The Yankees have won the AL pennant – and that’s about the best news Giants’ fans have this morning after their football team put forth a second straight incomplete game in falling to the Arizona Cardinals, 24-17. So now the Giants will be desperate to beat the Eagles this weekend while the Bronx Bombers attempt to dethrone the defending World Series champs – as if anyone needed to throw another few gallons of gas onto the New York vs. Philadelphia rivalry.

We’ll have all week to play up the hype. But first, here’s what we found after making like the Giants’ coaching staff and watching the game tape until the wee hours of the morning:

GAMEBALLS

Offense – RB Brandon Jacobs. Anybody out there still think this guy isn’t running hard and without a purpose? Did you see him fight his way into the end zone from the 4 despite a six-man run blitz to give the Giants a 7-0 lead in the second quarter? He found a crease behind C Shaun O’Hara, LG Rich Seubert and pulling RG Chris Snee and would not be denied. In the fourth quarter, Jacobs also bullied his way for a 7-yard gain up the middle on fourth-and-1 from the Arizona 35 against a nine-man front to keep a scoring drive alive with the Giants down by 10. Jacobs finished with 76 yards on 13 carries for a 5.8-yard average against a defense that was yielding 2.8 yards per carry entering the night. By the way, Jacobs faced no less than a blitzing five-man front on each one of his carries.

Defense – DE Mathias Kiwanuka. He came up with the Giants’ biggest defensive play of the game, sacking QB Kurt Warner on a third-and-3 from the Giants’ 37 with Arizona leading, 24-17, and 5:26 to play. The 7-yard loss took the Cardinals out of field goal range and gave the Giants their first of two late opportunities to tie the game. A glance at the stat sheet reveals CB Terrell Thomas knocked away four passes and had an interception. So why not him, you ask? Because Thomas also lost containment and missed the tackle as the only defender who had a chance to stop RB Beanie Wells on a 14-yard TD run around the left end, tying the game at 7 in the first quarter.

Special teams – CB Kevin Dockery gets rewarded for his three tackles in coverage, but he receives an old, scuffed up and deflated ball because he also made what could have been a very costly error early in the second quarter. While trying to block to set up a Domenik Hixon punt return, Dockery allowed the punt to hit him (for a muff) while he got pushed into the returner. Lucky for Dockery, the deflected ball bounced out of bounds at the Giants’ 31.

GASSERS

Offense –QB Eli Manning. This was his worst game of the season and we’re taking into account the circumstances surrounding his three interceptions – CB Dominique Rogers-Cromartie wrestled away a deep ball from Hixon at the goal line in the first quarter, SS Adrian Wilson picked off a ball tipped by DE Calais Campbell at the Giants’ 24 in the third, and CB Antrel Rolle snared a forced throw to Steve Smith along the right sideline at the Arizona 22 with 1:08 left in the game. Regardless, you still had a feeling that Manning was going to do something special both time the Giants got the ball back with a chance to tie the game within the final five minutes. We’ll force Ahmad Bradshaw to run side-by-side with Manning because of the running back’s fumble at the Arizona 44 with 3:52 remaining even though coach Tom Coughlin somewhat excused him because the ball came free on his second effort at the end of a 14-yard run.

Defense-We’ll let you pick between SS Michael Johnson and FS CC Brown and coordinator Bill Sheridan. The Giants allowed four passes of more than 20 yards and two of them came when WR Larry Fitzgerald found room in front of the safeties in a zone on the Cardinals’ go-ahead touchdown drive in the third quarter. On the night, Fitzgerald only caught six of the 13 passes thrown at him for 83 yards – but the decision and/or poor execution to allow him to run free between the hashmarks for catches of 26 and 27 yards proved to be fatal. CB Corey Webster defended Fitzgerald on three incompletions and was the primary defender on him when CB Terrell Thomas intercepted a second-quarter pass. Thomas defended Fitzgerald on two incompletions, LB Antonio Pierce on one, and DT Barry Cofield knocked down a targeted ball at the line. Aside from the two aforementioned catches, Fitzgerald caught a 10-yard pass on Pierce, a 10-yard screen, and a 6-yard pass on Johnson. A penalty wiped out a 40-yard Wildcat pass from Rolle to Fitzgerald, who dropped the potential third-quarter TD when cracked by Brown and Thomas. The point is the Giants did a good job of limiting Fitzgerald well EXCEPT for when he was allowed to roam free for those two HUGE third-quarter receptions. (By the way, the Giants did not blitz on either of the the two long catches.) On second thought, maybe Johnson, Brown and Sheridan can run together.

Special teams- P Jeff Feagles. This is a tough one to hand out, but field position was the most important factor in the game and the Cardinals were able to take advantage of four consecutive subpar punts to tilt the field in the second and third quarters. To be fair to Feagles, he said the game plan was to kick the ball out of bounds so speedy WR Steve Breaston could not return it. But on these four directional punts, Feagles averaged 31.5 yards and sent the ball out at the Arizona 44 and the Giants’ 46 (converted into a TD) in the second quarter; then dropped one to Breaston at the Arizona 44 – he had a 1-yard return (converted into a TD) - and kicked one out at the Giants’ 48 in the third. The lopsided field position also forced the Giants to start nine of their 15 drives inside their own 25, something their sputtering offense could not overcome on this night.