It is discipline, and pressure, and emergence, and, finally, excellence.
It is all the things the best defenses strive to be, and that is why the Giants' is one of the league's best.
"We play as a team and our whole - we have people that are in position to make plays," Giants coach Tom Coughlin said. "Playing as a team allows pretty much those opportunities to take place. We do a good job with schemes, our talented players that have been given the opportunity."
Ah, opportunity.
That knocked for the defensive line after Osi Umenyiora was lost for most of the season in August with a knee injury. It hammered on the back door when defensive end Michael Strahan declined the Giants' pleas to unretire and help the Giants return to the Super Bowl.
As it turns out, the Giants didn't need him as badly as they thought.
They're giving up 260.4 yards per game with 30 sacks, both first in the NFC. They're giving up 16.1 points, which is second. They're first against the pass and third against the run and fourth on third downs.
The Eagles host them Sunday night for the first time this season. It might not be 12 sacks - the record-tying number the Giants amassed in the teams' first meeting last season - but the Eagles know there is plenty in store.
"I see a lot of mistakes from opposing offenses," Eagles quarterback Donovan McNabb said. "Credit the scheme Spagnuolo has been putting those guys in, and those guys being able to execute."
That, of course, would be Steve Spagnuolo, the former Eagles secondary, then linebackers, coach who, in his second season as the Giants' defensive coordinator, turned around a defense mired in mediocrity. In his six seasons working under defensive coordinator Jim Johnson, Spagnuolo absorbed Johnson's sack-stressing philosophy, which, ideally, leads to interceptions.
The Giants have 11, fourth in the conference. Corey Webster leads the team with three, and he could have more.
"Corey has exceptional hands," Coughlin said. "We have said that from Day 1. Even if he, at the last second, catches a glimpse of the ball he has those kind of hands where he can make a play on the ball, which we are seeing right now."
