--The number 59 should play a large role in how the coaching staff dissects this game and explains things to the players. The Giants won the week before over Seattle, 44-6, in one of the most dominant performances in team history. Then they lost by 21 Monday night, a cumulative total representing a 59-point swing in margins of victory and defeat. "It just didn't seem possible," said WR Amani Toomer, a veteran who has been around for a dozen years and seen some of the best and worst of the franchise.

--A spate of minor injuries took various players out of the game for short periods of time, but it might have been enough to create disorder in the defense. MLB Antonio Pierce left for a while with a quad strain and spent some time on the bicycle near the bench working out the kink. SS James Butler suffered a pulled biceps but returned. WLB Gerris Wilkinson strained a knee, the same one that kept him out much of last season, but he, too, returned. Finally, CB Aaron Ross, equally guilty of poor playing, had to leave in the fourth quarter with leg cramps.

--QB Eli Manning, who had his worst game of the season by far, stood up and took the blame. "Obviously, I'm disappointed," he said. "I'm upset that we didn't come out and play the way that we had been playing, you know, we hadn't been turning the ball over and I haven't thrown interceptions (one over the first four games). But I turned it over three times, and that isn't the formula for winning anything."