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EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. -- New York Giants safety and human fire emoji Landon Collins has dyed his hair blue. He wears it in neat braids atop his head, with the sides cut short, in sharp contrast to his unruly black beard. But the biggest differences between Collins 2015 rookie season and this one are the look in his eye and the number (four) in the interception column. All four of those interceptions have come in the past three games, all of which the Giants have won.Im being very accountable, Collins said after helping lead the Giants to a 21-20 victory over the Cincinnati Bengals on Monday Night Football. Last year, I had a bad season, and Im making up for it.He could be speaking for the entire Giants defense, which is the biggest reason the team has already won as many games (six) as it did in each of the previous two seasons. So much of the early-season focus was on Odell Beckham Jr. and Ben McAdoo, the new head coach, who was the young, hotshot offensive coordinator. But while the Giants offense has struggled to find its footing so far, the defense has been making sure they turn fourth-quarter leads into wins instead of heartbreaking 2015-style losses.Were 6-3. I havent been 6-3 since Ive been here, Beckham, the third-year superstar, said after the game. Its a good feeling.Last season?was a parade of bad feelings for the Giants, who blew five fourth-quarter leads in Tom Coughlins forgettable final season as coach. This season, the close games are breaking their way. They have won four games in a row with an average margin of victory of 4.3 points. They have the third-best record in the NFC even though theyve allowed more points than theyve scored.Why? Because theyre not giving up points when points would hurt the most. Only eight defenses in the league are allowing fewer points, on average, in the fourth quarter than the Giants 5.33. Last year, they averaged 8.75 points allowed in the fourth quarter -- tied for worst in the league with the Saints.Now, you know the Giants spent big to improve that defense, signing top-of-the-market free agents Olivier Vernon, Damon Harrison and Janoris Jenkins and bringing back Jason Pierre-Paul. Watching Monday night, you could see the payoff: Jenkins holding Bengals star A.J. Green to a pedestrian 68 yards on seven catches; Harrison anchoring a run defense that allowed only 78 yards; Vernon muscling his way past the Bengals line and meeting Pierre-Paul and Friends at the quarterback. The Giants have just 14 sacks this season -- more than only two other NFL teams. But two of them came on the final two offensive possessions the Bengals had on Monday, and they basically sealed a one-point win.Our job as a defensive line is to stop the run and get to the quarterback, Vernon said. I think we did a pretty good job of that tonight.The broader effect of the defensive infusion, though, is that it allows coordinator Steve Spagnuolo to maximize the players he has and put the combinations on the field that he prefers. Rookie Eli Apple has clearly usurped former starting cornerback Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie, who frustrated the Giants coaching staff the past two years with inconsistency and by asking in and out of games. Vernon is a versatile enough player that Spagnuolo can run sub packages where his pass-rushers move inside, the way he used to do it with Michael Strahan and Justin Tuck in his 2007 glory year.But theres no greater difference than whats showing up in the play of Collins, who was NFC Defensive Player of the Week each of the past two weeks and kept the train rolling with a fourth-quarter interception of Andy Dalton on Monday. Cincinnati was driving inside Giants territory with a one-point lead and 11 minutes, 35 seconds left in the game when Collins made his weekly huge play. And if his teammates were surprised it was only because it had taken that long.Hes amazing right now, Pierre-Paul said. Not a different guy, but a better player. Smart.Collins agrees that hes a better player than he was a year ago. The Giants moved up to draft him at the top of the second round in 2015, and coming out of Alabama he was used to success. But his rookie year was a rough one. Without a true free safety on the roster, the Giants too often forced Collins out of his comfort zone and into coverage, which is not a strength of his game. The improved depth of talent on the defensive side of the ball this season?allows Collins to do more of what hes good at -- play closer to the line, deliver big hits and take advantage of his playmaking ability -- while the overall coverage forces a quarterback into mistakes.Monday night, Collins said, Dalton was staring down his tight end and Collins didnt have coverage responsibility on the play. He recognized the routes the receivers were running, saw that everyone was covered and moved the ball where Dalton was telegraphing it. Interception No. 4.No big deal, really, because Collins believes he owes all of this. Last year sticks with him. It haunts him and drives him.Just not being accountable, he said of what went wrong in his rookie year. Not making the right calls, not being in the right position, being out-leveraged. I knew the defense by the end of the year, but its night and day now as far as knowing the defense, being sound, being in the right position. Its so much better now.The Giants defense this year is allowing 359.3 yards per game, good for just 16th-best in the league. But those figures last year were 420.3 and 32nd-best. The stats put them in the middle of the road, but its possible no single unit in the NFL is more improved over last season than the Giants defense. Personified by its red-hot, blue-haired second-year star safety, it is -- as he described it -- so much better now. And the difference is right there in the standings.Pittsburgh Pirates Jerseys . The phone hearing is scheduled for 4:30pm et/1:30pm pt. Winchester, who was not penalized for the hit, appeared to make contact with Kellys head early in the first period of Thursdays game in Boston. Corey Dickerson Pirates Jersey . Speaking Thursday on TSN 1050 Thursday, the Leafs GM also touched on the questions surrounding the teams leadership and the struggles of his big-name free-agent signing. “Its not from lack of effort from the coaching staff. http://www.pittsburghpiratesprostore.us/Kent-Tekulve-pirates-jersey/ . -- Sergey Tolchinksy scored his second goal of the game 3:56 into overtime as the Sault Ste. JB Shuck Pirates Jersey . PAUL, Minn. Francisco Cervelli Pirates Jersey .com) - The Pittsburgh Penguins placed forward James Neal on injured reserve Tuesday.EAGAN, Minn. -- The Minnesota Vikings have secured naming rights for their new headquarters, with local physician group and sports medicine provider Twin Cities Orthopedics.The Vikings announced a 20-year agreement Tuesday with TCO at the groundbreaking ceremony for the training facility and team offices theyll move into in 2018.Financial terms werent disclosed, but the campus will be called the Twin Cities Orthopedics Performance Center. An expandable 6,000-seat venue, one of five outdoor fields, will be named TCO Stadium.Twin Cities Orthopedics will also construct a full-service center set to open around the same time on the sprawling suburban site, where players can go for MRI tests and consult with orthopedists.Similar in concept to The Star, the multi-purpose complex the Dallas Cowboys recently moved into, Vikings headquarters will sit on a 40-acre site designed to anchor a 200-acre development with commercial, retail and residential buildings planned over the next 10 to 15 years along with hotel and conference center space. The stadium is expected to host local high school football games and other youth activities.I think an NFL team can create that type of energy and that kind of investment, said NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, who attended the event.Quarterback Teddy Bridgewater, free safety Harrison Smith and wide receiver Laquon Treadwell were there, too, among the 20 people on stage for a series of speeches before a parachute quartet descended on the dirt and gravel to hand deliver the commemorative shovel that Goodell used for his photo-op dig. The landings were made on the under-excavation ground that will become the outdoor practice fields.The Vikings long ago outgrew their current space that opened in 1981 in Eden Prairie, which like Eagan is suburb south of Minneapolis with a population of about 60,000.Punts hit the ceiling of the indoor practice field, and business staff are scattered among three buildings. The vacated former headquarters of Northwest Airlines was available, a site mucch closer to the airport and much larger for all of the modern amenities desired by the team to keep players in the best mental and physical shape.dddddddddddd.The new campus will include an indoor field with full-clear height for kicking, an auditorium for full-team meetings and a variety of sports-science features such as hydrotherapy machines and specialized speed-training rooms.General manager Rick Spielman took best-practice notes from a number of college team facilities to help design the space.Given the fans-ready stadium thats part of the plan and the trend around the league toward stay-at-home training, the big question for the Vikings is if or when theyll move summer two-a-day practices to their new digs.Theyve gone about 80 miles south to Minnesota State University in Mankato for the past 51 years, one of only 13 teams in the league that travel off site for camp.We havent had any discussions at all about that, Spielman said. Thats down the road, if we do move at all. I know Mankatos been great. Its been our home for 50-odd years. They do an unbelievable job down there, and thats why weve been there that long. But all of that will be determined down the road.Eagan would undoubtedly welcome such a move. Even without it, the city is eager for the elevated profile that will come from housing an NFL team.Mayor Mike Maguire beamed about the destination potential of the project, casually mentioning the hypothetical chance for people to see Bridgewater dining in an area restaurant some evening.Vikings chief operating officer Kevin Warren said players could eventually choose to live full time on the site, at either a hotel or apartment once those stages of the development are done.I think what youll see, Warren said is a lot of teams that will come after us to say, `Wow.---Online:AP NFL website: http://www.pro32.ap.org and AP NFL Twitter feed: http://www.twitter.com/AP-NFL ' ' '