" Eli Manning is not going to pick up a football again until Monday, and he insists he's not planning on thinking much about it, either. "Probably not,'' the slip-sliding Giants franchise quarterback said yesterday. "It's a time I'm going to try to catch up on some rest and some sleep and being around my family a little bit and really just try to take some time off and put it away, so when we do come back I'm ready to go.'' How ready Manning is for the final six games of the season largely will determine whether the Super Bowl champions make it back to the playoffs to make another title run. At 6-4, the Giants have lost two straight but own a 1 1/2-game lead on their closest rival in the NFC East, the Cowboys. Based strictly on math, the Giants have the best shot at winning their division, but based on the product they have put on the field in November, the Giants as a team and Manning as a player look nothing like contenders. A day after an alarmingly listless and ineffective 31-13 loss to the Bengals, Manning was probed and prodded by question after question — about his mental and physical status, his glaringly poor play of late and the state of the team he's carried to two Super Bowl triumphs in the past five seasons. Despite the skid, Tom Coughlin did not change his mind and gave the players off until Monday — six full days." Read more: http://www.nypost.com/p/sports/giants/rest_is_mystery_4nyWK9WyApI8rZkScFkdcN
