During the Giants’ five-game winning streak at the start of the season, Eli Manning didn’t have a QB rating lower than 93.5. In the Giants’ current three-game losing streak, Manning hasn’t had a QB rating higher than 61.0, which includes his 55.7 mark in New York’s embarrassing 40-17 loss to the Eagles in Week 8.

To say that Manning hasn’t been good lately would be an understatement. In the loss to Philadelphia, he was 20-of-39 for 222 yards with one touchdown and two interceptions. And given how inaccurate he was most of the day, he could have been intercepted at least two more times.

In his last three games, Manning has thrown six interceptions to just three touchdowns. The mistakes he’s made aren’t typical of a veteran quarterback that has a Super Bowl ring – they’re more akin to a first year starter with little to no experience. He looks like a player with zero confidence and he doesn’t appear to trust his own decision-making.

While the Giants have more issues than just Eli (the secondary has also played poorly and the team continues to struggle with injuries), they have to be concerned with his play. New York has needed him to put the team on his shoulders and carry them to victories and he hasn’t. And based on the way he’s played the past three weeks, there’s serious doubt he’ll be able to break the Giants out of their funk without a lot of help from his defense and running game.

That said, it’s only been three games and while he has looked horrible in those three outing, he looked great in the first five games of the season. The problem is that the Cowboys were the only team with a winning record that the Giants have beaten this year. Eli’s impressive numbers have come against teams like the Redskins, Bucs, Chiefs and Raiders, while he has struggled against tough opponents in the Saints, Cardinals and Eagles, respectively.

With David Carr listed on the depth chart behind Manning, the Giants won’t consider a QB change. But the entire team better start picking up their play before the season starts to slip away from them, and it all starts with Eli.

Last season, all the Arizona Cardinals heard about was how they couldn’t win on the road, they couldn’t play defense in crunch time and they couldn’t win a game at night when the moon was in full view and there were precisely 50,139 visible stars in the sky and not 49,349.

On Sunday night, the Cardinals went into Giants Stadium and beat New York, 24-17. It was Arizona’s third road victory of the season in as many tries and its third straight win since its 1-2 start. The Cards won largely with defense, as they forced four turnovers, including three Eli Manning interceptions.

Down 24-17 with less than five minutes remaining, the Giants had two opportunities to tie the game. But Arizona’s defense stymied them twice — once after Ahmad Bradshaw fumbled at midfield and another when Antrel Rolle intercepted Manning along the sideline to end New York’s chances.

Pundits were ready to crown the 49ers the new NFC West champs after their 3-1 start, but they look awfully overrated these days after two straight losses. Suddenly, everyone is fixing their eyes on the Cardinals again.

They still can’t run the ball and their passing attack doesn’t seem as potent as it was last year, but the Cards currently have the best run defense in the league and their running game is starting to show signs of life with rookie Beanie Wells. If they can continue to play defense the way they did last night in East Rutherford, they’ll once again become the team to beat in the NFC West. (If they haven’t already.)

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The answer is “no,” according to Football Outsiders (via ESPN The Mag), with one possible exception.

They looked at NFL passer rating and their own metrics and there was “no year-to-year correlation in the difference between a quarterback’s overall performance and his performance when the game was on the line.” Good QBs were good in the clutch (with the score within seven points in the fourth quarter or OT) and bad QBs were bad in the clutch.

But there was one exception: Eli Manning. He is the only active QB who has a higher rating (albeit a small improvement most seasons) in crunch time for five straight years.

The New Orleans Saints are the best team in the NFL. Not just the NFC, but in the entire league. And if you disagree, then make sure you watch the highlights of the Saints’ beat down of the Giants on Sunday.

In what was supposed to be a battle of the two best teams in the NFC, the Saints absolutely guerrilla-smacked the Giants 48-27 at the Superdome. Soon-to-be MVP winner Drew Brees was brilliant, completing 23 of his 30 passing attempts for 369 yards and four touchdowns. He finished with a QB rating of 156.8.

The Giants turned the ball over twice and had nine penalties that totaled 110 yards, but this wasn’t a matter of New York shooting itself in the foot. New Orleans was just flat out better in all facets of the game. The stepped on the Giants’ throats and kept it there for four quarters.

For years, the one thing that had been missing for this Saints team was a stellar defense to go along with their explosive offense. Now now they have one under new defensive coordinator Gregg Williams and we’re finally seeing what this team is capable of. New Orleans limited the Giants to only 84 rushing yards, 241 passing and as previously noted, they also caused two turnovers and sacked Eli Manning twice.

Speaking of sacks, the Giants’ explosive pass-rush was limited to just one today. ONE. The Saints have one of the more underrated offensive lines in the league, which is something that is often overlooked when pundits gush about Brees and Sean Payton’s offense. One of the keys for the Giants today was being able to generate pressure on Brees and they couldn’t. New Orleans’ offensive line was that good and it doesn’t even have Pro Bowl left tackle Jammal Brown, who was placed on injured reserve in late September after he had to have sports hernia surgery.

As for the Giants, they saw today just how behind they are to the best team in the league. They certainly don’t have to go back to the drawing board, but they tried to match wits with another elite team and got their asses handed to them. They better get healthy defensively and figure out how to wake up Brandon Jacobs or else they won’t last in the postseason. Today was certainly a wake up call for the G-Men.

I don’t think any NFC team can beat the Saints in the Superdome. If they earn the top seed in the NFC, they will be on the fast track to the Super Bowl.

Some of the candidates for NFL MVP strengthened their case last weekend and some did not. Of course, some also were on bye, maybe hurting their chances but not helping the ones ahead of them who had poor performances. Here is an update on the MVP power rankings through Week 5…

1. Peyton Manning, Indianapolis Colts—Manning did nothing to hurt his standing here against Tennessee last Sunday, throwing for 309 yards with 3 more TDs, and leading his team to a 5-0 mark going into the bye week.

2. Eli Manning, New York Giants—Remember all the talk about how this guy wasn’t worth his huge new contract? Well, little brother is making his own case for MVP with a 111.7 QB rating, second only to Peyton, and 10 TDs to just 2 picks. And he only played two quarters last Sunday with a bad foot and still turned in a near-perfect performance. Dude is on fire.

3. Brett Favre, Minnesota Vikings—He wasn’t as flashy against the Rams after that emotional win over Green Bay, but the fact remains that the Vikings would not be 5-0 without Favre, and that’s the definition of MVP.

4. Jared Allen, Minnesota Vikings—He was already having an MVP season but then added a fumble return for a TD last Sunday. He’s at least the best defensive player this year.

5. Cedric Benson, Cincinnati Bengals—With all due respect to Adrian Peterson, Cedric does not have Steve Hutchinson to run behind and he’s currently leading the NFL in rushing with 487 yards, and has 3 scores.

Honorable Mention: Drew Brees, Saints; Adrian Peterson, Vikings; Elvis Dumervil, Broncos; Antwan Odom, Bengals, Matt Ryan, Falcons; Steve Smith, Giants

Giants (5-0) at Saints (4-0), 1:00PM ET
Hopefully readers will give me credit for attempt to predict the toughest games this week. No? All right then…This is by far the hardest game to predict on the Week 6 schedule, so let’s look at some of the facts. The Saints should be well rested coming off a bye and are playing at home. They have the edge then right? They should, but don’t forget that the Giants essentially had a bye themselves since they played Oakland last week and New York always travels well. Drew Brees hasn’t seen a pass rush as good as the Giants’ all season and I think New York will disrupt his rhythm. And while Darren Sharper and the New Orleans defense is playing out of their minds right now, Eli Manning won’t make the same mistakes rookie Mark Sanchez did two weeks ago when the Saints earned a victory against the Jets. I like Brandon Jacobs to get back on track and for the G-Men to pull off a huge win at the Superdome.
Odds: Saints –3.
Prediction: Giants 27, Saints 24.

Ravens (3-2) at Vikings (5-0), 1:00PM ET
So, are the Ravens just in a slump or were they overrated to begin with? Give yourself a gold star if you answered, “A little of both.” Baltimore lost several defensive starters and their coordinator Rex Ryan in the offseason – they were due to have a setback at some point. While I think the Ravens are a solid football team, I don’t like this matchup for them. They’re reeling after two straight losses and play an unfamiliar foe in a hostile environment. I also don’t like the matchup between the Ravens’ receivers and the Vikings’ corners and wonder how Joe Flacco will do once Ray Rice and the running game is shut down by Minnesota’s Williams Wall. As long as Brett Favre doesn’t get turnover-happy for the first time this year, I like the Vikings to remain undefeated.
Odds: Vikings –3.
Prediction: Vikings 21, Ravens 17.

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Saints tight end Jeremy Shockey still has a bitter taste in his mouth from his days as a Giant, writes the New York Daily News. The Saints will host the Giants this Sunday at the Superdome.

Shockey gets his shot at revenge when the undefeated Saints and Giants meet Sunday in the Superdome. The defense should expect plenty of yapping from him. The Giants were thrilled to dump Shockey, who had become a divisive malcontent, and Saints coach Sean Payton, his offensive coordinator with the Giants in his rookie year, was glad to hand over second- and fifth-round picks right before training camp in 2008.

Shockey had been one of the faces of the franchise. But whether it was a bruised ego when the Giants won the Super Bowl without him or a feeling he was disrespected by management or money, it was clear his act had grown stale in New York and he forced his way out of town.

Shockey told the New Orleans Times-Picayune in yesterday’s editions that he had a “bitter taste in my mouth,” from his Giants days. “It’s just something that if you cross me once – it’s hard enough to gain my trust as it is – and if you lie to me and if you say something behind closed doors between that person and myself …

“I needed change in my life,” he said.

He had a blowup with GM Jerry Reese during a minicamp in June of ‘08 and that made it impossible for him to return. He is happy and healthy in New Orleans after he was injured for much of last season, playing in 11 games and catching 50 passes with no TDs. In the Saints’ 4-0 start, he leads the Saints with 18 catches and also has two touchdowns. He is the third receiving option for Drew Brees after Marques Colston and Reggie Bush.

One of the things that always stood out to me about the Giants’ Super Bowl run a couple years ago was that Manning had so much success in the playoffs without having Shockey at his disposal. That was just one example of why individual players – no matter how talented they may be – will never be more important than the team.

Shockey has little right to be bitter with the Giants and he should just be happy with his new surroundings. Payton loves him in New Orleans, which is a perfect fit for his skill set. He should use his motivation in helping his team win this Sunday and not let his anger cloud his focus.