

Start with the penalties. As in nearly every game the Giants have played under Tom Coughlin, there were more flags flying than at a Civil War reenactment, 14 of them accepted. This week, the Giants had the incredible luck to play a team that found a way to draw even more penalties, 16, but not to be outdone, the Giants lost 75 yards on the flags to the Eagles’ 66.

Then there’s the running game, which seems to have made giant strides in reverse since last season, when it sometimes managed to buoy a sagging offense. Tiki Barber’s longest gain was just nine yards, and on his other 20 carries, he averaged a ridiculous two yards per try. The pass blocking was atrocious, allowing eight sacks of Manning for 53 yards, while the defense managed just one on Philadelphia’s Donovan McNabb. In fact, when the adrenaline wears off — sometime around Tuesday morning, I’ll bet, when they review the game films — someone is going to notice that New York’s defense was awful. McNabb riddled the secondary for 344 yards on 45 throws for an average of 7.5 a pop. Two times out of three in the NFL, those numbers would make a team a loser. (The Giants rushing defense wasn’t as bad, giving up 107 yards on 30 carries, but that was 21 more yards than they managed to run for.)

So how in the world do you give up 451 total yards, allow eight sacks on your passer, get 14 penalties, and win the game?

I’m still not sure, but it helps to have Eli Manning and a sense that if you can give him time to get the ball to Plaxico Burress and Amani Toomer, then you’re never out of the game — unless, of course, it happens to be a week when an official makes a lousy call.

As a Giants loyalist, I’m still sky high from the win, but when I woke up this morning, the skeptic in me began asking questions that the fan hasn’t yet found satisfactory replies to. The first is why do the Giants have to be making these amazing comebacks? In two games, they’ve been outscored in the first half 33–14 — why can’t they get focused before the fourth quarter comes around? And what happened to this aggressive defense? In the opening game, the Giants had just one interception on Peyton Manning’s 41 passes (though God knows they had at least three other dropped balls that looked like sure pickoffs). They had none against Donovan McNabb in 45 throws. That’s one interception in 86 throws. That may not be the worst ratio in the NFL right now, but it’s sure got to be close. And speaking of one in 86, that’s also the number of sacks they’ve now made.

You can’t live on those kind of percentages in the National Football League, no matter how many great passes your quarterback makes in the second half. The key to winning in the NFL is not to have to keep making the great plays in the second half. I have a feeling that if the Giants don’t turn those percentages around this coming Sunday against Seattle, their season will go rapidly downhill.

***

The Jets did some comebacking of their own Sunday afternoon, but had the bad luck to be playing a better opponent than the Giants drew — a team that doesn’t beat itself. The New England Patriots are no longer, I suspect, in a class with the top two or three teams in the AFC, but when their 24–0 third quarter lead on the Jets began to evaporate, they didn’t panic. And when it mattered most, in the final minutes, Tom Brady converted on third and five, third and five, and third and eight, thus denying the Jets a chance to force am overtime by the same 24–24 score as Manning and the Giants did.

That being said, there’s no doubt that Eric Mangini’s 2006 Jets are much improved over last year’s model — at least as long as they can keep Chad Pennington from injury. With all the fuss about Eli Manning’s performance yesterday, it might be instructive to point out that after two games, Pennington is actually having a better season. Manning is doing great: 51 of 77 for 618 yards and five touchdowns against two interceptions. Pennington, after two games, is 46 of 70 for 625 yards, four TDs, and one interception. Eli’s yards a throw is a healthy 8.0; Chad’s is a positively dazzling 8.9. I don’t know of any team in recent NFL history that has averaged 8.9 yards a throw, or close to it, and not made the playoffs, but then I don’t know of any team that in recent years that has passed as well as the Jets with such a wretched running attack (just 2.4 yards a run so far on 58 tries).

The Jets get as soft a game as they can expect next Sunday when they play the punchless Bills in Buffalo, a game which should offer them plenty of opportunities to get the running game in gear. If they do, they’re looking at a 10-win season or better.

Mr. Barra is the author of “The Last Coach: A Life of Paul ‘Bear’ Bryant.”