NFL new york Giants

With 3:30 left in the game and his team trailing by three points, Philip Rivers had a chance.

He had a chance to win in New York with much of the nation watching. He had a chance to best Eli Manning, a man who refused to play for the Chargers and was eventually swapped for Rivers and another draft pick (which turned into Shawne Merriman). He had a chance to prove he was a winner, despite the fact that his team hasn't helped him win a ring yet. He had a chance to prove he belonged in the same conversation as the game's elite, and that he's just as qualified a quarterback as Eli.

And on the first play of the series, Rivers threw an interception. What happened next, though, rallied San Diego to a 21-20 win and defined the essence of Rivers as a player.

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All indications out of Philadelphia this week were that running back Brian Westbrook would play on Sunday night against Dallas, a little less than two weeks after suffering a Grade 3 concussion. The situation appears to have changed, though.

According to ESPN's Adam Schefter, Westbrook will not play against the Cowboys so he can have another week to recover from his rather serious head injury.

Westbrook was hurt in the Eagles' Week 7 Monday night win at Washington, when he slammed his head into Redskins linebacker London Fletcher's knee on a running play. Westbrook lost consciousness and said later that he had no memory of the play.

It's not that the Giants' three-game losing streak has gone unnoticed. It's just that, with all the excitement over everything the Yankees have been up to, New York sports fans have had other things on their minds. Yes, they're aware, vaguely, that the Giants' defense hasn't been able to stop the Saints, Cardinals or Eagles the past three weeks. And they have seen a headline or two about Eli Manning suddenly looking much more mortal than his contract and his championship pedigree say he should. But the panic meter hasn't moved too much over all of this, because New York is still one of the few American towns in which football can take a backseat to baseball. And for the past few weeks, for very good reason, New York has been a baseball town.

That all changes this weekend. The San Diego Chargers hit town -- another dynamic offense surely licking its chops over a chance to take its turn at the Giants' battered ego and secondary. If the Giants lose again, they're looking at a 5-4 record heading into their bye week, which would mean two solid weeks of tabloid and talk show debate on the issue of "What's Wrong With the Giants?"

PHILADELPHIA -- Mike Alvarez is a lifelong Philadelphian with a Cole Hamels haircut and a vintage maroon Phillies cap who spent his Sunday in a parking lot. Alvarez didn't have tickets to the Eagles-Giants game in the afternoon. He didn't have tickets to the Phillies-Yankees World Series game at night. What he did have was a parking space for his truck, a seemingly bottomless supply of beer and enough slightly slurred wisdom to know that there was no place he would have rather been than this particular parking lot on this particular day, surrounded by his fellow Eagles and Phillies fans.

"They got flat-screens over there," Alvarez said, waving his beer can in the direction of a nearby RV. "Everybody's grilling food. I've made a ton of new friends. What more could you want?"

Next week there will be a game between the two best teams in the NFC East, and it's not going to involve the defending division champion New York Giants. In beating the Giants to a pulp Sunday, 40-17, the Eagles -- and the Dallas Cowboys, who beat Seattle at home -- have sent the G-Men back to third place. New York has now lost three straight games, while the Eagles won their second in a row after an embarrassing loss in Oakland.

Leading the way for the Eagles was Donovan McNabb, who barely broke a sweat in destroying the Giants' patchwork secondary. He completed 17-of-23 passes for 240 yards and three touchdowns. He continues to show a strong chemistry with DeSean Jackson, Jeremy Maclin and Brent Celek, who combined for 11 catches, 186 yards and three scores.

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He's back, and it's stealing all of the headlines. It's going to be a highly emotional Sunday for many NFL fans, as former Detroit Lions defensive lineman James Hall makes his return to the Motor City as a member of the St. Louis Rams.

Oh, and Brett Favre is back in Green Bay. Not sure if you've heard about that one.

It was the fluke catch of the week. Sunday night at the Meadowlands, Giants rookie receiver Hakeem Nicks caught a tipped pass that had been intended for Mario Manningham and carried it all the way to the end zone for a 62-yard touchdown against the Cardinals. It was a shake-your-head play -- the kind the defense can write off as an excusable miracle, a bizarre bounce, nothing more than pure luck.

But they say luck is the residue of design, and the people who know Hakeem Nicks say that design is a huge part of his game. Coaches and teammates past and present describe Nicks as an intensely studious, hyper-prepared player who obsesses over his playbook and game scripts and would rather talk about route-running than anything else. Knowing Nicks means knowing that the seeds of that Sunday night play were planted years ago at Independence High School in Charlotte, N.C., where a coach named Tommy Knotts drills 16- and 17-year-old kids on something even NFL coaches struggle to get across -- the importance of film study.

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. -- This was to have been the Giants' get-right game. Sure, New Orleans beat them up last week, but the Saints are an undefeated team that was coming off a bye week and playing at home. The Giants spent the week shrugging off that loss and promising to be better this week at home against the Cardinals. The defense promised more blitzing and less trepidation. The offense promised to be sharper. To a man, the Giants were certain they'd come up with a big win Sunday night over the reigning NFC champs...and then they lost.

"For whatever reason, we've had two weeks in a row now where one area has not performed very well," Giants coach Tom Coughlin said. "So, back to the drawing board."

And back, whether they like it or not, into a three-team NFC East tussle where there's no clear favorite -- not even them.

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EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. -- They flew all over the field all night, racing to the ball, harassing the opposing quarterback with a variety of aggressive blitzes. The defense was disruptive, deep and energetic, and the main reason its team won the game. All of this was to be expected, of course...just not from this particular team.

On this night, it was the Arizona Cardinals beating the New York Giants at the latter's own game, forcing four turnovers and out-muscling Big Blue 24-17 on national TV in the swamps of Jersey.

"We definitely fed off our defense tonight," Arizona quarterback Kurt Warner said.

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We have an exciting matchup on Sunday night as Eli Manning and the New York Giants host Kurt Warner, Larry Fitzgerald and the defending NFC champion Arizona Cardinals. We'll be chatting about all of the action -- and the rest of Sunday's slate of games -- starting at 8:15 PM ET, so please, stop on by and join us.