Eli Manning Plays More Than Enough

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. -- The question swirling around the Giants all week was whether Eli Manning would play in Sunday's game against the Raiders. The answer, it turns out, was yes -- even though he really didn't have to, as New York routed Oakland 44-7.

Manning played most of the first half of the "game," completing 8 of 10 passes for 173 yards and two touchdowns against a Raiders team that looked as if it would rather have been getting a group root canal, or giving depositions for the Napa Valley district attorney's office. Manning showed no ill effects from the foot injury he suffered a week ago, and with a little more than two minutes left in the first half and the Raiders clearly not trying to win, he came out in favor of backup David Carr.

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The Giants got the opening kickoff and ate up the first 8:03 with a methodical drive that saw Manning go 4-for-6 and Ahmad Bradshaw pick up the first touchdown on the ground. They got the ball back with 4:52 left in the first quarter and went 79 yards in a minute and a half, with Manning hitting Steve Smith for a 43-yard pass on the first play and Bradshaw taking it from there.

With 10 seconds left in the first quarter, Manning hit Bradshaw for a 55-yard pass to the Oakland 30-yard line, and he opened the second quarter with a 30-yard touchdown pass to Mario Manningham. Less than a minute later, Raiders quarterback JaMarcus Russell was sacked and fumbled at his own 13, and Manning ended up firing a 9-yard touchdown pass to Hakeem Nicks to make it 28-0.

It was as swift and bloodless as it sounds, and it likely made Giants fans feel a lot more comfortable about the health of their franchise quarterback's foot. And with the game 31-7 in the Giants' favor at halftime, it was more than enough for Manning for one day.