Through the first nine weeks of the season, the Giants had given up an NFL-low nine sacks. And that included a majority of teams that already had their bye.

Week 10 was a different story, however.

It's never just one thing when a team loses 31-13, but a major problem Sunday was the inability to keep Eli Manning upright. Whether it was the protection or receivers not getting open quick enough, the quarterback was hit eight times, including four sacks.

Left guard Kevin Boothe assessed the damage.

"Just winning one-on-one matchups, we didn't win that, he said. "We know that they have quality players on that side of the ball. So as tough as it is, we'll learn from it and I'm confident that we'll bounce back and play better football going forward."

The problem spread to the running game as well.

While the final numbers would tell otherwise, the majority of the Giants' 129 yards on 20 carries (6.5-yard average) came when the game was already out of reach in the fourth quarter. The lack of production early led to a 20-46 run-pass balance.

"That's the case with the NFL -- teams are too good to be one-dimensional," Boothe said. "We've been trying to get away with it now for a little bit, these last few weeks, but it's starting to bug us. So it's up to us to improve. That was a quality opponent that we played, but we know that we can play better and we will going forward."