Now that baseball season has FINALLY come to an end, (November? Really? Great job MLB, why not just add
another 30 games to the already too long regular season, add another round of playoffs and play all year?) everyone's full focus will turn to football, and for those of you just joining us this season, welcome, and yes, the Giants have problems. Big problems.

So let's run down the latest news and notes this Thursday morning:

• Tom Coughlin talked about how the Giants are getting back to the fundamentals. There is also some interesting stuff in there about the Giants leadership council, and how they are handling the slump the Giants are in.
• Antonio Pierce spoke to Mike Garafolo yesterday, and says that as the leader on defense, he is the "biggest culprit" of everything that has gone wrong on defense. He says the Giants need to get back to flying around and playing defense as a team.
• Also in the article above, Aaron Ross is targeting November 22^nd against the Falcons for his return to action.
• Ralph Vacchiano says the Giants defense is getting healthier, and Chris Canty may be close to returning. Since the Yankees are the World Champions again, I am going to give Michael Boley a little advice from Yogi Berra, "It gets late early". Read Boley's comments on his urgency to return and you will see what I mean. Week 9, the season's not so young anymore, Mike.
• Philip Rivers spoke with the media yesterday, and he recounted what Draft Day was like for him back in 2004.
• On the Rivers-Manning thing, as I've scoured the nets reading up on some of the latest on the Bolts, I've found that Eli Manning hatred is still alive and well in San Diego. Some have been able to let go, but I saw some truly venomous statements about Eli that really surprised me. It might be time to let it go. As memory serves Charger fans, you guys did pretty well in that trade.
• On the subject of that 2004 draft, the man who engineered it for the Giants is on the radar for the Cleveland Browns to come to the rescue and save their hapless franchise.

That's all for now. Congratulations to the New York Yankees on their 27^th World Series victory. Make sure you check out Ed's coverage over at Pinstripe Alley. Plus, don't forget we're talking Ranger puck all day long at Blueshirt Banter.