That’s the beauty, I think, of the Giants playing almost all of their NFC East games in the second half of the season. They can now, one by one, eliminate their competition on their own. Yesterday, they vanquished the Cowboys from the division race. Now, this Sunday night in Philadelphia, they can do the same to the Eagles.

Of course, it won’t be as easy. The Eagles still have a healthy Donovan McNabb and the Cowboys were at an enormous disadvantage without Tony Romo. Brad Johnson and Brooks Bollinger were awful and made that game much, much easier than it probably should have been. Several Giants defenders had admitted before the game that without the mobile Romo they knew they could just tee off on Johnson. And Danny Clark even said after the game that the Giants sensed “blood in the water” with Romo gone.

And they took advantage with four sacks and three interceptions that changed the game and swung the field position battle. The Giants started in Dallas territory on four of their 13 drives. And the Cowboys didn’t help by failing to get a first down on seven of their 12 drives. Clearly that’s not the way things would’ve gone if Romo was healthy and the Cowboys’ offense was running as it usually does.

But give the Giants credit for doing what they had to do against a struggling and battered opponent. They’re 7-1, playing as well as any team in the NFL, and have buried the Cowboys (5-4). Now they have a chance to do the same thing to the Eagles (5-3) this week.

That’s for later, though. For now, here’s a a few lingering thoughts after yesterday’s fun …

• Can you imagine being Corey Webster? A year ago at this time he was so far down at the end of the bench, it was pretty much just him and Sinorice Moss hanging out there with Adam Koets. Now he’s playing like he’s one of the top corners in the league - just in time, by the way, to strike it rich as a free agent. Now the Giants, who didn’t seem to have any future plans for him last year, now may have to decide if he’s worth … oh, I don’t know, $6-8 million per year? Wow. This is why Ernie Accorsi used to say “You never give up on talent.” It’s also why you need to have patience with young players. Maybe … just maybe … that should be remembered when evaluating Moss, by the way.

• Safety James Butler deserves some credit, too, for an incredibly athletic interception, picking a Bollinger pass basically right off the turf. Remember, last week he made a brilliant diving interception of a Ben Roethlisberger pass. Apparently he’s a pretty good athlete.

• I thought we had added Madison Hedgecock to the “Do not throw” list. Did someone miss the memo?

• Last week, I snuck a line into the Daily News about how I was hearing that Brandon Jacobs and Derrick Ward might end up splitting carries a little more evenly given how effective Ward has been. Yesterday, Jacobs had 17 carries (for 117 yards) and Ward had 12 (for 63). That’s relatively even, but it’s also about the same as it’s been, for the most part. Still, Ward did get into the game pretty early - on the final drive of the first quarter. Whatever. They got 200 total yards, so it’s working. And Ahmad Bradshaw (five carries, 20 yards) even got into the game, which if nothing else sends the conspiracy theorists into hiding for a few days.

• I still like Eli Manning, and I’d still want him over almost anyone else leading my team in the fourth quarter, and I still think he’s probably a top-five QB in this league. But if we’re all going to agree that he’s “turned the corner” (whatever that means) and become the Pro Bowl-caliber quarterback many think he can be, he’s got to snap out of this mini-slump, and avoid similar ones in the future. He’s now had four straight games of under 200 yards passing and three straight games where his completion percentage is under 60. It’s fine, especially since the Giants are winning, but it’s not great. In fact, it’s very average. Maybe even a tad below average, if we’re being honest. And for him, the fact is that bar is set a little higher. He’s supposed to be better than that. In fact, he set the bar higher himself in the first four games. He set the bar higher in the playoffs last year. And these four-games-up, four-games-down swings were supposed to be behind him. Just look at this statistical comparison, and it’s pretty obvious his performance has taken a pretty big dip:

First four games: 84 for 132 (63.6 percent), 1,032 yards, six touchdowns, one interception. Rating: 99.7

Last four games: 69 for 118 (58.4 percent), 703 yards, six touchdowns, four interceptions. Rating: 78.5.

• Offensive coordinator Kevin Gilbride might be responsible for some of Manning’s slumping. I don’t have the stats to back this up, but it certainly has seemed to me that in the last four games the Giants have tried more of the risky, down-field passing than they had tried in the first four. Remember, Manning was at his best last year in the postseason when a premium was placed on managing the game. I know they spent the summer working on the big play to reincorporate it into the offense - and maybe that’ll pay off in the long run - but those passes aren’t always working, which is taking it’s toll on the passing game. If all that’s doing is affecting Manning’s stats, then who cares? It’s when they kill drives that it starts to matter.

• Also affecting Manning’s stats: After opening up the season with a bang (10 catches, 133 yards), Plaxico Burress hasn’t looked at all like the team’s No. 1 receiver. He’s had just 21 catches for 257 yards in his six games since. And yesterday he and Eli just looked off. The interception was obviously a bad read by one of them - Manning says it was his fault, but who knows if he’s just taking a bullet for his teammate - but it’s increasingly rare that Manning finds Burress open and hits him in the right spot. Every pass to him just looks a little bit low or behind. It’s very strange, especially considering they’re getting in the practice time they didn’t get in last year.

• A team-high nine tackles, including two for losses. The only defensive player who was better was Justin Tuck (six tackles, 2 1/2 sacks, three tackles for losses, three quarterback hits). By the way, Clark and I combined for nine tackles. Tuck and Mathias Kiwanuka combined for eight. I’m just saying …

• Tuck’s roughing-the-passer penalty was the worst roughing-the-passer call I’ve ever seen and I’ve been covering this league for 15 years. He hit Brooks Bollinger a split second after the ball was released and momentum carried the two of them to the ground. As far as I could tell, Tuck made no effort to drive him into the turf. They just fell together. This isn’t even a case of a flawed rule being called correctly. Tuck’s play was by the book. The call was atrocious.