2. 7:24 left, third-and-two, Giants' 47: Ward takes a direct snap and sprints around right end. There's Juqua Parker to flatten him. Gain of zero.

3. 6:40 left, fourth-and-two, Giants' 47. Jacobs burrows into the gap between center and right guard. Bunkley fills the hole and can't be moved back. Stewart Bradley cleans up. Gain of one, though it looked like no gain from the replay.

David Akers' 20-yard field goal two minutes later made it a 12-point game with four minutes to go. Ballgame.

In the regular season, the Giants rushed for 5.0 yards a carry, for 157 yards a game, both league-bests. The Giants did rush for 138 yards Sunday, but they were surprisingly feeble when it counted. The offensive line is tremendous, the runners emerging as stars. And the way they ran with the season on the line ... shocking. Like the first 16 and a half games this year were a collective mirage. Afterward, I asked Bradley what happened. He said the Giants' backs did a great job using their blocks and sliding off them earlier in the year, and the Eagles were able to better fill the gaps in short yardage this game. And he had an interesting theory: Blame Manning's cadence.

"We had a pretty good idea of his cadence,'' Bradley said on the bus ride back to Philadelphia. The happy bus ride, from the sounds in the background. "When you play a guy three times in a season, you can pick up certain things. The tempo of his voice, how he puts his head up when he's getting ready to snap the ball ... it helped us today.''

It's back to the future for Manning ... and don't try to tell a real Giants fan the loss of Plaxico Burress didn't have much to do with the total collapse of the defending champs.

Manning's quarterback ratings in the five games since the suspension of Burress for carrying a concealed, unregistered pistol in New York: 73.5 (loss), 43.9 (loss), 94.8 (win), 76.4 (loss), 40.7 (loss).

Manning's completions of 30 yards or more in those five games: 2.

Touchdown receptions in those five games by backups who stood to gain from Burress' absence (Domenik Hixon, Sinorice Moss, Mario Manningham): 1.

Giants GM Jerry Reese raised the possibility Sunday that Burress could return to the team "if everything goes right.'' I remember covering the team in the '80s and being surprised how the Giants bent over backwards to keep Lawrence Taylor around when he was a constant source of irritation for partying and drug use. But the late Wellington Mara loved the passion Taylor played with and was indebted to him for helping the team win two Super Bowls. He felt Taylor needed a guiding hand in life. It wouldn't be surprising if this new front office was similarly indebted to Burress and gave him one last chance -- if he could avoid being sent to jail for possession of the handgun.. If he's not back, Manning needs to campaign for a big receiver who can get open downfield. Period. Of course, the Giants did themselves no favors by allowing their most important offensive weapon on a windy, frigid day -- Brandon Jacobs -- to touch the ball on only 19 of 61 offensive plays. There were complete series where he never appeared on the field. And he carried it twice in the last 14 minutes of the first half. When the Giants look back at this game they'll wonder, why didn't we use this guy more.

• Joe Flacco for president! Recall Obama!

Two weekend scenes from Nashville:

1) On the fourth floor of the team hotel Friday night, coach John Harbaugh was talking about how much he liked his team right now. Attitude, work ethic, excited to be practicing, warrior stuff. Just all fired-up about his team. And the quarterback. "You know what I told him this week?'' Harbaugh said. "I don't think he'd mind me saying it. I told him, 'You're going to be the difference in this game. We're going after these guys with you. Don't back down.' ''

And after Flacco played his second mistake-free game of the playoffs -- he has no picks, fumbles or sacks in the Ravens' 2-0 playoff run -- I told him what Harbaugh said, and asked if it made him a little uneasy. Like, You don't have to put any more pressure on me than I already feel, coach.

"Not at all,'' he said in the winning Ravens' locker room. "I know this is not going to sound right, but I want the chance to lose the game. I want the game in my hands, on my shoulders. Every game.''

He had the game there on third-and-two from the Baltimore 32 with 2:32 left in a 10-10 tie. And thanks to an extra second on the play clock (the officiating crew should have flagged Flacco for delay-of-game, but they let the play go), he hit Todd Heap for 23 yards. Matt Stover's field goal won it.

2) In a corner of the locker room, Harbaugh said this after the game: "Joe's not a rookie. In fact, I would not trade him for any quarterback in football right now.'' Come on, I said. Peyton Manning? "No!'' he said. Tom Brady? "No! I'll take Flacco! Did he look like he was hesitant in any way with the game on the line? No!''

As Bill Parcells is wont to say, "Let's not put him in Canton yet.'' He's a 44-percent passer in his two playoff games. But Flacco's cool, and you never get the sense the game's too big for him.

"I've said this to a few people,'' Heap said Saturday night. "You look in his eyes at big moments, and you try to read his eyes, and there's nothing to read. He's always the same.''

• The Steelers have gotten healthy at the right time. I wouldn't call them unstoppable, but I would call them powerfully multidimensional.