The trajectory of Eli Manning’s professional football career has been like none other – let’s begin with a little review in an effort to dispel any pre-conceived notions. For the first 4 years of Eli’s career he was generally regarded by everybody outside of New York as a joke. Many Giants fans even shared this sentiment, although you’ll have a hard time finding one who would admit that now. All in all, this was a fair characterization – Eli never had a passer rating above 80, and never had a completion percentage higher than 60%.

Then everything changed on that crazy day in February 2008.

Eli summoned his inner Little Giants and hoisted his toilet paper roll into the night sky. David Tyree scratched his head at just the right moment, and Rodney Harrison seemed to have lead in his shoes.

From that day forward, the average Giant fan felt validated. They would tell you that they put up with Eli’s first four seasons fully understanding that a Super Bowl would come their way. Many others would continue to see Eli’s performance as flukey and would continue to question his legitimacy despite his Super Bowl title – but then he went on and won again.

When Eli won his 2nd Super Bowl last February, everything changed again. His validation this time didn’t come solely from Giants fans. ESPN analysts lined up to throw Eli in a lineup of the game’s best quarterbacks. He had reached that upper echelon.

What really made this an interesting assertion is that Eli’s numbers never really popped. He’s thrown for more than 30 touchdowns in a season only once, and he’s thrown for 4500+ yards only once as well. But with Eli, it was never all about numbers. The analysts would tell you that he was a winner – it made sense, given his two Super Bowl titles. Further validation came in the form of statistics – the only commonly tracked stat that Eli has ever led the NFL in (aside from interceptions) is 4th quarter comebacks. It might be ugly, but the man was getting it done.

Then this season happened – the defending Super Bowl Champions failed to make the playoffs, losing the division to a rookie quarterback and getting bested by Tony Romo in the process. Eli collapsed down the stretch in pretty terrific fashion. My point is not to say that you need to win it all every year – nobody does that. My point is that Eli had it all this year – one of the most feared defenses in the NFL and a stable of offensive options that any QB would kill for. For a “top-tier” quarterback to not make the playoffs given this setup is a big deal – it should at least raise some eyebrows. But when you couple it with what I’ve been selling all along – the reality that Eli has a serious turnover problem – I think that Eli’s legitimacy should be seriously in question.

Now that you, Giants fan, are sufficiently pissed off (how dare I!), let me make a couple of clarifying points. I am not questioning the legitimacy of the Giants – I think they are a good team. And yes, I have seen Eli play very well. I have seen him come back and win in very impressive fashion. At his best, he’s dangerous, no doubt. But 4th quarter comebacks don’t impress me when you need to come back in the first place because you’ve given the ball to the other team twice already. Eli’s highs and lows have been very high and very low, but I’d argue that in order to be included in the lineup of the game’s best QBs you need to play at a high level with consistency. Tom Brady has done it. Peyton Manning has done it. More recently, Aaron Rodgers and Drew Brees have done it. Eli Manning has not.

Eli’s 2012 campaign brought 9 wins and 7 losses, 3,948 yards, 26 touchdowns and 19 turnovers. Not bad, but certainly not top-tier (especially given the weapons he has). Trust me, I know the counter argument – two Super Bowls. I’d never argue against Super Bowls, as Super Bowls trump all. But let’s not allow the Super Bowls to skew the reality that Eli Manning is most certainly not a top quarterback consistently.

I’ve long compared Eli to Joe Flacco and Matt Ryan, and have been ridiculed for doing so. Both players have less experience than Eli. Both players also throw more touchdowns and fewer interceptions than Eli. They complete a higher percentage of passes, and have a higher career passer rating. But most importantly, they win more – and it’s not close. Eli’s career winning percentage is 57%, Ryan’s is 71%, and Flacco’s is 67%. I’m keenly aware of what Flacco and Ryan have done in the playoffs – nothing – but I’m also a realist in the sense that I see the numbers telling me that Joe Flacco and Matt Ryan consistently play the quarterback position at a higher level than Eli does.

So ask yourselves, Giants fans – is Eli that good? What’s to say that with the team the Giants have built, those two Super Bowl titles shouldn’t be 3? or 4? Eli Manning’s inconsistency has undoubtedly hurt your franchise in the sense that he hasn’t been able to give the Giants an opportunity to win year in and year out – I think it’s only logical to think that if Matt Ryan or Joe Flacco was playing quarterback for the Giants they would have been even more successful, which is also a testament to how good the Giants are as a team. A true top-tier quarterback may very well have won more titles for you – and the Giants might then be mentioned in the same breath as the Patriots when discussing the best team of the past decade.

Over the past two years many of howiGit’s loyal readers have come to know our New York writer, J-Bone, pretty well. He makes sure to shoot me down and generally disagree with everything I say. He loves the likes of Eli Manning and Bartolo Colon, but our sports opinions aside, J-bone holds a special place in my heart.

Ladies and gentlemen, Mr. J-bone has officially found himself a lovely young lass who he will be marrying next month (Hi Miss Forde!). But while I’m generally against all marriages, there is reason to celebrate – J-bone is having himself a bachelor’s party this weekend, Las Vegas style. Needless to say, our Boston and New York writers will be MIA for a few days. This blog may or may not go on.

J-Bone, in typical J-Bone fashion, is having himself nothing short of 13 groomsmen, all of whom will be on deck for this shindig. We’re staying at the Hard Rock Las Vegas, in a pool villa suite (pictured above). A celebratory dinner Friday night at Charlie Palmers is on tap, followed Saturday night by a night spent at Vanity. Saturday night also happens to be the first night of DJ Pauly D’s residency at Vanity, following his recent signing with G-Unit.

It should be a highly silly, fist-pumping affair. So congrats J-bone, may you rest in peace.

Patriots-Giants. Giants-Patriots. To the majority of the readers of this blog, this is a big football game.

Let’s get it out in the open – we all know what happened in Super Bowl XLII. To Giants fans it was the greatest thing that ever happened. To Patriots fans, Eli Manning choked by throwing the ball directly to Asante Samuel, who choked even more than Eli did and dropped the ball despite it hitting both of his hands. Tom Brady then went down the field an won his fourth super bowl, only to have it taken away from him by a Eli Manning Hail Mary and a ball caught on top of David Tyree’s head. The rest is history.

Believe it or not, New England has gotten over that loss. It was not an Aaron Boone moment, simply because the Red Sox needed to win in ’03 and that loss was devastating for that reason. There was a 85 year drought crushed with that play. The loss to the Giants was coming off of a 3 year drought, when we’d won 3 championships immediately prior. It’s amazing how much easier that makes swallowing a loss.

But you better believe Tom Brady remembers.

So how will this week’s game shake out? The Patriots are favored by 9, why I’m not sure. Actually that’s not true – it’s because they are the Patriots. Regardless, the Patriots enter this game with the worst pass defense in the league, and have lost 3 defensive backs in the last week. Eli Manning, meanwhile, is having the best season of his career thus far. We saw last week that interrupting Tom Brady in the pocket and keeping him off the field is the recipe for beating the Patriots – the exact blueprint that the Giants introduced to the world in 2008. With the Giants pass rush being their specialty, it certainly seems as thought he Giants are poised for an “upset.” I put upset in quotations only because both teams are 5-2.

That said, Tom Brady is better than Eli Manning and Bill Belichick is better than Tom Coughlin. The Giants simply can’t match up with some of the Patriots’ offensive personnel. The game is in Foxboro. And you know the Patriots are playing with a chip on their shoulder coming off of a loss last week.

Phew. So how is this game going to shake out?

This game could go many different directions – the only outcome I’ve ruled out is the Giants blowing the Pats out. I generally think that the Giants will be able to pass all over the Patriots, which will effectively keep the ball out of Tom Brady’s hands. Also, when Brady is in the game I do think the Giants will be able to disrupt him pretty effectively in the pocket. That said, he’s Mister Brady and he’ll get his scores. I expect Eli to make an untimely turnover or two, which will ultimately lead to a Patriots victory. I’ll be conservative on this one and go with a 24-17 Patriots victory.

What’s your prediction?

If you are one of the lucky few who has read my Tom Brady versus Peyton Manning comparison, listened to my constant regurgitation of Brady-Manning facts, or if you just generally despise my Tom Brady man-crush (I just got his Uggs limited edition boots!), you’ve got to read Bill Simmons’ latest article comparing these two quarterbacks. Grab a beer first — this sucker is long — but it’s worth every word.

Special kudos to Billy boy for bringing a Biggie-Tupac parallel to this article — what can I say, I like your style. I don’t like linking to other writers’ articles, because frankly other writers suck. But Bill Simmons has some good taste when it comes to teams he roots for. And with this article, I must say, well done Bill.

Check it out.

I caught last night’s Sportscenter following the Eagles loss to the Vikings. Andy Reid snapped at the media in his press conference, which was awesome. They later showed an empty podium, waiting for Michael Vick to come out and address the press. Said Sportcenter anchor Steve Levy, “I wonder is Vick will show up to an empty room like Eli Manning did last week. Of course he won’t. People will actually stick around to listen to Michael Vick speak.”

Ahhhh Steve. You make things so easy for me…

Let’s start with the numbers — the current standings in the NFC West:

St. Louis                         7-8

Seattle                             6-9

San Francisco              5-10

Arizona                          5-10

Now I understand that winners get all the headlines and nobody cares to celebrate futility. I can assure you that my intent is not hit anybody while they’re down (unless it’s the Giants). But I feel like the mess that is the NFC West has been overlooked this year. Rookie quarterback Sam Bradford looks poised the lead his St. Louis Rams into the playoffs with a losing record, and the rest of the division is a whole lot worse.

So how bad is it?

Look, we all know that the NFC is the National League equivalent of the NFL. But this division in particular is collectively boasting a 23-37 record on the season. The second worst division? The AFC South at 28-32. Four games below .500 is a lot different from 14 games below. Even more telling is the collective point differential versus opponents — the NFC West is -322 points in this category.  Second worst in the league is again the AFC South, at -39.

I figured this deserved some ink, somewhere.

Just so you all know, you can finally purchase your AFC East Champions apparel on Patriots.com today. Steal your mom’s credit card and get after it….

Another Sunday in the books, another lovely week in the NFL. The more games I watch, the more I am impressed with the NFL — you’ve got to give it to the league, they’ve got a great product. A product which is doubly exciting to watch when New England keeps steamrolling opponents and both New York teams are desperately trying to throw their seasons out the window. With the Jets officially in the playoffs despite a loss to the Bears, it’s very apparent to me that the Giants will somehow, someway join their equally undeserving brethren in the playoff mix. If it took the 49ers beating the Patriots 63-0 next week and Michael Vick throwing 11 interceptions, it would happen. The Giants will get in. As usual, let’s start my rundown with the Pats.

New England Patriots 34, Buffalo Bills 3 – The Patriots rolled over the Jets, Tom Brady officially set the record for the best streak of quarterbacking the game has ever seen, the Patriots won the AFC East and clinched home field advantage throughout the playoffs, and, um, yup that’s about it. My concerns now shift to making sure Bill Belichick doesn’t get any of our key players injured next week by playing them the whole game (you know he will) and worrying about a potential let down with the bye week and all. The Pats are playing so well you almost want to see them continue their streak — I bet they find themselves in a tough game in the second round of the playoffs against a team with some momentum. The team I least want to face? Indy. At the end of the day Peyton can still pick our defense apart with ease.

Green Bay Packers 45, New York Giants 17 — “This was GIANTS football,” continuing on for another week. Eli Manning set his own personal best for turnovers in a season, featuring just 4 interceptions in this game. Throughout the course of the action I wondered aloud, “Would the Giants be a better team with Jay Cutler as their QB instead of Eli?” That questions is officially on the table for discussion’s sake people, so run with it. That said, I was also very impressed with Aaron Rodgers. There’s not a lot to say — the guy is mobile, makes good decisions, makes good throws — he’s a stud. Considering the Pats almost lost to his backup last week, this is one team I’m very concerned about facing in the playoffs. That is admittedly jumping on the Packer bandwagon pretty easily, but I’m all set with staying away from the Eagles and the Packers.

Chicago Bears 38, New York Jets 34 — Does this answer the Jay Cutler is better than Eli question? Probably not, but it’s nice to see the Jets lose. Yet they somehow manage to get a playoff berth out of it. Damn Jets. I would love to see a Jets-Giants battle, for sake of giggles.

Who wins an Eagles/Packers game?

It was a another crazy week in the NFL, and without further adieu, let’s jump right into it with our two most discussed teams (the good guys and the bad guys).

Patriots 31, Green Bay 27 — The Patriots escaped the Green Bay Packers yesterday, in a game that should not have needed escaping. The 31-27 victory was still a W, but you’ve got to give the Packers credit for coming out strong. The on-side kick to start the game was ballsy, as was the play of back-up quarterback Matt Flynn. You’ve got to feel bad for the guy — although he played great he did crumble on the last play of the game — and nothing could have been cooler than beating Tom Brady in your first career start and on your dad’s birthday (he was in the stands). Regardless, you’ve got to applaud his effort.

This game also showed the world once again what I’ve long stated is the blueprint to beating the mighty Pats. A step by step guide for those of you who haven’t caught on….

1) Win the time of possession battle — Keeping the ball out of Tom Brady’s hands is the key. The Pats offense had the ball for only 19 minutes in this game.

2) Half running plays, half passing plays — This chews up clock, and confuses the Pats young defenders (they let up 27 points to a QB in his first career start).

3) Use some form of trickery — See on-side kick to start the game.

Eagles 38, Giants 31 — I’m trying very hard to not start this game’s comments with HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA. So long, Giants. There goes the division. That said, I actually think you will still get a playoff berth still — you play Green Bay next (followed by the mess that is the Redskins) and Matt Flynn showed that he can’t handle blitzing well. Michael Vick was a stud as usual in this one, what else is there to say. This was an absolutely debilitating loss, in all ways. I will give you this — this game was NOT Eli’s fault (for once). I always give the Giants “D” their due, but this one is squarely on them. So at least I’ll save you the Eli hammering, for today.

Now for the fun part — messages I received from Giants fans, all of whom were at the game, throughout the course of the action:

1) I don’t hear you eagles fans, and I’m talking to you bandwagoners and giant haters. This is GIANT football.

2) How does that Eli Manning dive fumble taste. Looked like a fumble to me you know why…cuz were taking over first place.

3) GMEN BABBBBYY!!!!!!!

4) This is a DOMINANT win.

And the subsequent message from the Eagles fan, God Bless him…

1) Hope you guys didn’t leave quite yet..

Let’s just say that although the Pats scared me a bit yesterday, everything worked out just as it should have.  “This is GIANT football!” Sure was…