Eli better, but he's got to be way better

Confidence can be a tricky thing in any sport, even for a 30-year-old quarterback with a Super Bowl championship on his resume who is theoretically in his prime.

Eli Manning insists he hasn't lost his confidence, that he's the same quarterback now as he was when he led the Giants on that breathtaking ride in 2007, and that he's still every bit as capable of winning another title.

But what he says and how he plays can represent two very different things these days.

Manning comes off a season in which he threw a career-high 25 interceptions, and he's bent on convincing his skeptics that number was an aberration, not a trend. There needs to be some more convincing before Manning shows that he is more like the championship quarterback he once was than the mistake-prone passer he has since turned into.

But at least there were some encouraging signs night in a 28-16 win over the Rams, albeit tempered by the level of competition. After failing to throw a touchdown last week, he at least got his team into the end zone through the air.

He had two first-half scoring passes to help give the Giants a 21-6 lead at intermission, the first to Hakeem Nicks on a 3-yard TD in the first quarter and the second a 22-yard pass to Domenik Hixon near the end of the half.

And he directed a 10-play, 81-yard drive in the third quarter to help build a 28-9 lead and give the Giants' offense at least some measure of satisfaction after enduring plenty of criticism since training camp opened. After starting the game 2-for-11, he rallied nicely, going 16-for-18 and getting the offense back in sync.

Granted, the Rams are an injury-riddled team still in a rebuilding mode with second-year quarterback Sam Bradford. But at this point, the Giants will take it.

And so will Manning, who came into the game feeling fine and insisted his confidence had not been shaken by a poor performance the week before, and an even more disturbing series of performances the year before. "We got off to a slow start," Manning said. "They had a good plan. We finally settled down and I got a few completions under my belt. I got a better sense of what they were doing and at key moments, we made some big plays."

Pretty standard stuff from a quarterback who has learned the art of using a lot of words to answer questions, but not really saying all that much. Manning has managed to shut out the distractions that playing in New York present, and he never really has gotten to the point where he's ever freaked out or has been overcome with anxiety. His nickname growing up was "Easy" for his gentle demeanor, and he has pretty much been that way as a pro.

But the scrutiny has become intense since he put up all those picks last year, and his rocky preseason performance, in which he didn't throw a TD, only renewed the doubts about whether he has topped out, or whether there is still more upside for a relatively young QB.

The changes on offense coming into the season -- a revamped offensive line and the absence of Steve Smith and Kevin Boss -- didn't help. And the injuries didn't stop Monday night; Hixon went out with a knee problem and Mario Manningham left with a concussion.

The offensive problems had been particularly acute on third downs, where the Giants had gone 1-for-16 through the first six quarters this season.

For now, Manning will take the signs of progress he achieved in last night's victory. But if this team has dreams of an unlikely playoff bid, then there will have to be more where that came from in the coming weeks.

A lot more.