Where Do They Go From Here?

The Giants were pretty much finished before they started 0-5 and Odell Beckham Jr., was finished for the season. A month’s worth of mistake-prone games provided the necessary fodder that the Giants were on their way to six or seven wins, eight if everything broke right.

Now they inhabit a whole new level of lower-echelon losersville, that dreadful dungeon of distress that teases fans with the promise of the top pick in next year’s draft.

“Welcome to the club, Giants fans.—Yours truly, Browns/49ers faithful.’’

“P.S.: See ya at the draft.’’ Of course, such a start, the most disappointing in recent memory when applied to the expectations, draws a super-charged level of hysteria when it happens to a New York sports team. As such, everything from firing the coach and general manager to luring Peyton Manning from retirement in place of his brother has been advanced. (OK, we haven’t actually heard that last blueprint, that I know of, but I figured I’d float it as a selfish effort to get him off my TV hawking products 16 hours a day.)

The worst of these ideas involves any part of Eli Manning going to the bench. It’s not just that he would be replaced by Geno Smith, still trying to work his way into becoming a serviceable NFL backup. Manning is fairly well down the list of folks deserving blame for an 0-for-September start. He hasn’t been great, that’s for sure, and at times he’s looked older than his father chucking out routes in the backyard. Overall, Eli was a smidgen above average through five games despite working without Beckham, then with Beckham at around 75 percent, and all the while victimized by Brandon Marshall taking 60 minute naps, occasionally awakened by a football bouncing off his chest.