• It’s shaping up to be a lost season for Sinorice Moss, who suffered yet another set-back. That’s too bad – Tim Carter hasn’t been doing much, and it’s always nice to have more playmakers on the field. But it’s not really the biggest deal: I mean, there’s only one ball to go around, and between all of our star-power and their egos it’s not as if we need a weapon that badly. Hopefully all of this won’t have a detrimental effect on his progress for next year.  
  • Brandon Short also strained his quad. He went for tests Tuesday which won’t be released until Wednesday, so we’ll see about that. Short’s injury explains why Gerris Wilkinson got so much burn this past Saturday. Wilkinson played well, forcing a fumble on Anthony Becht that was recovered by the Bucs.
  • Short’s the third linebacker to go down since the beginning of this year (LaVar, Emmons). And while only LaVar’s injury is serious, Ernie did a good thing by signing Chris Claiborne as a street free agent today. Claiborne’s not great, but he’s been a competent starter, and you have to think that the crop of available guys is much better now than it is in late December, when we had to rummage through the scrap-heap last year. Mike Garafolo calls it a “pre-emptive strike.” To make room for Claiborne, the G-Men cut the immortal N’Shan Goddard. (I did not know this, but apparently, Claiborne’s a former Butkus Award winner at USC and was the 9th overall pick of the 1999 draft. I guess the guy’s had a pretty disappointing career.)
  • In other injury news, it looks like Osi (hip flexor) and Madison (hammy) will both miss Sunday’s game against the Texans. Coughlin said that the two of them were “questionable at best.” That’s ok. Let’s just get these guys healthy for the Bears.
  • Justin Tuck is also feeling better, although Garafolo’s report didn’t give us a status for Sunday. William Joseph replaced Barry Cofield in passing situations last Sunday, which Tuck was doing before he got hurt.
  • Will Demps is feeling much more comfortable out there, says Mike Garafolo’s article. And the proof’s in the pudding: The Giants pass D has been great the past few weeks.
  • Plax has made an effort to be a better teammate this year, writes Ralph Vacchiano. Apparently, he had an epiphany about his body language while watching himself on game tape during the off-season. It reminds me of that “Family Guy” when that violent felon who wanted to kill Joe Swanson for putting him in prison up cut himself with a knife and then said, “So that’s what I’ve been doing to people? That hurts. Jeez, no wonder I’m in here.” But good for Plax. There’s a real good atmosphere surrounding this team these days.
  • Good point here by John Branch about Eli: “It is not a ritual, as it had been, that Manning’s performance come under play-by-play scrutiny, that everything from his decision-making to his accuracy to his demeanor be fodder for someone’s analysis. Instead, he has melded into a piece, a pivotal piece, of the machinery that is one of the NFL’s top offenses.” Good call: Not every game presents a referendum for Eli as it did last year. And although, statistically-speaking, he’s had the worse three games of his season the past three weeks, the stats are much better than they were last year. His completion percentage is up from 52.8 to 61.4, and his rating is up from 75.9 to 88.9, eleventh best in the league. The guy is good, okay?
  • Allen Barra sings Big Blue’s praises in a well-written piece.
  • Finally, a strange-but true story. The Eagles signed William James, nee William James Peterson, the former up-and-coming G-Man cornerback. A good gamble by the Eagles: when healthy, the guy can play. We don’t know why he changed his name to James (for readers of this blog who know me, he is the second person to have changed his last name to James.) Perhaps he is a fan of the 19 century philosopher William James, the elder brother of Henry James, in the same way that Bobby Zimmerman named and then styled himself after Dylan Thomas.