"It was 20-13 with about a minute left," Butler said of the situation in Pittsburgh when Phillips called. "He was like, 'Hey, man, we might clinch the division.' He was excited about that."

Butler wasn't watching the Cowboys-Steelers game, but Phillips was right. The win by Pittsburgh gave the Giants the NFC East crown. But Butler didn't share Phillips' rookie enthusiasm.

"Not after a loss," he said. "Winning could have made it a whole lot better."

And that was the conflict of emotions that settled on the Giants yesterday. On the day they played their worst game in two months, they won a title. After taking it in the gut from a division rival in the early afternoon, they claimed the division championship by watching another game unfold throughout the early evening. On television.

"No party hats," Eli Manning said. "[But] for kind of a bad day, it ended on a good note."

It wasn't until yesterday morning that the team was together to share the accomplishment. And even then, it was just part of Tom Coughlin's address to the players. He applauded their winning of the title before quickly turning his attention to the mistakes and errors of Sunday's loss.

"Two separate items ... and they should be kept separate," Coughlin said of the dueling aspects of Sunday's events.

Yet somehow they mixed. In one breath, Coughlin said he reminded the players that all they had won was a division title. "There's an awful lot to play for," he said. "We haven't even secured a bye week." The next moment, he was cautioning about putting too much stock in Sunday's performance: "We do have 11 wins. Let's not overreact."

As for the game, the Giants surprisingly came away feeling pretty good about things. There weren't a lot of bad mistakes, they said, after breaking down the 20-14 loss. There just weren't a lot of good plays.

"It's not like we just went out there and played awful," Manning said. "We just didn't step up at times and make plays that were there, and that's just frustrating."

Chase Blackburn said one of the signs on the walls in meeting rooms meant to inspire players reads: "Practice and prepare like you lost your last game." This week they won't have to use their imagination.

"There's no real benefit to losing," Blackburn said. "This team doesn't need a lot of resets."

There were some, however, who said the loss will sharpen the team's focus. The last time the Giants lost - to Cleveland nearly two months ago - they responded by rattling off seven straight wins. If they were to match that streak after this loss, it would give them another Super Bowl championship plus a win on opening day of the 2009 season.

"Losing definitely helps," Butler said. "It puts you back on the ground and says you still have to work hard and prove each and every week that you are the better team."

They didn't look that way on Sunday, and paid for it.

There was disappointment that the Giants did not get to celebrate the division title on the field and with their fans, some of whom likely purchased the "NFC East Champs" gear that was sold in the parking lot before the game. Others took it for what it was worth.

"It's always nice to call yourselves division champs, but at the same time, what did we miss out on?" Shaun O'Hara asked. "High-fives, a few hugs? A T-shirt and a hat? Really, after you get that, it's back to business, because being division champs doesn't really mean a lot in the grand scheme of things."

Sunday

Giants at

Cowboys

8:15 p.m.

TV: Ch. 4

Radio: WFAN (660)