Manning Good, But Not Good Enough

Although Eli Manning looked over anxious in the first half, he settled down to lead the Giants to two scoring drives in the second half, but with a chance at fourth quarter glory, Manning and the Giants came up short and had to settle for a 14-10 loss to the Falcons.

Falcons linebacker Keith Brooking, who broke up Manning's pass to tight end Jeremy Shockey on fourth down on the Giants' last possession, summed up Manning's debut when he said after the game, "He's going to be a great player, but he wasn't good enough today, that's for sure.

Manning improved as the game went on, but his final numbers (17-for of 37, 162 yards, one touchdown, two interceptions) were not impressive and at the end of the day the Giants slide continues unabated. With every loss the Giants' hope for the playoffs becomes dimmer. Next week the Giants host the 9-1 Eagles at the Meadowlands, where the Giants are 2-3 on the season.

Gothamist isn't ready to declare the Giants dead yet, but it's getting closer every week. Now that Eli Manning has a game under his belt, it will be interesting to see how he does next week against the top team in the conference. We'll see what Vegas has to say, but Gothamist would make the Eagles about a 7 point favorite and we aren't exactly convinced that the Giants can win next week. But we've been wrong before. Actually we're wrong about twice a week, so there you have it.

Photo by AP/Bill Kostroun