EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. -- Its not supposed to work. Every bit of NFL front-office history has taught us that you cant go out and fix your problems with one big free-agent offseason. Build through the draft, thats the way to go. Free agency is for augmentation, not foundation building.So no, the New York Giants couldnt have seen this coming. Even after doling out top-dollar deals for three defensive free agents and a generous one-year deal for one of their own, veteran defensive end?Jason Pierre-Paul, the Giants themselves couldnt have known it would turn out like this.You hope so, linebacker Jonathan Casillas said Sunday afternoon, after he and the Giants defense had delivered a second straight stifling victory over an NFC division leader, this time a 17-6 win over the Detroit Lions. You always hope its going to work, when you bring in new guys, but you never know for sure.The Giants didnt know for sure in March, or even in September. But they know now. They know they can win games with defense -- even in a down year for QB?Eli Manning, one in which the offensive game plan increasingly seems to be, Just protect the ball as best you can until Odell Beckham Jr. makes a play.You can spend a good chunk of the NFL season trying to figure out who you are. But by this point, if you want to do big things, you have to know who you are. The Giants know.Our mindset is to stop the opponent, to not let them score, said Landon Collins, the second-year safety whos emerged as a Defensive Player of the Year candidate after a rough rookie season. You obviously want to be one of the top defenses in the league, but our mindset is, Get a stop on third down. Get a stop. Get our offense back on the field in good field position.You can point to the performances of free-agent signings Olivier Vernon, Damon Harrison and Janoris Jenkins?as the reason this defense has jumped from league-worst to good-enough-to-beat-anybody in just one year. And theres some validity there. All three of those guys have played brilliantly, so far justifying the Giants decisions to spend whatever it took to get them.But its more than that, as it must be. The Giants defensive turnaround has to do with Collins being in the right position, and having a season under his belt so his heads not swimming the way it was last season. It has to do with the mindset of someone like Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie, the veteran cornerback who lost his job to rookie Eli Apple but stepped in when Jenkins left Sundays game due to injury. It has to do with young, untested defensive linemen like Romeo Okwara and Owa Odighizuwa playing better since Pierre-Paul got hurt.When your number is called, you can either go down or go up, Collins said. And a lot of us have been moving up.This kind of thing feeds on itself, and you can see it in a Giants defense that held Dallas to seven points a week ago and Detroit to six Sunday. Manning entered Week 15 ranked 26th in Total QBR and 23rd in yards per attempt, and the Giants still sit at 10-4, one victory away from qualifying for the playoffs for the first time since 2011. They left MetLife Stadium on Sunday afternoon with the knowledge that, if Dallas slips up Sunday night against the Buccaneers, they could still win the NFC East.But the reason for the Giants success is that they havent been distracted by big-picture stuff. Defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo, himself a coaching reclamation project after presiding over defenses that set records for futility in New Orleans and previously with the Giants, has found a way to keep his charges focused on and dedicated to their individual jobs from play to play and week to week.Weve got a lot of guys at their positions being asked to win one-on-one battles, and were winning them, Casillas said. [WR]?Golden Tate had a day today, and that happens sometimes, but the good thing was it was only him. We basically bottled up everybody else.Tate had 122 yards from scrimmage. No other Lion had more than 52. QB?Matthew Stafford, the king of the fourth-quarter comeback this season, threw for a pedestrian 273 yards on 24-for-39 passing?with an interception. The run-challenged Lions managed 56 rushing yards on 19 carries. Down four points in the fourth quarter, a team that has come back to win in eight of its nine victories this season instead saw its deficit grow thanks to big-play Beckham, who one-handed the game-sealing touchdown.We just have a relentless mentality, Rodgers-Cromartie said. Nobody wants to be the guy who goes out and lets down the team. Thats the way were going right now, and thats special.The Giants defense, long an Achilles heel, has a special feel to it. Playing without Pierre-Paul the past two weeks and now facing the possibility of playing without Jenkins, who injured his back and has only?three days to recover before the Thursday night game in Philadelphia, they seem convinced they can deliver.It wasnt supposed to be like this. The Giants were supposed to have an explosive offense and hope the defense could just rise from the back of the pack to the middle. Instead, theyre in December and the defense is carrying the offense. Theyll take it. Its an NFL era in which championships can once again be won with defense, as the 2015 Broncos proved. And while this years Giants have a long way to go before they can compare themselves to that group, theyre in a position now where they dont wonder whether they can stop anybody when it matters. They know they can. JaWhaun Bentley Jersey . "It doesnt get any better than that," Giambi said. "Im speechless." The Indians are roaring toward October. 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Only three players drafted by NHL clubs were included on the Czech selection camp roster on Wednesday. Those players were Dallas Stars 2012 first-rounder Radek Faksa, Winnipeg Jets 2013 fourth-rounder Jan Kostalek and Phoenix Coyotes 2012 seventh-rounder Marek Langhamer. FORT WORTH, Texas -- Vlad Brodziansky was quite impressive from the field for TCU, with the 6-foot-11 forward from Slovakia making all seven of his shots and blocking five others.Hey, you missed one free throw, Horned Frogs senior guard Michael Williams said, leaning over to Brodziansky after the game.That can be forgiven considering that Brodziansky scored 18 points, on 7-of-7 shooting and 4-of-5 free throws, and had six rebounds as the Horned Frogs remained undefeated under Jamie Dixon with a 77-54 victory over Arkansas State on Saturday night.TCU (8-0) led by only a bucket before Brodziansky scored seven consecutive points in a 55-second span, part of a 9-2 run for the Horned Frogs that JD Miller ended with a short jumper for a 46-37 lead.My teammates are finding me in the open spot on the floor. ... I didnt have to take any hard shots, or tough shots, Brodziansky said.I was excited. He kept the ball up, weve been working on that. He had a tendency to bring it down, said Dixon, calling that one of his pet peeves for big men. Weve been working on simple little drills.Kenrich Williams added 15 points and 13 rebounds for the Frogs, while freshman point guard Jaylen Fisher had 13 points despite some early foul trouble.Devin Carter had 22 points and C.J. Foster 13 to lead Arkansas State (7-2). Grant McCasland is in his first season with the Sun Belt Conference team after the past five seasons in the Big 12 as a Baylor assistant.Theyre playing with a different level of confidence, and from what I see, you can tell theres a physicality still to the way they play and theyre good defensively, they swarm you, McCasland said of TCU. Theyre playing with a little different confidence, different composure.BIG PICTUREArkansas State: The Red Wolves had won seven in a row, including a win at Georgetown, since losing their season opener. Starting guards Dontee Thomas and Rashad Lindsey both came in averaging more than 10 points a game, but were a combined 2-of-12 shooting with each scoring only one basket.ddddddddddddTCU: The Horned Frogs still have four more games before starting Big 12 Conference play against fourth-ranked Kansas, but Dixons team -- which includes four seniors and a trio of talented freshmen -- is growing together. After consecutive wins over Washington, in a tournament in Las Vegas last weekend and then at home Wednesday, Dixon said the Frogs played their best overall game against the best team theyve played.STILL UNBLEMISHEDDixon, the former TCU player who was Pittsburghs coach the past 13 seasons, is the first Frogs coach to ever win his first eight games.MATH LESSONDixon took a few minutes after the game to give his team an algebra lesson. Some of his players didnt know how RPI is calculated, so he explained it to them. They may still be confused on all the calculations, but if they keep winning, all those numbers and decimals will take care of themselves.HE SAID ITYou get a chance to get exposed when you play a team like that, McCasland said.UP NEXTArkansas State will spend most of December on the road. The Red Wolves played the first of five consecutive games away from home, but now have a 10-day break before going to UT-Martin on Dec. 14. Their next home game is their Sun Belt Conference opener on New Years Eve against Louisiana-Lafayette.TCU has two more games before a week off during finals exams. The Horned Frogs go to the other side of the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex to play at SMU on Wednesday, and then are home again next Saturday against Wofford.---More AP college basketball: www.collegebasketball.ap.org and https://twitter.com/AP-Top25 . ' ' '