Even in his biggest moment as a pro, coming off a win that landed the Giants' young QB in the NFC Championship game, Eli Manning was lost in his brother's shadow.

"There will be a Manning playing on Championship Sunday, but his name is not Peyton," FOX Sports' Joe Buck said as the final seconds ticked off the clock in the Giants' shocking win in Dallas on Sunday.

No Joe, his name is Eli. Is it even possible to go more than sentence about talking about him without throwing his brother or his dad's name in there?

To this point of his career the youngest Manning has been good, but not great. Two more wins and he has a chance to be Super. Whether or not Manning and the Giants can advance past the Packers and beat the AFC to win the Super Bowl, you can not argue about the maturity Eli has shown this year. His play down the stretch has been nearly flawless.

Manning's 2007 season epitomized his entire NFL career - 23 TD's (24 each of the past two seasons), a career-high 20 INT's (has thrown 17 and 18 in two previous years as starter), and 3336 passing yards (averages 3447 PaYd per year in that span).  In the NFL it's all about what have you done for me lately though.  Over the past three weeks the former No. 1 overall pick has shown glimpses of what the Giants saw in him that made them love him so much that they mortgaged their future to get him.

LAST THREE GAMES
Week 17 - at New England - 22/32 for 251 PaYd, 4 TDs, 1 INT
Wild Card - at Tampa Bay - 20/27 for 185 PaYd, 2 TDs, 0 INT
Divisional Playoff - at Dallas - 12/18 for for 163 PaYd, 2 TD, 0 INT

Those numbers aren't blowing anybody away, but eight TD passes and only 1 INT wins games and that is all that matters in January. Nobody is arguing that Eli is better than Peyton, but it would be nice at least for rest of the playoffs that people talk about him without mentioning his brother in the same breath. No matter which brother is a better quarterback, Eli is the only one playing now.