Snapping the ball was the least of the New York Giants' worries.

A porous defense and an offense that seemed out of sync led to a 26-6 exhibition loss to the New England Patriots on Thursday night.

The Giants defense allowed two touchdown passes and six scoring drives on New England's 12 possessions on a rainy night. Their offense hardly lived up to its billing as one of the NFL's best.

``Everyone was trying to tell us how good we were,'' New York center Chris Bober said. ``This served as our wakeup call.''

It was the Giants' first game since their playoff loss to San Francisco, which ended with a bad snap on a last-second field goal attempt by New York.

The Giants had the sixth-best offense in the league last year. Kerry Collins led the NFC in yards passing and Tiki Barber topped the conference in yards from scrimmage. Jeremy Shockey's 74 catches were the second most by a rookie tight end in NFL history, and Amani Toomer set club records with 82 catches and 1,343 yards receiving.

``Whenever you get a chance to play against such skilled people, you want to go out there and make a good showing,'' said Patriots safety Rodney Harrison, who made five tackles in the first quarter.

Most first-stringers played only the first quarter, but the Giants didn't improve after that.

``I was very disappointed in the amount of mistakes with the second and third group,'' New York coach Jim Fassel said. ``There were way too many missed assignments.''

The offensive line was a major problem, allowing seven sacks. And the Giants committed four turnovers.

Collins went 6-for-10 for 56 yards and an interception, Tiki Barker rushed eight times for 10 yards and tight end Jeremy Shockey had one catch for seven yards.

Rosevelt Colvin forced a fumble that Ted Johnson recovered on New York's second offensive play, leading to Tom Brady's 16-yard scoring pass to Troy Brown. Tyrone Poole's interception set up the first of Adam Vinatieri's four field goals, giving the Patriots a 10-0 lead after one quarter.

Dan Klecko, a fourth-round draft pick from Temple and son of former New York Jets defensive lineman Joe Klecko, had 2 1/2 sacks in his pro debut.

``Was it just me or did I hear his name out there all the time?'' Patriots linebacker Tedy Bruschi said.

Colvin got plenty of attention from Giants' blockers, who had trouble handling him.

``He's been kind of terrorizing our offense all training camp,'' Brady said. ``He's a very savvy football player.''

The former Chicago Bears linebacker was one of four free agents signed after last season to make an impact Thursday. Poole played with Denver, and Harrison and Fred McCrary were with San Diego.

The Giants cut the lead to 10-3 on Mike Hollis's 29-yard field goal, but Vinatieri connected on a 39-yarder. Matt Bryant's 34-yard kick made it 13-6 at halftime before Rohan Davey hit McCrary with a 6-yard scoring pass in the third quarter and Vinatieri added two field goals in the fourth.

The Giants played their first game since blowing a 24-point lead in the last 20 minutes against San Francisco. On the final play, Trey Junkin's second poor long snap ended their last chance.

Their offense didn't provide many chances Thursday.

``Everyone has made a big deal about our offense being good,'' Collins said. ``None of that really matters until you put it all together on the field.''