5:  Number of weeks into the 2010 NFL Season

3: Number of teams tied for 1st place in the NFC East (as of Oct 10)

1: Number of Dallas Cowboys victories notched

No time to gloat, and no reason for it.  Being a Giants fans must always come with a hefty dose of caution and optimistic skepticism.  It should be no surprise, therefore, that when the Giants looked dead and buried 2 weeks ago, every sports writer in our Metropolis dusted off their cynicism and paraded it around like it was September 2007.  "Here we go again, fire the coach, dump the quarterback, bring in Cower," the peanut gallery wailed.  The Giants defense wasn't a leaking ship: the vessel had already sunk and the survivors were fighting to stay afloat, adrift on the high--and tumultuous--seas of the NFL's unpredictability.

Well surprise, surprise.  Unpredictable indeed.

The New York Giants, in consecutive weeks, are on a winning streak after dismantling the two most high powered offenses in the NFL.  Convincingly.  No Bears meltdown in the Meadowlands where the Giants got lucky.  Not Texas two-step by Houston that the Giants feebly capitalized on.  These past two Giant victories were great examples of championship play.  By a championship team.  A Super Bowl team.  It was physical domination.

And the Dallas Cowboys?  The broken clock theory--picking the Cowboys to win the Super Bowl year after year in the hopes that they might do it, making the experts look like Nostradamus--has been replaced with a broken team.  A team putting up big scores.  Big yardage.  Big plays.  Everything's bigger in Texas, except in the win column.  And now, with Matt Moseley of ESPN fame saying a loss to the Vikings next week will doom Dallas' post season fantasies, big problems for Jerry Jones' hayseeds. 

I personally thought the Giants biggest hurdle to the division crown and a postseason birth was/is the Philadelphia Eagles.  Think about it, we beat the birds once last season, we make the playoffs.  And the Cowboys, who have had the benefit of being crowned the champs every year it seems, without having to take the field, are finally being called out by the media frauds who allowed such passes in the first place.  Perhaps Tony Romo will ask Eli advice on being under the microscope due to poor performances? 

The Giants still have to play Dallas twice in four weeks, starting October 26.  And nothing, absolutely nothing, is certain in the NFL, especially in 2010.  Parity more than ever is the order of the day.  The Eagles are in it.  Washington's Redskins are a "better,"at least more focused, team with a new QB and HC.  The NFC East is an enigma so far, but as Autumn's colors give way to December's frost, we'll have a clearer picture of the contenders, and pretenders, in the NFC East vying for the Division title. 

Though at that point, will the Cowboys play any other role than spoiler?