EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. -- A breathtaking, 60-minute slice of history still haunts this Giants offense.

It was the 2000 NFC championship game and the Giants were very nearly perfect against the Minnesota Vikings. It was 34-0 at the half, and the 41-0 final score fell well short of capturing the Giants' true dominance.

The Giants produced 518 yards of offense and 31 first downs. Kerry Collins was never better, completing 28 of 39 passes for 381 yards and five touchdowns. Ike Hilliard made 10 catches for 155 yards and two touchdowns. Tiki Barber and Amani Toomer were effective as well.

	Despite being roughed up here, the Dallas game was the first time Collins consistently finished off drives.

Three of the five offensive line starters are gone and role players Greg Comella and Joe Jurevicius have moved on, but head coach Jim Fassel and offensive coordinator Sean Payton and all those wonderful offensive pieces remain. So, how to explain only six touchdowns in the season's first five games?

"It's frustrating for me personally and I'm sure a lot of other guys feel the same way," Hilliard said Wednesday. "We have so much talent that we can't put it together on a level where we can be consistent to produce better numbers."

That single, horrific play late in the first half at Arizona in Week 4 underlined that frustration. Payton was ready to send in the signal for Collins to kneel down and kill the clock so the Giants could jog to the locker room with a hard-earned 7-0 lead. Fassel, however, got a little greedy. With only 14 seconds on the clock, he overruled Payton -- contradictory to early reports -- and called for a sideline pass. Maybe, he figured, the Giants could surprise the Cardinals and get a cheap field goal.

The Cardinals, to their credit, were not surprised. Justin Lucas intercepted Collins' errant pass and returned it 38 yards for the equalizing score; the Giants eventually lost 21-7. Ugh.

That loss and the victory before it -- a 9-7 decision over the Seattle Seahawks in which placekicker Matt Bryant was the sole offensive star -- prompted Fassel and Payton to pare down the Giants' vast playbook. For last Sunday's game at Dallas there were fewer plays, fewer formations and fewer packages. Less, at least in this case, was more.

Collins, who had been getting hacked up in New York for throwing only one touchdown pass and six interceptions broke out with three touchdown passes -- one each to Hilliard, Toomer and backup tight end Marcellus Rivers.

Collins allowed that it felt good to throw up some good numbers, "especially scoring points that had been an Achilles heal for us," the quarterback added. "I threw for a lot of yards but that touchdown-to-interception ratio was a little off."

Indeed, Collins torched the 49ers for 342 yards in the Thursday night opener and racked up 307 against St. Louis, then 282 versus Seattle and another 199 at Arizona. He's averaging 271.6 yards per game; in 2000, when he threw for more than 3,600 yards, Collins never exceeded that figure even once in his first five games. In truth, his 18-for-27, 228-yard performance against Dallas is a better fit for the Giants when they are running the ball successfully.

The Giants' running game, perhaps because of a muddle offensive line situation, had been struggling. They ran a total of only 39 times for 110 yards in their two losses before a modest improvement in Dallas. Twenty-eight carries netted 104 yards with Barber getting 94 of them.

	“	When you're not doing well in the red zone and you're not running the ball well and you're not putting points up, I mean, what else is there on offense. I was a little worried that our offense would start losing confidence if we didn't change something and do something different. ”
		— Giants coach Jim Fassell

"We've always been a running team here, we've always thrived on having 100-yard games and out-rushing our opponents," Barber said. "We finally did that and it made a big difference for Kerry. It's going to make Kerry and our offense a better team."

With rookie tight end Jeremy Shockey out off the game with a turf toe injury, Collins did not just zero in on Hilliard and Toomer. He hit Dan Campbell with three passes and found Rivers with the game-winner in the fourth quarter.

Also encouraging was the Giants' red zone performance. Previously, they had crossed the opponent's 20-yard line 11 times and come out with only two touchdowns. Against the Cowboys, they were 2-for-2.

"When you're not doing well in the red zone and you're not running the ball well and you're not putting points up, I mean, what else is there on offense?" Fassel asked. "I was a little worried that our offense would start losing confidence if we didn't change something and do something different."

Expect more of the same on Sunday against the Michael Vick-less Atlanta Falcons. As the days grow colder and the wind at Giants Stadium starts to pick up, the running game becomes more critical.

There is good news on that front, since center Dusty Zeigler may be ready to return after surgery on his right knee. It has been 10 months of rehabilitation, longer than the Giants expected, but with right guard Jason Whittle suffering from back spasms, Zeigler may step in. Zeigler, who played all three line positions in Buffalo before signing with the Giants in 2000, can't wait.

Cornerback Jason Sehorn, who had the identical surgery on his knee that Zeigler did, could also find himself back in action. With starting corner Will Peterson ailing with a dislocated toe, Sehorn may be called on to fill in. To this point, he has been playing the less taxing role of nickel back in the slot.

The Giants are favorites to beat the 1-3 Falcons. They are at home and the Falcons are a young team with a lone victory over the Cincinnati Bengals. With a win, the Giants would move to 4-2 and head into their bye week with a half-game lead over the idle Philadelphia Eagles in the NFC East.

After the loss to the 49ers in the nationally televised opener, who would have imagined that?

Greg Garber is a senior writer at ESPN.com.