It aint easy being brilliant...

This was bound to happen.

With the exception of easy victories over the Panthers, Niners, and Browns, the New York football Giants had been like a lit cigarette near a feul pump.

Ready to explode.

In fact, 4 of the Giants’ 6 victories had been by 7 points or less.

The Bengals’ D sacked Eli Manning 4 times, picked him off twice, and held him to only 215 passing yards despite 46 pass attempts. And Andy Dalton, despite only 199 passing yards, still completed 21 of 30 passes, 4 of which went for touchdowns.

Bottom line, in professional sports, when you turn the ball over 4 times as much as the opposition….YOU LOSE.

The Giants loss drops them to 6-4, and all of the sudden, the Cowgirls are on their asses for the division lead.

Wow…

Eli Manning is an elite, top 5 quarterback in this league.

At this point, nobody disputes that.

But he certainly didn’t look like it on Sunday.

10-24 for 125 yards and an interception is far more reminiscent of Rex Grossman than the 2 time Super Bowl winning QB that Eli is.

The Steelers outgained the Giants 349 to 182, Ben Roethlisberger threw for 216 yards and 2 TD’s, including a 51 yard TD strike to Mike Wallace, and the Pittsburgh Steelers improved to 5-3 on the season.

That was CLEARLY a throwing motion by Ben Roethlisberger!

That should have been brought back?

So what happened?

Did the NFL bring the replacement refs with them this week?

I’m glad I’m not a Steelers’ fan.

I’d be losing my shit right now….

The signing of the New York Giants’ immensely talented Jason Pierre-Paul, would provide TWO things for the Minnesota Timberwolves:

1. Athleticism. At 6’5 and 278 pounds with FREAKISH speed and athletic ability, JPP would fill a huge void created by all the “white boys” on the T-Wolves roster
2. DIVERSITY. For those of you that don’t know, apparently “diversity” is an old, old wooden ship that was used during the Civil War era….

(How about some props for the well timed “Anchorman” reference, please…)

Eli Manning wasn’t that great on Sunday.

He didn’t need to be.

Dallas Cowboys QB Tony Romo was more than happy to come through for the Giants in a win that improved the G-Men to 6-2 on the season.

Despite his 437 yards passing, Romo threw 4 interceptions, one of which was returned by Jason Pierre-Paul for a touchdown.

What should concern the Giants is the fact that they picked off Romo 4 times and yet still, the Cowboys were in it til the very end and lost by less than a touchdown.

If you are Tom Coughlin, you can’t be overly thrilled with a game in which you allow 434 yards and barely win despite forcing 6 turnovers.

But even in games like this, there has to be both a winner and a loser.

The Giants are heading torward the top of the NFC East, and the Cowboys will be setting up shop in the division’s proverbial basement.

I don’t know what team the New York football Giants annihilated on Sunday, but it wasn’t MY beloved San Francisco 49ers….

MY San Francisco 49ers DON’T throw 3 interceptions.

MY San Francisco 49ers DON’T allow 6 sacks.

MY San Francisco 49ers DON’T allow 150 yards rushing, and they DON’T allow any rushing TD’s.

And MY San Francisco 49ers DON’T get held to single digit points, especially not in a home game.

So…I don’t know WHAT team took the field wearing the gorgeous red and gold jerseys I have become accustomed to seeing my players take the field in, but they weren’t MY San Francisco 49ers.

I’m not taking anything away from the defending Super Bowl champions. They are a very talented team that appears poised for another deep postseason run.

But anybody who says to you that they thought the Giants were going to go into San Francisco, hold the Niners to 3 points and win by more than 3 touchdowns is lying to you.

Congratulations to the New York Giants.

MY San Francisco 49ers WILL be back, replacing the replacement 49ers that no doubt played in their place this past Sunday, hopefully as soon as Sunday night.

I would gladly trade that regular season drubbing for post season redemption.

See you guys there.

The above picture tells a whole lot of the story behind the Giants’ win on Sunday.

Let’s just say, there was more than enough salsa to go around in the Big Apple on Sunday.

Victor Cruz only caught 5 passes, but 3 of them were for touchdowns and the trademark salsa dance celebration that follows.

Even more decisive to the G-Men victory than Mr. Cruz himself, was the 200 yard, career day that Giant’s running back Ahmad Bradshaw put up.

Eli Manning went 25-37 for 259 yards and 3 TD’s as the Giants improved to 3-2 on the season, dropping the Browns to 0-5 in the process.

The Browns are the NFL’s only remaining winless team.

3 touchdowns for Victor Cruz in a 41-27 Giants’ win over the Browns.

On Sunday night, the Philadelphia Eagles showed what they as a team are capable of when they don’t turn the ball over, give LeSean McCoy his touches, and not force Michael Vick to win games all by himself.

The Eagles won via 241 passing yards and a TD from Michael Vick, 123 yards rushing from LeSean McCoy, 99 yards and a TD from DeSean Jackson, and Giants’ kicker Lawrence Tynes saving Andy Reid from a week loaded with criticism by coming up short on a 54 yard field goal only moments after calling a timeout to ice Tynes only to see his kick miss wide.

The NFC East has been EXACTLY what I thought it would be up to this point in the season.

A division that can literally be won by any of the 4 teams in it.

There is NO dominant team in the NFC East and the team that wins it will almost certainly win 10 games or fewer.

When the Eagles put the rock in McCoy’s hands, and take the pressure off of Vick to beat teams with his arm, I believe that theyu are the class of the division.

But the NFC East will NOT be decided until Week 17.

THAT, I can damn well guarantee.

1. Matt Ryan (Atlanta Falcons)- 72% completions, 793 yards, 8 TD’s, 1 INT, and a 114 QBR ALL for the undefeated Atlanta Falcons. Matty Ice is the early front runner.
2. Matt Schaub (Houston Texans)- 65.6% completions, 751 yards, 5 TD’s, 1 INT, and a 102.4 QBR all for the undefeated Houston Texans.
3. Ben Roethlisberger (Pittsburgh Steelers)- 68.3% completions, 904 yards, 8 TD’s, 1 INT, and a 109.2 QBR. Lost in the Steelers uncharacteristic 1-2 start has been Big Ben’s STELLAR play. If the Steelerc can turn it around, I expect Big Ben to be in the hunt until the end.
4. Joe Flacco (Baltimore Ravens)- 64.5% completions, 913 yards, 6 TD’s, 2 INT’s, and a 101.1 QBR for the 2-1 Baltimore Ravens. I expect Flacco to continue his stellar play, and this to be a career year for the Ravens’ QB.
5. Eli Manning (New York Giants)- 66.9% completions, 1,011 yards, 5 TD’s, 3 INT’s, and a 97.1 QBR all for the 2-1 New York Giants. Can’t imagine he would be in this conversation without his 295 yard 2nd half effort in a comeback win over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, though…

When you give elite, top 5 quarterbacks all night long to throw, bad things happen to your football team.

And on Thursday night, Eli Manning had enough time to order a pizza, contemplate his next DirecTV NFL package commercial with Deion Sanders, wait for his wide receivers to get open, and hit them with a perfect pass in stride, between the numbers while in the pocket.

You are not going to beat the New York Giants when you give #10 enough time to pick you apart like that.

PERIOD.

Especially not when the Giants’ defense is sacking your superstar QB, making him throw under pressure all night, intercepting him 3 times, and holding your team to 60 yards rushing.

Many people (myself included) believed that the Panthers would pull off the upset on Thursday. I believed that Cam Newton would rise to the occasion in his first professional game on primetime television, I believed that the rest of the Panthers would rally around him, and I believed that the laundry list of injured players on the Giants’ roster would be far too much for them to overcome.

And I am man enough to sit right here, right now, and tell you that I was wrong on ALL fronts.

Eli Manning lit the Panthers up for 288 yards and a TD on 27-35, and to be perfectly honest with, it seemed WAY worse than that. The Panthers D made GIANTS’ running back Andre Brown look like Barry Sanders as the 2nd year player rushed for 113 yards and 2 TD’s on 20 carries. And no Hakeem Nicks, no problems for the Giants’ receiving corps. Hell, Victor Cruz could have taken the night off as well, because of the stellar play of Ramses Barden and Martellus Bennett. Barden had 9 catches for 138 yards and Bennett had 6 catches, 73 yards and a TD for an offense that appeared as if it could do anything it wanted against a Panthers secondary sorely handicapped by the fact that their front four simply could NOT get to Eli Manning.

As usual, people are overeacting to the outcome of this game.

This game was a big win by a team that we all already know is pretty damn good. Does this win make them the best team in the NFL?

No.

Does it mean that Giants’ fans can go ahead and pre order Super Bowl Championship gear for this season and book their plain tickets for early February?

No.

What this win means is that the New York Giants are 2-1, in Week 3.

Nothing more, nothing less.

In truth, we learned far more about the Carolina Panthers than we did about the New York Giants.

But here is the MAIN thing that can be taken away from the night for the Panthers…

THEY SHOULD HAVE KEPT JULIUS PEPPERS.

Good luck replacing him…

They haven’t figured out a way to do it yet.