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UPON FURTHER REVIEW

That has nothing to do with the quarterback’s numbers or his recent play. But the Giants, despite their constant pledge to maintain a balanced offense, have focused more on their rushing attack – with good reason. Their 207-yard ground game in yesterday’s 30-10 victory over the Baltimore Ravens was their third consecutive 200-yard rushing game and their fifth of the season. The Giants are running for an NFL-best 172.7 yards a game and have churned their way to a 9-1 record. So there isn’t exactly a tremendous urgency to start flinging passes all over the field.

In three of their first five games, the Giants passed the ball more often than they ran it. That last happened in their only loss of the season, at Cleveland on Oct. 13. But their current five-game winning streak has been built with runs outnumbering passes each time out. On Sunday, the Giants had 33 rushing attempts while Manning dropped back to pass 24 times (he was sacked once and completed 13 throws).

And that’s fine with Manning.

“It certainly does make my life easier where we are not put in a whole lot of third-and-long situations and on third downs we can throw and we can get the ball out quick and we can throw quick stuff,” Manning said on a conference call today. “It is really just trying to convert third downs. That has been my job primarily for the last couple of games, where I am not in a situation where I have to try to force the ball downfield..........READ