It's a brutal NFC East
They play in the most talented division in the NFL, so it’s a steel-cage match just to make the playoffs. Remember, this team must compete with the Cowboys — arguably the NFC's most talented crew — and an Eagles squad that has their own designs on the Super Bowl.

If Manning and the Giants don't win the Super Bowl, it shouldn’t be seen as a major comedown. That’d be like a lottery winner kicking the dog because he doesn’t hit 20 on a scratch ticket the following day. Last season was pennies from heaven, a gift from whatever god is in charge of the NFL.

When a quarterback finishes 29th in the regular season in completion percentage ahead of only Cleo Lemon, Rex Grossman and Kellen Clemens, is 25th in quarterback rating and then wins the Super Bowl? You run and hide with that result.

The best part for Eli and the Giants is … he did it. He showed that — despite his sometimes maddening unevenness — he’s not afraid of the stage. He’s not a laughable leader. He is to be taken very seriously. Not as seriously as his brother, perhaps, or the man he outdueled in the Super Bowl, Tom Brady. He has that Super Bowl pelt on his wall as evidence.

Even if people point to the celebrated last-minute completion to David Tyree in the Super Bowl — a desperate heave that came only after Manning somehow escaped the Patriots' pass rush — as proof that Manning has matured, he issues some caution.

"I don't think (one play changes you)," Manning says. "I think maybe it helps to quiet some things down. But I've always had great confidence in myself, and after a bad game I can shrug it off."

Bottom line? You don’t have to doubt and dismiss Eli Manning and the Giants in 2008. But you’d be wise not to expect anything close to what happened last season.

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