Eli Manning and the New York Giants blew a 10-point lead to lose in last few seconds to Dallas.

EAST RUTHERFORD: The oldest no-no in football at any level is… If you turn the ball over, regardless of your opponent, you will most likely lose.

The Giants coughed up the ball in key situations all afternoon against the Arizona Cardinals, who were playing without starting quarterback Carson Palmer.

The result was a 25-14 loss that left Big Blue with a 0-2 record to start the season.

The Giants offensive line was an area most people thought would let them down, but that was not the case on Sunday.

The same can be said for Big Blue’s defense. Drew Stanton, an eight-year veteran, filling in for Palmer was just 14 of 29 for 167 yards and was sacked four times.

It was the turnovers that kept the Giants out of the win column.

Eli Manning had time most passing plays, was sacked just twice and the Giants ran the ball decently with Rashad Jennings rushing 18 times for 64 yards. Jennings also caught four passes for 45 yards. when your running back has 109 yards from scrimmage, your offensive line is not where you place the blame.

The Giants dropped too many passes. One drop in the first quarter – targeted for Victor Cruz – was tipped and landed in the hands of linebacker Sam Acho for the interception.

In the fourth quarter, Manning led the Giants on a drive that had Big Blue on the Cardinals 17-yard line with 4:42 left in the game.

Manning, who finished 26 of 39 for 277 yards with two touchdown passes and two interceptions., hit Jennings with a short screen pass that the running back fumbled, untouched and Arizona (2-0) recovered.

You could see and feel the fight leave the Giants players after that turnover.

“Self inflicted, that’s the stuff we’ve got to cut out,” center J.D. Walton said after the game. “I don’t think it’s mental preparation, I think it’s executing while we’re on the field. We’re shooting ourselves in the foot and we can’t be doing that.”

Giants cornerback Walter Thurmond III agreed that mental mistakes were the problem Sunday.

“A lack of some attention to detail and some things like that,” Thurmond said. “We hurt ourselves again this week, though, and playing in this league where teams are so good, you can’t really have those mental mistakes and those errors and stuff like that especially, if you’re trying to win games. It’s something that we go back to the…not going back to the drawing board, but go back, watch film, make the necessary corrections, and get better this week.”

The first quarter was more the same kind of play Giants fans have seen for quite some time. The Cardinals scored on their first two possessions to take a 10-0 lead.

With 7:50 left in the first half, Manning took the Giants on a 13-play 90-yard drive that ended with a seven-yard toss by Manning to Rueben Randle with 37 seconds left to close the game to 10-7.

The Giants took the lead with 2:03 left in the third on a one-yard pass from Manning to tight end Daniel Fells and, with the defense pitching a shutout in the third quarter, things were looking for the home team.

The Cardinals score four more times including a 71 yard punt return by Ted Ginn, Jr. who was asked if he saw the Giants lose some passion after his score.

“I mean, yeah,” Ginn said. “You can tell that on their side of the ball, on the New York side, it kind of went down. Our special teams came out right after that and forced the fumble on the kickoff return that gave us good field position to get three (points), and that’s all we can really ask for. It’s play after play after play. It’s just a blessing that it started with mine.”

One one hand the Giants played better than they did the week before in Detroit, but still were only able to must 14 points, they created zero turnovers again and lost the game.

Manning said he will keep the faith.

“We definitely played better offensively than we did the other week, but it’s still a loss,” said Manning, who is still struggling to master the Giants new offense installed by new offensive coordinator Ben McAdoo. “We made too many mistakes and too many missed opportunities. Turnovers hurt us. We had a couple of drops, a couple missed throws with guys open on third downs and some big plays. So, better, but not where it needs to be. We made improvements, but we’ve got to find ways to win games and make some plays in the clutch.”

Coach Tom Coughlin said his team has no time to worry about the Cardinals. They must improve with a good Houston team next up on the slate.

“We have a lot of work to do,” Coughlin said. “We did make a little bit of progress, but nobody wants to hear that. We lost. There’s no excuse for it.”

Coughlin did concede that he “did see a little better play,” compared to how his team played in Detroit. But it wasn’t enough. When your team committed four turnovers (one of them inexplicable), did not have a takeaway, allowed Arizona to score the go-ahead touchdown on a punt return, and committed nine accepted penalties.

“We made too many mistakes and too many missed opportunities,” said Manning. “Turnovers hurt us. We had a couple of drops, a couple missed throws with guys open on third downs and some big plays. So, (it was) better, but not where it needs to be. We made improvements, but we’ve got to find ways to win games and make some plays in the clutch.”

Walton said his teammates must prepare as hard as ever and stop hurting themselves.

“We need to go in and prepare like we did last week,” Walton said. “ Hopefully we can not shoot ourselves in the foot.”