EAST RUTHERFORD, N. J. — As far as New York Giants coach Tom Coughlin is concerned, a loss is a loss, no matter if it is by one point or 51 points.

With that said, one of the recurring themes that Coughlin has fallen back on in his attempts to keep his team’s spirits up during yet another lost season has been to focus and build on the good and forget about the bad.

“Keep fighting, keep fighting, keep fighting, that is all it takes, one game at a time, bounce back,” Coughlin said. “Again, it is about all of those eyes that look at me on Wednesday morning, I am thinking about them, quite frankly, trying to bring them through the disappointment toward the next opponent.”

The next opponent for the Giants is the Dallas Cowboys, a team that the Giants saw last month and to whom they suffered their second of their current five-game losing streak, a 31-21 decision that was actually close going into the game’s final five minutes.

That is until the Cowboys chewed up most of what was left in regulation, adding a 49-yard field goal by kicker Dan Bailey to increase their margin of victory to 10.

With the Giants having come so close to beating the Cowboys the first time, has that given them more confidence to know that they have what it takes to stand toe to toe against better teams like Dallas?

“In all honesty, no,” fullback Henry Hynoski said. “What does it matter if we lost or kept it close? We still lost the game, so we have to find a way to win the next game.

“We expect to win every game. We go in with the same mindset every week and that is to beat the opponent. We don’t want to make things difficult. We still have to approach it the same way every week.”

The problem with the Giants is that they haven’t been able to string together a complete game for 60 minutes and on all three phases since their 45-14 trouncing of Washington in Week 5.

What has been most frustrating for New York is that every week, it has been something else that has popped up. For example, in their loss to the Seahawks two weeks ago, the offense played well, but the defense stunk.

Last week against the 49ers, the defense had a strong showing and the offense came up short.

“In the situation we are in right now, we have to go out there and fight, try and get a win at all costs,” safety Antrel Rolle said.

“Just go out there and play hard-nosed football. That is what this game is going to boil down to, who wants it the most, and who is going to go out there and be the one to go get it.”

The good news is that the players feel they are extremely close to finally putting together a complete game in all three phases.

“I think it’s close. We have to do something and it has to come together now,” Hynoski said.

“To give ourselves a chance we have to win out and I believe we can do that. When you watch film, we are just so close, but one phase might not put it together for the whole game. Look at Seattle. We put it together for three quarters and then fell apart in the fourth quarter. We’re right on the edge; we just have to take that final stride.”

NOTES: Among those who did not practice Wednesday were DT Cullen Jenkins (calf) and LB Jacquian Williams (concussion). … Seeing limited action in practice was DE Mathias Kiwanuka (knee). … CB Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie (back/hamstring) is back on the injury report after having been removed from it last week. Rodgers-Cromartie took his full practice workload. … LB Justin Anderson was added to the practice squad. Anderson was waived from the 53-man roster on Nov. 17 when the team activated OL Geoff Schwartz off the injured reserve/designated to return list.