"Ahmad Bradshaw has played with a stress fracture in his foot before -- actually played with cracked bones in both his feet -- and he will have to do so again if he is to salvage his season. But the Giants' leading rusher is highly unlikely to play Sunday against the Patriots, and that means the 264-pound bundle of contradiction known as Brandon Jacobs is going to have to carry a heavy load.

"Yeah, looks like I will get my opportunity to play more,'' Jacobs said yesterday.

Yeah, looks that way. That the Giants will have to rely on Jacobs to get something accomplished on the ground is either a great rebirth story waiting to be written or else a bad omen the Giants are going into a fight woefully short-handed.

Can Jacobs, mired in the worst season of his career, be what he once was, an every-down running back capable of moving the chains and moving bodies out of the way as he rumbles for yards?

"If we need him in that capacity, he can be that,'' Tom Coughlin said.

The Giants need him in that capacity. Bradshaw in last week's 20-17 victory over the Dolphins left the field in the third quarter to have X-rays taken of his right foot but returned to play in the fourth quarter, even gaining 11 yards on a draw play. Bradshaw, diagnosed as having a stress fracture, completed that run with a damaged bone in his foot."