“Noooooooooooooooo!” That’s what I yelled as Jason Babin chased down Eli Manning from behind on Sunday night. Eli had no idea that Babin was coming. He had just completed a 47-yard pass on third-and-3 and a 17-yard pass before that on second-and-20. He had the ball on the Eagles’ 21-yard line and he could smell overtime.

That’s why I yelled, “Noooooooooooooooo!” as the game slowed down to almost a standstill. Images of DeSean Jackson’s punt return and Jon Kitna’s three touchdowns and Eli’s dive and fumble from 2010, and the 45 points the Eagles put up, and the 26-6 loss on Thanksgiving and the last-minute loss to the Chargers from 2009 flashed through my mind in the time it took for the ball to leave Eli’s hands and hit the ground. I watched the loosely protected ball fall out of Manning’s arm like the bottle of Goldschlager getting knocked out of the homeless man’s hand by Seth on the bus in Superbad. Game over.

I sat there hoping for that rectangle on the NBC Sunday Night Football score bar to turn yellow and for “FLAG” to appear. It never came. Then I waited for the bottom of my TV screen to turn into a scrolling ticker that read: This is a test of the Second-Half Collapse Emergency System. If this had been an actual emergency, the Attention Signal you just heard would have been followed by official information, news or instructions.” It never came either because it wasn’t a test … it was an emergency. This is an emergency.

I’m scared, but there’s no one to tell me everything is going to be OK because most people don’t think it’s going to be OK, and no one wants to sugarcoat this thing or lie about it. The Giants are 0-2 in the second half of the season. They have had chances to go to overtime on their final drives in the last two games and haven’t, and now the Superdome awaits and the defending champions and undefeated Packers will follow six days after that. This is a full-fledged collapse. It doesn’t mean it can’t be stopped, it just means that it has started. And once something like this starts it’s hard to stop. And with the Giants’ schedule it’s nearly impossible to stop.

I have become a historian when it comes to collapses. It’s not something you want to be familiar with or an expert about, but I think it’s safe to say that if the NFL Network, NFL Films, HBO Sports or ESPN ever decide to make a documentary on the Tom Coughlin era, I would be a front-runner for a cameo to talk about this near decade of Giants football. I even have a title for the documentary: “Is This Real Life?: The Tom Coughlin Giants”. Maybe I should just film this thing myself?

There are certain signs of a collapse I have grown familiar with during the Tom Coughlin era and especially over the last two years. Those signs came out on Sunday night at MetLife Stadium just as the Second-Half Collapse siren went off in my head when the Eagles recovered the fumble on Babin’s sack of Eli with 1:17 left in the game.

1. Losing Games You’re Supposed To Win
The Giants never make anything easy. It’s not what they’re about. If the Giants had beaten the Redskins in Week 1 at home or the Seahawks in Week 5 at home, of if they had completed the comeback against the 49ers or not lost to the Vick-less Eagles at home, then they wouldn’t be sitting here wondering where four or five more wins are going to come from. They wouldn’t need to steal a game against the Saints or Packers, or sweep the season series from the Cowboys. I’m not saying they should have won all of those games to be sitting at 10-0 right now, but is it too much to ask for them to win one or maybe even two of those?

I have said it before and I will say it again: This is New York Giants football. This is who the Giants are. Erase that four-game playoff run in January and February of 2008 from your memory. Yes, it happened and it was glorious, but that’s not who the Giants are, and that’s certainly not who the Giants are under Tom Coughlin. They happened to have a few consecutive weekends of picking up girls out of their league, and it took them some time for them and the public to accept that their amazing hot streak had come to an end.

Losing games against inferior opponents and backup quarterbacks, and allowing special teams touchdowns and committing special teams penalties and throwing interceptions in the red zone and fumbling to lose games is who the Giants are. I have come to accept it. It shouldn’t be like that and it doesn’t have to be like that, but under Tom Coughlin that’s the organization’s identity.

2. Negative Thoughts In the Players’ Minds
With Joe and Evan on Tuesday on WFAN, Antrel Rolle said, “We’re too calm, man. We’re too relaxed come Sunday. We’re too poised.”

Justin Tuck used the words “historical second-half collapse” with reporters.

Michael Boley spoke out against Tom Coughlin’s assessment of the team by saying, “I’ve always said, coaches coach, players play. We (are) in the trenches. We really know what goes on out there. For someone on the side to say this doesn’t happen, it doesn’t mean nothing to me.”

Brandon Jacobs took out his frustration on the fans by saying, “That’s the best thing that they do here is to boo. I’m not worried about that. I’ve been hearing that for seven years.”

On Twitter, Jake Ballard showed that he is still thinking about his costly drops by tweeting, “Thanks for the love on here. I feel terrible about the drops. Letting my team and fans down, I can’t stop thinking bout it. I will overcome.”

So we have a safety who thinks the team wasn’t ready, a defensive lineman who has been a part of the last two collapses and is already thinking about the possibility of another one, a linebacker who disagreed with his coach to the media, a running back who decided to challenge the fan base and a tight end who can’t stop thinking about his terrible performance against the Eagles. All we need is some fourth-quarter rally beers and a few orders of Popeye’s and we have quite the reenactment of another collapse.

I still believe in this Giants team. I don’t know why since they haven’t done anything to make me believe in them, but I do. Maybe it’s because I don’t have another choice if I want to see Giants football past Week 17 for the first time in three years. Maybe it’s because I’m tired of these endings and afraid of seeing another year of Eli Manning’s prime be wasted. Maybe it’s because I don’t want another image of Tom Coughlin etched into my mind of his hands on his hips and head his tilted to the side like he’s trying to read Chinese or decipher one of those Ticketmaster security codes you have to type in.

3. Playing Without Urgency
This Giants team shouldn’t be playing for a postseason berth. They should be playing for a No. 1 or No. 2 seed and a first-round bye. They were 6-2!

The problem with the Giants is urgency, and it always has been. They don’t know the meaning of it and don’t seem to care to want to play with it. How do I know this? Well, five of their six wins have come in the fourth quarter. They haven’t had a lead at halftime since Week 4 against Arizona (Oct. 2), and they have been shut out in the third quarter in six of their 10 games. But they don’t have trouble finding the scoreboard in the fourth quarter. Hmm…

The Giants play to the level of their opponent, and they don’t play at the level we expect them to play at until the fourth quarter when it’s nearly too late and when one mistake will end the game. They consistently leave themselves no margin for error, and sometimes it pays off (lucky call for Cruz against Arizona, Webster interception against Buffalo, Cruz touchdown against Miami, Ballard catch and touchdown against New England), and sometimes it doesn’t (Eli interception against Seattle, deflected ball against San Francisco, sack and fumble against Philadelphia).

What is this team doing in the first three quarters? Why does it take a deficit heading into halftime and no life from the offense for the Giants to get motivated to want to win?

4. Sloppy Play
Eli Manning completed 18 of his 35 pass attempts on Sunday night, and that’s with seven drops. If say, three of those drops aren’t dropped, we might not be sitting here talking about a loss, but rather admiring a first-place team and celebrating the end of the Eagles’ season.

Against the Eagles, Jake Ballard had three drops, Hakeem Nicks had two, and Victor Cruz and D.J. Ware each had one. Last year it seemed like every time the Giants receivers “dropped” a pass they actually tipped it into a defender’s hands for an interception. This year they are still dropping passes at an amazing rate, but they are fortunately hitting the ground. Eli’s receivers weren’t helping him and the Giants didn’t have a running game to turn to. It’s a miracle that the Giants even had a chance to tie the game on their final drive.

And what exactly went on with the running game? 17 carries for 29 yards from a trio of running backs? That type of production seems almost impossible, and Coughlin calling it “pathetic” wasn’t enough.

Brandon Jacobs carried the ball 12 times for 21 yards (1.8 yards per carry). On one of those 12 carries, Jacobs ran for nine yards. So, on the other 11 carries, he ran for 12 yards (1.1 yards per carry). Unfathomable.

Jacobs is 6-foot-4, which is 2.1 yards. This means that if Jacobs took the handoff from Eli and got back to the line of scrimmage and just fell forward, he would have gained more yards per carry than he did actually trying to gain yards by “running.” Unbelievable. Actually with Jacobs it is sort of believable. How is Jacobs still blaming others for his lack of production? Now the fans are wrong for booing him? Jacobs has entered the A.J. Burnett Zone and there’s no turning back now.

He hasn’t rushed for 100 yards since he ran for 113 against the Vikings … last December. He has become worthless to the offense and the Giants have resorted to using D.J. Ware and Da’Rel Scott in situations over him with Ahmad Bradshaw still out. If Bradshaw doesn’t come back soon there is no chance of this season ending well because the Giants have proven that they will keep running the ball no matter what with their…

5. Unusual Playcalling
There’s a reason Brian Schottenheimer has the training wheels on Mark Sanchez, and there’s a reason he calls the plays he calls. There’s no reason why Kevin Gilbride calls the plays he calls with the Giants offense.

Against the 49ers, Kevin Gilbride (and his no undershirt) called for a shotgun draw to his No. 3 running back on third-and-2 run from the San Francisco 10 with 1:10 left and the game on the line against the No. 1 run defense in the league. Against the Eagles, multiple times he decided to give the ball to Brandon Jacobs on back-to-back running plays to begin drives. And I remember an awesome draw play with Jacobs on second-and-10 that went for no gain. Is that really putting your team and your players in the best possible situations to succeed?

How do the Giants not adjust to what they’re seeing on the field? How do they keep giving the ball to Jacobs time after time unsuccessfully? With Bradshaw out, their best offensive weapons are all wide receivers and not running backs. Doesn’t anyone notice this?

The Giants have the most predictable offense in the NFL. There are no surprises. They put themselves in unmanageable third downs and then call for plays that leave them one yard short of a new set of downs. It’s not like this happened a few times for the first time on Sunday. It happens every Sunday. Every single Sunday.

6. No Defense At Inopportune Times
It seems like yesterday the Giants defense held Tom Brady scoreless for the entire first in Foxboro. But that was a few weeks ago. What really feels like yesterday even though it was now three days ago is the Giants defense letting Vince Young orchestrate an 18-play game-winning drive against them. 18 plays! How was this possible? Let’s look.

Third-and-3: Ronnie Brown runs for six yards.

Third-and-10: Pass to Riley Cooper for 18 yards.

Third-and-3: Pass to Clay Harbor for six yards.

Third-and-1: Vince Young runs for one yard.

Third-and 4: Pass to DeSean Jackson for 10 yards.

Third-and-Goal: Eight-yard touchdown pass to Riley Cooper.

That’s six successful third-down conversions on one drive with the game on the line. An embarrassment.

If you own a company that’s looking for a lot of marketing, advertising or promoting, why wouldn’t you want to sponsor “converted third downs against the Giants?”

“It’s third-and-22 for the Eagles on the Giants’ 10. Young drops back … he looks left … scrambles to the right … and he finds Jackson wide open up the middle for a 34-year gain. It’s another Modell’s Sporting Goods third-down conversion against the New York Giants.”

7. Bad Coaching
Antrel Rolle told Joe and Evan on Tuesday that the Giants weren’t ready to play against the Eagles. (Rolle also used the phrase “at the end of the day” 20 times in a 13-minute interview. Yes, I counted.) How could you play 16 regular season games a year and not be ready for one of them at the end of the day? How could you be playing for a postseason berth for the first time since 2008 and playing against the Eagles, your chief rivals and the team that has ended your season the last three years and not be ready at the end of the day? How is this possible at the end of the day?

(I loved when Rolle said, “Are they [the Eagles] better than us? Not at all.” Oh, OK. I must have been watching a different Giants-Eagles game on NBC on Sunday night.)

If the Giants weren’t ready then there is a clearly problem with this team and this coaching staff. Tom Coughlin, who prides himself on being old-school and a disciplinarian, has watched his team collapse in six of his seven years here, and now they are 0-2 in the second half as he goes for a seventh collapse in eight years.

Coughlin is coaching for his career here. If the Giants don’t make the playoffs, he’s gone. That year left on his contract after this season is meaningless. It’s just there so he isn’t a lame-duck coach this season and doesn’t have to answer questions about next season to distract the team. But if the Giants don’t make the playoffs then he’s gone.

Coughlin is 65 years old and in his eighth year with the team. No other team is going to be hiring a 65-year-old to come into a new organization, and the Giants aren’t going to bring back a guy who has missed the playoffs three years in a row and hasn’t won a playoff game in seven of the eight years he’s been with the team, even with Super Bowl XLII to his name.

So knowing all of this, how does Coughlin allow David Akers and the 49ers to successfully recover an onside kick against his team? The same David Akers that did it to him in the Eagles’ epic comeback last year. And how does Coughlin’s team, a week later, punt the ball to DeSean Jackson, who ended the Giants’ season last year? How? No. I want to know. Howwwwww?!?!

The Giants are 6-4. The Cowboys are 6-4. They still have to play each other twice, which will most likely decide who wins the NFC East. But aside from those two meetings, the Giants play the Saints (7-3), Packers (10-0), Redskins (3-7) and Jets (5-5). The Cowboys play the Dolphins (3-7), Cardinals (3-7), Buccaneers (4-6) and Eagles (4-6).

The Giants and Cowboys meet on Dec. 11 in Week 11 and again on Jan. 1 in Week 17. If that Week 17 game is essentially a one-game playoff for a postseason spot it will be like the Yankees and Red Sox meeting for one-game playoff. I’m not sure I’m equipped to handle something of that magnitude.

Two weeks ago New York City was the focal point of the football world. Now it’s home to two second-place teams battling for their postseason lives and scoreboard watching along the way. But the NFL is a week-to-week league, and that’s why the Giants going into New Orleans as seven-point underdogs and winning isn’t improbable.

The Giants can beat the Saints and temporarily postpone what seems inevitable, or they continue their annual meltdown. I won’t be surprised either way. That’s Giants football.

***

Here are my picks for the three Thanksgiving games. The rest of the Week 12 Picks will be posted on Friday.

DETROIT +6.5 over Green Bay
I will be rooting as hard as possible for the Packers the same way that Lions fans will be two Sundays from now. I think this will be a close game, and I can only hope the Packers win. It’s all about watching other NFC teams lose now to keep the Giants’ wild-card chances alive if the division fades away.

Miami +7 over DALLAS
Everyone is chalking this up as a win for the Cowboys much like they chalked up the Giants-Eagles game on Sunday Night Football as a win for the Giants. The Dolphins aren’t good because beating the Chiefs, Redskins and Bills doesn’t make you good. But now that they are completely out of the Andrew Luck sweepstakes and Tony Sparano is trying to whatever he can do either try and stick around Miami next year (1-percent chance) or audition for other jobs in the league. The Dolphins are going to fight until the clock reads 0:00 in Week 17. I can only hope that mentality mixed with their three-game wining streak is enough to beat the Cowboys, who are always vulnerable to a devastating loss of their own.

BALTIMORE -3 over San Francisco
The Brothers Harbaugh Game. I could care less about this game. Jets fans, however, aren’t thinking the same way. Alex Smith is going to turn back into a pumpkin at some point this season, and what better night than on Thanksgiving in Baltimore?

Last Week: 7-5-2
Season: 72-79-9

The Giants lost a game on Sunday that they could have won. I wanted to wait an extra day to write about the 27-20 loss to the 49ers because I wanted to wait for reactions from the Giants on a loss to start the second half of their schedule. While immediate postgame reaction is usually substantial, you knew the media would have even more questions about second-half collapses on Monday, and that the Giants would have even more to talk about a day after the loss. And they both did.

Sunday’s loss was a loss that hurts, but not one that will cause Rambo-like flashbacks to 2009 and 2010. It’s a loss that will go away with a Giants win over the Eagles in Week 11. To analyze the loss to the 49ers and preview the importance of the game against the Eagles this week, I thought it would be a good idea to get some help from quotes from the Giants from Sunday and Monday.

Tom Coughlin on the loss: “Yeah, I’m very disappointed.”

I’m disappointed too.

Eli Manning on the loss: “We felt confident. We were right there. Very close.”

I felt confident too.

Osi Umenyiora on the loss: “I’m not shocked. We shouldn’t keep letting it get like that.”

That’s the answer I was looking for. This is what I’m talking about. Osi Umenyiora gets it. Why doesn’t everyone else?

Sure, the Giants lose to another first-place team on the road (not only the road, but the West Coast and 3,000 miles away from East Rutherford), but they had their chances to win. They had more than enough chances to win.

When you get an onside kick recovered against you, throw an interception because the play before the interception your wide receiver dropped a first down, throw another interception because a different wide receiver stops his route, allow Alex Smith to throw for 242 yards (when he had thrown for more than 201 yards just once in previous eight games) and you take penalties on special teams, you’re going to lose. It’s pretty ridiculous that the Giants were just 10 yards from tying the game and sending it to overtime. I can only pray that the Giants make the playoffs, win in the wild card round and then face the 49ers again. But to do all that they have to do that first thing: make the playoffs.

Like Osi said, “We shouldn’t keep letting it get like that.” It’s great that Eli is the best two-minute drill quarterback in the NFL (that’s right, Tom Brady fans, I said it), but you don’t want to keep going to the well and needing him to bail you out. It’s the same situation with the Rangers and Henrik Lundqvist. Sure, Henrik’s going to bail the offense out more times than not, but you can’t expect him to only give up one or two goals every game. And you can’t expect Eli to go down the field with under two minutes left and a pair of timeouts every Sunday of the season and live to tell about it come January. The defense has to do something too.

Tom Coughlin on the onside kick: “[David Akers] is exceptional at it. What is he – nine of 19 in his career with surprise onsides? You talk all week about it. You do the best you can with that. We let our guard down just a little bit, didn’t attack the ball and that was the consequence. So I take responsibility for that.”

I’m glad Tom Coughlin decided to take responsibility for the onside kick. Who else was going to take responsibility for it? Not me. I was 3,000 miles away from San Francisco when it happened.

The No. 1 thing everyone looks at when the Giants start the second half of their schedule is Tom Coughlin. It’s why his face where he looks like he is trying to solve the equation on the hallway chalkboard in Good Will Hunting has become synonymous with collapses. He represents everything that is the 2009 and 2010 collapses, and it’s his coaching and disciplinary styles that get questioned and critiqued when the Giants lose. So, you would think after what has happened the last two years at this same point in the season that Coughlin would make sure if the Giants lose games they are at least losing because the other team is better. You would think that no team would be attempting an onside kick and successfully recovering it against the Giants in the second quarter of a tie game at this point in the season. You would think that the Giants wouldn’t let the same kicker who had a successful onside kick against them in the game in which they blew a 21-point lead with 7:18 a year ago to knock them out of the playoffs, successfully kick another onside kick against them in a big game. You would think so. But it happened. It all happened.

I’m glad Tom Coughlin takes responsibility for it.

Coughlin, who is the King of Challenges, challenged that a 49er touched the ball first on a Giants punt at the beginning of the second half. FOX went to commercial twice without showing the best possible views of the play (probably so Joe Buck could touch up his red and white face paint), so viewers had no idea what was going on, but when we finally saw the play, it was puzzling as to why Coughlin challenged it. So, Coughlin allowed an onside kick in the first half and started the second half by wasting a challenge and a timeout. He was certainly in second-half form on Sunday.

Victor Cruz on Carlos Rogers doing Cruz’s salsa dance after an interception: “Yeah, I wasn’t too fond of that. But whatever. I got best of him throughout the game, so I wasn’t worried.”

Victor Cruz isn’t worried that the Giants lost because he got the best of Carlos Rogers. Oh OK, well I’m glad playoff berths are given out based on which receivers got the best of which cornerbacks and not based on which teams have the best win-loss record.

If you’re going to salsa dance on defenses then defenses are going to salsa dance on you. It’s part of the art of celebrating. If you don’t want someone imitating or mocking your signature celebration or impersonating you in a negative way then maybe you shouldn’t give them the chance to.

Yes, Cruz led the Giants with six catches for 84 yards, but it was his drop that was one of the crucial plays and turning points of the game.

At the time, the Giants had the ball with 1:49 to play in the first half (Eli’s time) and were trailing 9-6. Cruz drops a wide-open pass for a first down and a huge gain. The Giants go back to Cruz on the very next play and the 49ers pick it off and take over at the Giants’ 43. Luckily, Alex Smith was picked off four plays later and the Giants went to halftime trailing by just three, but they could have tied the game or taken the lead heading into the locker room. So, salsa dance all you want, Carlos Rogers.

Justin Tuck on Michael Boley’s hamstring injury: “It’s actually kind of funny. We were talking about who on this defense would it hurt to lose and unanimously we talked about [Michael] Boley.”

That’s “kind of funny?” Are you insane? Who talks about things like this? “Hey guys, wouldn’t it really suck if Michael Boley got hurt and our linebackers were even worse than they already are with him playing?” Why stop there? “Hey guys, wouldn’t it be terrible if Eli got hurt and was out for the season and David Carr had to finish out the year?” Or “Wouldn’t it be funny if we lost Corey Webster, who’s our only reliable player in the secondary? Wouldn’t that be hilarious?”

Seriously, who talks about things like this? It’s one thing to say “no-hitter” or “perfect game” while either of those two things are happening, but you entered the season without cornerback Terrell Thomas (knee), linebacker Clint Sintim (knee), defensive tackle Marvin Austin (pec), cornerback Bruce Johnson (Achilles), cornerback Brian Witherspoon (knee) and Jonathan Goff (knee) for the season, and Prince Amukamara (foot) is still out, and you’re wondering who’s going to get hit next by the injury bug? That’s so funny that Michael Boley might not be able to play against the Eagles! I’m just glad it was unanimous!

Eli Manning on his pass intended for Mario Manningham in the fourth quarter: “It was close. He’s trying to catch it on the move. It was probably like two inches overthrown. It wasn’t a poor throw, but they always say ‘Football is a game of inches.’ It was so close.”

And when Eli says, “It wasn’t a poor throw,” here’s what he really means: “It was a great ball that was perfectly timed and in the perfect place for him to catch it. It hit his hands, didn’t it? If he dives, he catches it and either scores a touchdown or we have the ball on the goal line.”

Mario Manningham on not catching that pass: “I have to come down with that.”

Yes, yes you do. If the ball hits your hands, you need to catch it. And if the balls hits your hands, and you don’t catch it, and you didn’t dive to try and catch it, then you probably should have.

D.J. Ware on his performance and his inability to get the first down: “I think I played well overall. That last yard, you want to always get that.”

I don’t fault Ware for not getting the first down. I fault Kevin Gilbride for calling that play. (And can someone get Kevin Gilbride an undershirt to wear under his Giants polo?)

It’s third-and-2 on the San Francisco 10 with 1:10 left. The Giants either have to get a first down or have to score a touchdown. The 49ers have the No. 1 run defense in the NFL. I said, “THE 49ERS HAVE THE NO. 1 RUN DEFENSE IN THE NFL!” But you know what 49ers have the 25^th-best of in the NFL? That’s right. They have the 25^th-best passing defense in the NFL. (Do you like my textbook example of foreshadowing here? My fourth grade teacher, Miss Ryan, would be proud.)

Eli has already completed 26 of his 39 pass attempts in the game (that’s 66.7 percent for you non-math majors), and he’s 6-for-8 on the drive for 56 yards. With Ahmad Bradshaw inactive, the Giants’ best offensive weapons are NOT backup running back Brandon Jacobs or No. 3 running back D.J. Ware. Once again it’s third-and-2 with the game on the line and possibly a first-round bye in the playoffs too. What play would you call? I’ll give you a minute to think about it.

(Letting you think about it…)

Did you decide on a shotgun draw to the No. 3 running back? Well, then you and Coughlin and Gilbride are all on the same page.

Ware gets the ball and gets stuffed by the BEST RUN DEFENSE IN THE NFL for no gain. Shocking. Eli’s fourth-and-2 pass gets knocked down at the line and the Giants lose.

Tom Coughlin on being asked about the Giants’ recent second-half collapses: “I can’t imagine why this question keeps coming up in terms of you have to take each year one at a time.”

You can’t imagine why this question keeps coming up? Really? You can’t imagine it? It’s unimaginable?

I can’t imagine A.J. Burnett winning 24 games in 2012 with a 2.19 ERA. I can’t imagine my girlfriend telling me it’s OK to miss her birthday, so I can watch a Giants game (luckily they are playing the Cowboys on Sunday Night Football on her birthday and it’s at 8:20 p.m., so I will be able to watch it). I can’t imagine Eddie Vedder pulling me up on stage at the Garden and giving me Mike McCready’s guitar and letting me play the solo on “State of Love and Trust” (mainly because I don’t even know how to play guitar).

But I can imagine why Tom Coughlin is getting asked questions about losing the first game of the second half of the season. Do you want to know why I can imagine that? Well, let’s look at what Coughlin’s son-in-law Chris Snee had to say to figure out what I can imagine this type of questioning.

Chris Snee on the Giants’ second-half collapses: “We are not analyzing previous years here. As far as I can remember, we’ve had bad years and we had a good year and won the Super Bowl, so I think that is finishing strong.”

Snee’s right. The Giants have had “bad” years. Snee’s rookie year with the Giants was 2004, which is the first year Coughlin became the coach of the Giants and also Eli Manning’s first year in the NFL. So, Snee has been on the Giants for the entirety of the most recent era of Giants football (along with Coughlin and Manning). This is important because here is how all seven seasons have played out for the Giants since 2004, entering this season.

2004: The Giants start the year 5-2 with Kurt Warner starting and showing Eli the ropes. They lose back-to-back games to fall to 5-4 and start planning for the future by letting Eli start, which causes unrest and division in the locker room. Eli goes 1-6 in his first seven starts in the league, but wins the final game of the year against the Cowboys. The Giants finish the year at 6-10 and don’t make the playoffs. Bad finish.

2005: It’s Eli’s first full year. The Giants go 6-2 in the first half of the season then go 5-3 in the second half of the season. They make the playoffs for the first time since blowing a 24-point lead against the 49ers in the 2002 playoffs. The Giants lose 23-0 at home in the first round of the playoffs, as Eli goes 10-for-18 for 113 yards with no touchdowns and three interceptions. The Giants finish with just 132 total yards in the game. Bad finish.

2006: The Giants start the year 6-2, but are now 7-7, and entering Week 16, for them to clinch a playoff berth, they need one of two scenarios to happen.

1. Win + Minnesota loss or tie + Atlanta loss + Philadelphia win or tie + Seattle win or tie.

OR

2. Win + Minnesota loss or tie + Atlanta loss + Philadelphia win or tie + San Francisco loss or tie.

The Giants lose 30-7 to the Saints, but the Vikings, Falcons, Seahawks and 49ers all lose too, and the Giants basically hit the biggest parlay ever. Only the Eagles win, so the Giants just need to win in Week 17 against the Redskins and they make the playoffs at 8-8.

The Giants beat the Redskins to get into the playoffs at 8-8 thanks to a Giants single-game rushing record of 234 yards (on just 23 carries) from Tiki Barber. The Giants are just the ninth team in history to reach the postseason without a winning record. After starting the year 6-2, they finish the year 2-6. Then they lose 23-20 to the Eagles in the first round of the playoffs on a David Akers 38-yard field goal with no time remaining. Bad finish.

2007: They tart the year 0-2, but win six in a row after that. After their bye in Week 9, they finish the year 4-4, and with a 10-6 record, they are the No. 5 seed in the playoffs. They run the table on the road in the NFC playoffs, beating the Buccaneers, Cowboys and Packers and then beat the 18-0 Patriots in the Super Bowl. Best finish ever.

2008: They’re 11-1, but are now without Plaxico Burress for the rest of the year. The Giants finish the regular season 1-3 (they would have finished 0-4 if John Kasay doesn’t miss a field goal for the Panthers in Week 16), but still get the No. 1 seed in the NFC playoffs. They lose in the divisional round at home to the Eagles 23-11. Bad finish.

2009: They start the year 5-0, and then lose four games in a row. They come off their bye week to beat the Falcons in Week 11, but lose four of their last six games in embarrassing fashion to finish the year at 8-8, and miss the playoffs. Bad finish.

2010: They’re 6-2 after Week 9, but then they lose to Jon Kitna and the 2-6 Cowboys at home, and then they lose in Philadelphia the following week thanks to five turnovers and an Eli dive that turns into a fumble with the Giants down by 7 and 2:51 left in the game. At 6-4, the Giants win three in a row, and have a chance to lock up the NFC East in Week 15 at home against the Eagles. They blow a 21-point lead with 7:18 left and lose. They have a chance to rebound the following week and still make the playoffs, but they lose 45-17 in Green Bay. In Week 17, they need a win against the Redskins and a Bears win over the Packers. They beat the Redskins 17-14 on the road, but the Bears lose to the Packers. Bad finish.

(Hey Tom, now can you imagine why you might have to answer questions about second-half collapses now?)

By my count, that’s seven years, four playoff appearances and only one good finish (and an all-time finish at that) to the season. Now does 2007 cancel out all of the other bad years? I actually think it does. It definitely cancels out 2004, 2005 and 2006, but you could make a case that it doesn’t 2008, 2009 or 2010 since those happened after.

Tom Coughlin on the loss to the 49ers to open the second half of the season: “Does it have anything to do with the second half [of the season]? No. It has to do with the ninth game of the year, which I felt we had a great chance to win.”

Sunday’s loss wasn’t a sign of a second-half collapse. Not yet. However, if the Giants don’t make the playoffs, we will look at that onside kick as the turning point in another failed season the way Francisco Cervelli’s home run in Atlanta in 2009 and Brian Cashman traveling with the Yankees on that same road trip are viewed as the turning point for the 2009 World Series champions. As of right now, that loss is just a loss, and let’s hope it stays that way when all is said and done, but it did set up this Sunday night’s game against the Eagles to make it more than that at the end of the season.

The Eagles are in an unthinkable spot. They are 3-6. They are three games off of the division lead with seven games to play, and they don’t have the 2011 Red Sox in their division or on their schedule. They basically need to run the table to make the playoffs and even then that might not do it since the Giants and Buccaneers both missed the playoffs at 10-6 last year. Their coach is on the hot seat, and after 13 years these seven games might be his last seven games in Philadelphia. Their starting quarterback has two broken ribs and missed part of Sunday’s loss to the Cardinals, and his status is unknown for this Sunday. Their backup quarterback (the one who dubbed them this team the “Dream Team”) hasn’t started a game since Nov. 21, 2010 and hasn’t won a game he started since Oct. 10, 2010. Their star wide receiver was inactive on Sunday for “missing a special teams meeting,” which was code for basically mailing it in for most of the year. In other words, the 2011 Philadelphia Eagles are a certified gongshow.

The Eagles have a 7 percent chance of making the playoffs and have very little to play for at this point other than to play the role of spoiler and to ruin the Giants’ season, which I’m sure they would love to do. The Eagles knocked the Giants out of the 2006 playoffs in the wild card round and knocked them out of the 2008 playoffs in the divisional round, and they are the reason the Giants missed the playoffs in 2009 and 2010. The Eagles live for the opportunity to ruin and absolutely devastate the Giants and if the Eagles are going down, you can be sure they are going to try to take the Giants down with them. That’s why even though this matchup on Sunday night heavily favors the Giants, it’s why I’m more to scared to watch this game than I am to watch Jack and Jill.

Chris Snee on the Philadelphia game: “With this team, we are not worried about second halves, like everyone else is. We are worried about Philadelphia this week. We are not looking ahead.”

And you should be worried about Philadelphia. I am.

Wall Street is the place to be right now. Well, it’s the place to be if you don’t have a job or any responsibilities at home, or if you don’t have a home, or if you don’t mind sleeping in a tent in the middle of the city in freezing temperatures, and if you can deal with people protesting everything and anything around you.

New York City is the place to be for football right now. It’s the place to be if you’re a Giants fan with the G-Men at 6-2 and in first place in the NFC East. And it’s the place to be if you’re a Jets fan with Gang Green at 5-3 and in a three-way tie for first place in the AFC East. One city with two first-place teams. It’s a glorious thing.

With New York City currently serving as the center of the football world along with the center of the business and news world, I thought it would be a good idea to combine everything going on in the city to help recap where both of the city’s football teams are at midseason.

Last season I handed out some midseason awards for the New York Football Giants, but this year I decided to do it a little differently. Instead of awards, I thought we would use quotes from the movie Wall Street with what’s going on in New York (and also in honor of “Kappo” wanting to be called “Young Gekko” in this season of How To Make It In America) to celebrate New York’s two first-place teams at midseason and analyze the first eight games.

“It’s a zero sum game. Somebody wins, somebody loses. Money itself isn’t lost or made, it’s simply transferred from one perception to another.”

I couldn’t read this quote without thinking about what I wrote on Monday following the Giants’ win over the Patriots.

The perception of New York City right now is that it’s a Giants town (or at least that’s what the Daily News told us on Tuesday). Sure, it sort of swings depending on who reaches the postseason and who doesn’t, and who lasts longer in the playoffs, but hasn’t it always been a Giants town?

It’s actually kind of crazy to think the city would be considered a Jets town because of their two AFC Championship appearances. It would be like the Mets being referred to as King of the City after their 2006 NLCS loss. (I actually know Mets fans who were under this impression). The Yankees hadn’t won in six years and had lost in the World twice and the ALCS once, but one NLCS appearance apparently was good enough for some Mets fans to think that their team was the king. Now Jets fans are under a similar impression after back-to-back AFC Championship Games (despite losing both).

It’s been a miserable three-plus year drought since the Giants last won a Super Bowl. That’s way longer than 42 years.

“Blue Horseshoe loves Anacott Steel.”

There is a whole group of people that loved the Kings of Leon well before “Sex on Fire” and “Use Somebody” were played on the radio more times than Adele is now. That’s how I feel about Eli Manning. Giants fans have known what he is capable of for years, it’s just taken everyone else a lot longer to catch on.

Everyone is buying stock in Eli after beating the Patriots and leading his team to a 6-2 record. It almost seems like the perfect time for everyone to board the Eli bandwagon as the Giants’ gauntlet continues this week in San Francisco, and the football world waits for Eli and the Giants to falter, so they can say, “I told you so.” Maybe the Giants will lose in San Francisco (though I don’t think they will), but it won’t be enough and shouldn’t be enough for any sensible person to give up on the Giants or their quarterback.

“This is the kid. He calls me 59 days in a row. Wants to be a player. Oughta be a picture of you in the dictionary under persistence, kid.”

I said after the Jets beat the Patriots in the playoffs that I didn’t know what Mark Sanchez is. I still don’t. Yes, I root against him and hope he throws five interceptions every Sunday, but he’s still someone you can kind of, sort of pull for even though he’s a Jet.

Sanchez has only thrown two picks in his last four games (the Jets are 3-1) after throwing five in the first four games (the Jets went 2-2). He’s only in his third year in the league and already has four playoff wins (all on the road), which is as many as Tom Brady has since the 2006 divisional round. But the Jets still have the training wheels on him and whenever they take them off to see if he can keep his balance, he rides his bike off the sidewalk and into a bush.

The reason I don’t think Sanchez gets as much respect as he should outside of New York (and I’m not sure he gets that much here) is that he came into the league in a great situation. The Jets were a team built to win when he showed up in 2009. (They were built to win in 2008 before Brett Favre lit their season on fire). Sanchez didn’t take over for a three-win team and wasn’t forced to be part of a rebuilding process. He was given a “now” team and asked to manage the game and to not do anything spectacular, but also to not screw anything up either. He has basically been given the same responsibilities as a 16-year-old babysitting for the first time. “Make sure the kids don’t run away or light the house on fire for the three hours we’re gone and make sure that they’re in bed by 10.” Basic stuff. It’s not Sanchez’s fault, he’s being treated this way, and you do have to give the Jets credit because it’s worked to an extent.

I don’t think the clock is ticking on Sanchez to prove himself the way it ticked on Tim Couch and David Carr and Joey Harrington because those three were in some rotten situations. But Rex Ryan isn’t doing his 25-year-old franchise quarterback any favors by guaranteeing things every time he opens his mouth like Ray Zalinsky in Tommy Boy. Let’s give the kid a few years to learn how to perform at a high level consistently in the NFL without Brian Schottenheimer holding his hand while he crosses the street. It pains me to say this, but I think Sanchez will be worth the Jets trading their first-round pick, second-round pick, Kenyon Coleman, Abram Elam and Brett Ratliff to the Browns for the fifth pick.

“If you need a friend, get a dog.”

There’s nothing really to this other than that I can picture Tom Coughlin saying this to his team in training camp or after a loss.

I have been waiting for Coughlin to give us his patented confused look after the Giants allow an improbable comeback this season. You know the face. The one where he looks like he is trying to solve the equation on the hallway chalkboard in Good Will Hunting. The one he gives Matt Dodge and his special teams after the DeSean Jackson punt return for a touchdown last season. So far we haven’t seen it, and I’m hoping we don’t.

Coughlin entered the season on the hot seat and right now it has cooled off. I still think he has to reach the postseason to come back in 2012. So far, that doesn’t look like a problem for a guy getting a lot of recognition for Coach of the Year.

“I don’t throw darts at a board. I bet on sure things. Read Sun Tzu’s “The Art of War.” “Every battle is won before it is ever fought.” Think about it.”

I doubt that Rex Ryan has ever read “The Art of War” or any book that isn’t full of “X’s and O’s” or starring The Berenstain Bears. I realize that Gordon Gekko’s quote is about how properly preparing for battle leads to victory, and while I think Rex does that, I also think he feels he will win no matter what preparation steps he takes.

In Rex’s mind the Jets are a perfect team every season and therefore they have nothing to work on and nothing to improve. At least that’s what it sounds like when he opens his mouth. Then the Jets lose a couple of games, Rex backtracks and makes some wild statements to cover up his original wild statements, and soon enough he’s like a guy on Cops handcuffed in the back of a cruiser digging himself a hole full of fiction. It happened in 2009 when he thought the Jets were eliminated from the playoffs. It happened in 2010 when the Jets were dominated by the Patriots on Monday Night Football and started a late-season slide. It happened this season when they lost three games in a row and he almost went Jim Mora on us.

I like Rex Ryan. He’s good for football and good for the Jets, and he’s an easy guy to root for (unless you’re a Patriots fan) as he straddles the line between being a public relations dream and a public relations nightmare. I just wish he would use his back page material for big games and meaningful situations, and not just any time there is a microphone or a camera or a cell phone or a Talkboy in front of his face.

“Just remember something. Man looks in the abyss, there’s nothing staring back at him. At that moment, man finds his character and that is what keeps him out of the abyss.”

Brandon Jacobs has regressed since his 1,089-yard 2008 season (which he amassed in only 13 games). Back then, Earth, Wind and Fire dominated the NFC, and the Giants were the best team in football. Since then Jacobs has dropped to 835 yards in 2009, 823 yards in 2010 and just 198 yards in 2011. He’s averaging his lowest yards per carry (3.3) since his rookie season in 2005 when he averaged 2.6 yards per carry (but he only had 38 carries in 16 games that year).

Jacobs had to take a $1.75 million pay cut just to stay with the Giants this season, and he will most likely be an ex-Giant this March when he is due to get a $500,000 roster bonus before a $4.4 million salary in 2012. With the drop in production, he hasn’t been able to compensate for his decline by being a positive locker room presence or a team player. Instead he has complained about his playing time, pouted about his use and touches and gone off to the media about his displeasure with the organization. I’m not sure if it’s a bigger upset that Fred Armisen is still on Saturday Night Live or that Brandon Jacobs is still on the Giants.

On Sunday, Jacobs was given a chance to redeem himself and prove to the Giants and the other 29 teams that he isn’t as washed up as we all think he is. Jacobs ran for 72 yards on 18 carries and had four receptions for another 28 yards for a total of 100 yards on the day, including a 10-yard touchdown run in the third quarter. It was his best game in two years. (He hasn’t had a 100-yard rushing game since Week 10 against the Eagles … in 2008!)

If Ahmad Bradshaw doesn’t get healthy soon then Jacobs is going to be counted on and given more chances to prove his worth to the NFL. He will most likely be cut by the Giants in March, but he can use the next eight weeks to try and recreate an image he has tarnished the last two years for potential suitors for 2012 and beyond, and hopefully help the Giants win in the postseason too.

“Greed clarifies, cuts through and captures the essence of the evolutionary spirit.”

When Steve Johnson had a 52-yard reception against Darrelle Revis on Sunday, I thought Twitter was going to crash. An NFL team’s No. 1 wide receiver caught a pass against Darrelle Revis! History! That’s what it felt like when it happened. No one does that on Revis Island. No one.

I’m not being sarcastic or joking. I’m serious. No one does that to Darrelle Revis. It’s such a rare accomplishment that people felt the need to tweet about it. Could you imagine if people felt the need to tweet when big plays occurred against the Giants’ secondary?

“There goes Rob Gronkowski over the middle untouched for 27 yards.”

“DeSean Jackson with a 39-yard reception against Corey Webster.”

“There’s Miles Austin behind Aaron Ross for 21 yards.”

“Wes Welker has it for 24 yards before being brought down.”

Revis is so good that it feels like, maybe, he should have held out for even more money last year. I know that the $32 million of guaranteed money is a lot of money, but the guy is so much better than the next best guy at his position and anyone else in the league that he deserves it, and more. With Antonio Cromartie jumping routes and trying to catch balls himself instead of making sure they aren’t caught by the other team, where would the Jets secondary be without Revis, and with Cromartie and with Kyle Wilson? Not in first place.

“It’s not always the most popular guy who gets the job done.”

When the Giants were marching down the field with 1:36 left against the Patriots on Sunday, and Ramses Barden and Jake Ballard were the guys putting together the winning drive, how many Patriots fans turned to the person next to them and said, “Who the hell is Ramses Barden?” or “Who the hell is Jake Ballard?” in the same voice that Verne Lundqvist uses in Happy Gilmore to ask that same question about Happy Gilmore.

Prior to the season the Giants lost Steve Smith (Philadelphia) and Kevin Boss (Oakland) to free agency. They lost cornerback Terrell Thomas (knee), linebacker Clint Sintim (knee), defensive tackle Marvin Austin (pec), cornerback Bruce Johnson (Achilles), cornerback Brian Witherspoon (knee) and Jonathan Goff (knee). And on top of that, cornerback Prince Amukamara (foot) still hasn’t played in a game.

Even after all the injuries and the season-opening loss to the Redskins and the embarrassment at home against the Seahawks, the Giants are 6-2 and have a two-game lead over the Cowboys in the division. And when Ahmad Bradshaw and Hakeen Nicks and Kevin Baas were ruled “out” for Sunday’s game, the Giants turned to Barden and Kevin Boothe and D.J. Ware to play significant roles, and the Giants came away with a win.

The same way the Patriots have amazed everyone with their ability to replace proven stars and long-time Patriots with new and unproven names, the Giants have done that this season by getting production from guys who most of the league doesn’t even know exist. Last Sunday, it was Ballard and Barden. Who knows who it might be this Sunday?

“Wake up, will ya, pal? If you’re not inside, you are outside.”

I will never get over what happened to the Giants in 2008 and what could have been if Plaxico had just stayed in on the Friday before the Giants’ Week 13 game. I have little doubt that the Giants would have reached the Super Bowl and probably won it. Forget probably. They would have won it. The final four teams in the postseason were the Cardinals, Eagles, Steelers and the Ravens. The Giants beat all four of those teams in the regular season. But they lost in the divisional round to the Eagles because they were relying on Domenik Hixon to be their deep threat and became one-dimensional because of a lack of receivers.

I thought Plaxico Burress was going to have more of an impact with the Jets than he has. Sure, he’s 34 now and hadn’t played in an NFL game in almost three years when he came back, but the man who gave me one of the best sports moments of my life has just 322 receiving yards this season (he had 1 catch and 16 yards combined in Weeks 2 and 6). He does have five touchdowns, but three of those came in one game, and his season high for receiving yards in a game is 79.

Maybe Plaxico isn’t going to be the safety blanket for Mark Sanchez the way he was for Eli Manning and maybe the two won’t ever build the same chemistry he had for the other New York team, and that’s OK with me. I’m over Plaxico.

“Well, you’re walking around blind without a cane, pal. A fool and his money are lucky enough to get together in the first place.”

Did anyone see Rob Gronkowski and Wes Welker on Sunday? They were Tom Brady’s only two targets and they ran around the middle of the field like streakers trying to evade security guards and police officers. Their presence somehow caught everyone by surprise and caused the Giants secondary to have delayed reactions as if Zack Morris called timeout to give the Patriots receivers a head start.

This is a problem for the Giants. Yes, it’s more of a problem for some of the other teams in the league, but when Aaron Ross (you might know him by his birth name of Fumbles Magee) is tracking down open receivers like it’s a game of two-hand touch, and when Deon Grant is leaving Gronkowski open on fourth down for potentially the game when the whole world knows Brady is going to Gronkowski in the end zone, you know things are bad.

This wasn’t only a problem against the Patriots. The Giants let Rex Grossman (who isn’t good enough to start over John Beck) throw for 305 yards against them in Week 1. They let Sam Bradford go for 331 yards in Week 2. Charvaris Whiteson (the combination of Charlie Whitehurst and Tarvaris Jackson) threw for 315 yards in Week 5, and Tom Brady put up 342 on them in a losing effort. The good news: They are 6-2 despite this. The bad news: Drew Brees in Week 12 and Aaron Rodgers in Week 13.

“When I get a hold of the son of a b-tch who leaked this, I’m gonna tear his eyeballs out.”

Remember when Derrick Mason complained that there were “cracks” in the offense after Week 4 against the Ravens? Then before Week 5 against the Patriots, Mason, Burress and Santonio Holmes reportedly went to Rex to complain about Schottenheimer’s play calling.

And then after losing to the Patriots, Plaxico said, “Whoever wrote that story, they’re just making up stories. I would like to get the name of the guy who wrote it, because that never happened. Whoever wrote it … is just trying to make himself look good, but it’s all rumors.”

When asked about the meeting, Rex Ryan said, “If [the meeting did happen], then maybe I got hit in the head or something. I don’t remember that.”

And Santonio Holmes said, “I honestly have no idea where that came from [or] who could’ve said it. Me, personally, I have no issue with Coach Schottenheimer and I didn’t go and talk to Rex about anything.”

Two days later the Jets traded Mason to the Texas for a conditional seventh-round pick.

Mike Tannenbaum talked about the trade by saying, “What he said after the Baltimore game had nothing to do with the decision we made last night.”

Everyone believes you, Mr. T. No, really, we believe you…

“You’re on a roll. Enjoy it while it lasts, ’cause it never does.”

Jerry Reese was on top of the world after Super Bowl XLII. Then he went down a few notches after the divisional loss to the Eagles in 2008. Then he went down a few more after the 2009 collapse. Then he went down even more after the 2010 collapse. Then he was at rock bottom of his time as Giants general manager when the Giants preseason looked like a controlled demolition video. But now at 6-2 and in first place, Reese’s stock is slowly climbing back up as the Giants have shown exceptional depth on both sides of the ball.

Mike Tannenbaum has watched the Jets transform themselves from the “Same Old Jets” into an elite team in the league with back-to-back AFC championship appearances under his reign. He has made some questionable decisions and some exceptional ones, and has earned his self-proclaimed title as “one smart SOB” at times. But with Rex continuing to guarantee rings for a team that last won 42 years ago, Tannenbaum’s approval rating is going to mirror the success of the Jets in the second season.

“Well, life all comes down to a few moments. This is one of them.”

Three years ago this weekend, the Giants were 9-1 (on their way to 11-1 and then 12-4), Plaxico Burress hadn’t gone to the Latin Quarter with sweatpants on and a gun in those pants, and everyone expected the Giants to appear in the Super Bowl for a second straight year.

After missing the playoffs in 2003 and 2004, the Giants returned to the playoffs in 2006, and 2007, and 2008, and it felt like they weren’t going to miss the playoffs again. Then the collapse of 2009 happened after a 5-0 start to the season, and then the collapse of 2010 happened with 7:18 left against the Eagles in Week 16, and they haven’t been back since losing to the Eagles in the 2008 divisional round.

Things can change in a second in the NFL. Right now the Giants are coming off their biggest win since beating the Panthers in overtime in Week 16 in 2008, and New York Football Giants hype is selling better than Four Loko was at this time last year. The G-Men survived one week of the nine-week gauntlet, but have to travel to the West Coast this weekend to face the 7-1 49ers, and then they get the Eagles, Saints, Packers and Cowboys. A loss against the 49ers will get the collapse buzz brewing again like it would have if they had lost in Foxboro. The stench of late-season failure will follow the Giants until they can reach the postseason again, and right now they are set up for that to be this year.

But, once again, things can change and they can change quickly, and once they begin to change, it’s hard to stop them. It happened in 2009. It happened in 2010. The schedule has the Giants facing a perfect storm of devastating events that could make it happen again in 2011.

The NFL season comes down to a few moments. This Sunday is one of them for the Giants. Next Sunday will be another one, and the Monday after that, and the five Sundays after that. I have desperately wanted the Giants to get back to the postseason and with eight games left in the regular season, they are already there.

The Patriots never lose to the Steelers. The Patriots never lose at Heinz Field.

They did and they did.

The Patriots never lose to back-to-back games. The Patriots never lose to NFC teams at home. The Patriots never lose at home, period.

They did and they did and they did.

The Giants took care of their own business on Sunday in Foxboro and picked up the slack for the Jets too, doing Rex Ryan’s dirty work and keeping the Patriots from taking over first place in the AFC East. The Giants did something that no team had done between Weeks 1 and 17 since 2002 when the Packers became the last team to beat the Patriots in Gillette Stadium. (However, I don’t think this is that much of an accomplishment since the Patriots have lost their last two playoff games at home.)

I said the Giants would beat the Patriots on Friday and NESN.com’s Mike Hurley agreed with me, and so did the Boston Globe’s Chad Finn. But as the week progressed and Ahmad Bradshaw and Hakeem Nicks and David Baas were declared “out” for the game, I began to have my doubts. Those doubts were erased yesterday and now I can’t help, but think about what the Giants would have done to the Patriots if they had their No. 1 running back, best wide receiver and starting center.

The Giants’ 24-20 win felt like a game that the Giants are supposed to lose and a game that Patriots are supposed to win.

The Patriots were supposed to be the team to go down the field with 1:36 left and score the game-winning touchdown.

The Giants were supposed to be the team that went up with 17-13, making their fans prematurely celebrate a win, only to allow the opposition to go down the field and then commit a stupid pass interference penalty and lose the game.

That’s how it would have ended for the old Patriots and for the old Giants. (I say old Giants in hopes that their sloppy play over the last decade-plus will finally come to an end). But that’s not how it ends in 2011 with these two teams.

If Eli Manning doesn’t orchestrate a game-winning drive with 1:36 left in the fourth quarter and two timeouts, and if Rob Gronkowski’s touchdown holds up as the winning touchdown, this column takes a whole different approach, as does the sports world. Here are some storylines we’re looking at today if the Giants lose 20-17 instead of winning 24-20…

a. The Giants have completed Phase 1 of another second-half collapse.

b. The Giants let the Patriots off the hook with missed opportunities and undisciplined penalties.

c. The Patriots still don’t lose back-to-back home games or regular season home games.

d. The Patriots are the best team in the AFC. Actually that isn’t a storyline, that’s just what Peter King would be saying.

e. Tom Brady is still the man of the fourth-quarter comeback.

f. Aaron Ross and Devin Thomas should find other employment. They should still do this. I have already created a Monster.com account for Thomas (no responses yet) and have forwarded Ross’ resume to a few job placement companies. (This is just something that needed to be addressed and this is the spot that made the most sense.)

For most of the game on Sunday it looked like these things might happen. The Giants kept getting solid starting field position and not doing anything with it. They fumbled a punt return and threw an interception in the end zone and took an unsportsmanlike penalty after scoring the go-ahead touchdown. Aaron Ross had shot the Giants in their left foot and Eli Manning had shot the team in the right foot. I assumed the Manningham penalty was the “Finish Him” move that I was waiting for to end the Giants’ chances, but for as bad as the Giants were, the Patriots were equally as bad. Actually they were worse.

I have this weird relationship with Tom Brady (I talked about this last year here and here). I like him, but I hate him. He’s the Derek Jeter of football. He’s a winner. He says the right things (minus that Plaxico Burress defense comment). He wears a Yankees hat away from the football field and is married to a smokeshow. But he is a legend and an icon in Boston and has brought immense happiness three times to the sports city I hate more than any other.

On Sunday, I planned on using every ounce of my body toward hating Brady. It wasn’t going to be hard with him playing against the Giants and trying to begin the process of making me go another football postseason without my team in it. Aside from his drive that led to the Gronkowski touchdown, I didn’t even really need to pull against Brady because he pulled against himself. Outside of that drive, Brady looked human the entire game. Actually he looked less than human. He looked like Carson Palmer. Two interceptions? One in the end zone? What happened to the guy that stands in the pocket like a statute and goes down the field with relative ease? Where is the best losing streak stopper that football has ever known? Was that even real life yesterday?

Instead of the Giants losing a game they had many chances to put away and win, well … they won. And instead of sitting here and giving my step-by-step guide on How To Build A New York Football Giants Late Season Collapse Shelter And Survival Kit, I can sit here and talk about what was an important (and necessary) win for the G-Men.

Thanks to Eli Manning and Jake Ballard, I don’t have to go to Wal-Mart today and start stocking up on bottled water and canned foods and batteries like it’s Y2K in preparation of another Giants collapse. I don’t have to avoid the Internet or TV for fear of seeing Gronkowski catch the go-ahead touchdown on a continuous loop. I don’t have to shut my phone off or stay off Twitter because of harassment from Patriots fans. I don’t have to do any of these things because the best fourth-quarter quarterback in the NFL plays for the Giants.

I would take Eli Manning over any other quarterback in the NFL in the two-minute drill at the end of the first half or at the end of the game. That might sound like saying I would rather eat a No. 6 at Wendy’s over a filet mignon, but that’s for people that still view Eli as Mr. Aw Shucks and the goofy No. 1 pick who would throw four picks at home against the Vikings and shrug his shoulders walking off the field as if to say, “It’s not that big of a deal.” There is still part of that Eli that exists. We saw it when he was intercepted in the end zone from the five-yard line on third down when the only open receiver he had was the back wall of the end zone. Eli gave away the chance for three points and gave away the momentum. It was a brain fart that we have tried to eliminate from his career, but he does relapse from time to time.

These untimely relapses cause me to tweet things like “Omaha! Omaha!” and make me understand why my friend Heff lit his Manning jersey on fire in the Giants Stadium parking lot after his four-pick game against the Vikings game I just mentioned on Nov. 25, 2007 (Heff still claims this sacrifice led to the Giants winning the Super Bowl.) But I support Eli like he is my younger brother instead of Peyton’s even though Eli is actually almost six years older than me. I have had his back in countless arguments as if I were the third of the four Manning sons, and gone to bat for him against his critics for really no reason whatsoever other than to not have the name of the franchise quarterback of my football team dragged through the mud. It’s games like Super Bowl XLII and Sunday’s win that let me know I wasn’t wrong in those arguments and have the same “I told you so” thoughts that I know run through Ernie Accorsi’s mind after the same games.

Right now everyone is all over Eli for his gaudy stats and for his third-best QB rating and his fourth quarter QB rating. He’s getting the attention he has deserved for a while and the credit he hasn’t been given before by leading a very banged-up Giants team to a 6-2 record despite losing what seemed like the whole team in preseason. (The man won the game on Sunday without his center, best receiver top running back!) This isn’t anything new though. Giants fans have known what Eli is capable of for some time now, and we have known what he can do in clutch situations. The rest of the world is just catching on now.

I feel like I discovered a band seven years ago and have been listening to them nonstop as a die-hard only to find out that they are now being played on the radio, have a video on MTV and are opening for Dave Matthews next summer. I get my irritated that Joe Buck and Troy Aikman kept talking about Eli’s season and that FOX kept showing graphics of his placement behind Aaron Rodgers and Brady in terms of quarterback rating, as if to finally say that he is part of that class. Everyone is ready to buy tickets for the Eli bandwagon, but it’s these newcomers that will be asking for a refund is he another multi-interception game in a loss over the finals eight weeks of the season.

Last year in my Just-Past-Midseason Awards for the Giants, I gave The Rudy Award for “No One Believes In Him Because They Can’t See It Every Week” to Eli. He was getting unfairly blamed for the team’s turnover problems because his receivers were tipping and dropping passes on nearly every play. I said that Eli reminds me of the quote in Rudy where Rudy says, “My father loves Notre Dame football more than anything else in the world. He doesn’t believe I’m on the team … because he can’t see me during the games.” Eli is better than the numbers suggest. He always has been.

Sunday’s win was eerily similar to the win from that glorious first Sunday in February in 2008. From the final score to the final drive to the Manningham touchdown in the corner of the end zone to the most important catch of the game being made once again by No. 85, yesterday felt a lot like Feb. 3, 2008.

Today I get to read about another hit to the Patriots “dynasty” (I use quotes because it’s a dynasty that Champ Bailey ended on Jan. 14, 2006) and the incapable Patriots defense. There are columns calling for the end of Chad Ochocinco’s tenure with the Patriots and Julian Edelman’s too. There are those questioning Bill Belichick’s coaching and general managerial tactics and whether or not the Patriots, at 5-3, are good enough for the postseason. I have read them all with a smile.

I know that it’s only Week 9 and the Giants only survived the first week of the nine-week gauntlet that will determine whether we are talking about their first January football game in three years or talking about Tom Coughlin’s job status in January for the third straight year. I also know that the Cowboys are now back to .500 and the Eagles have a chance to get there on Monday night, and despite a two-game lead in the division, the Giants aren’t going to run away and hide with a playoff berth like it’s 2008.

Since their devastating loss to the Seahawks that made it seem like they were still destined for 8-8 at best despite a 3-1 start, the Giants have won three straight games by a combined 10 points. They have had their “Ladies and gentlemen, the New York Football Giants!” negative moments this season and had several of them against the Patriots. But for a season that looked over before it started, thanks to some questionable decisions from the front office and then a never-ending slew of injuries, this is a team that Giants fans can be proud of through eight games. (I say through eight games to give myself an opt-out clause if this season starts to take on water at a 2009 or 2010 pace starting San Francisco this Sunday.) I came into this season with absolutely no expectations because of the way the team was banged up during preseason. All I wanted was for the Giants to be competitive and give me a chance that they would stay in it and would be playing meaningful football in November and December. I have gotten that chance.

A week ago the Patriots were coming off a loss to the Steelers and the city of Boston had started to panic. Yes, it was insane for a fan base to be that distraught over one loss to the defending AFC champions on the road, but those are the kinds of unrealistic expectations that the Patriots created at the beginning of the last decade. If Patriots fans were quick to question their team at 5-2 after one eight–point loss in Pittsburgh, what would they do if they suffered a second straight loss, at home, to the team that destroyed their chance at perfection?

Thanks to Eli and the Giants we get to find out.