Don’t bother telling a Giants fan that his/her football team got lucky last year in winning the Super Bowl. They will point out that there was nothing “lucky” about shutting down the Patriots. Fair enough. But please make sure to point out that as late as Week 14 of the NFL season, they wanted Eli strung up by his heels and Tom Coughlin quickly shown the door.

Despite the fact that most fans didn’t see last year’s title run coming either, they’re not likely to admit that 2007’s team wasn’t anything other than super talented. So, naturally: tremendous expectations for this year. Clearly.

Of course that pipe dream took a trip towards Finkleland on Sunday when the G-men announced that Osi Umenyora, known equally well for his proclivity towards defense and um, er, something else, would be out for the entire 2008 season. That, sir, is why you never cross Super Mario Williams.

With that lesson learned, there’s some sort of news whistling through the air that Michael Strahan might be interested in coming out of retirement to assist his old teammates. (Coughlin, of course, is interested in this as well.)

And while that’s all well and good, it’s pretty unlikely that even Strahan can alter the Giants fortunes at this point. After all, they have David Carr (also known as Mister Mittens, or Mittens for short) on their roster. And as the 2007 Carolina Panthers and entire Houston Texans franchise will attest, if Carr occupies any spot on your depth chart, even fourth-string QB, he will not only find a way to get on the field, but he will subliminally destroy your team’s fortunes.

In all seriousness though, Eli isn’t as good as people think he is — his playoff run was spectacular but the probability of him performing that way over an entire season is pretty low — and the offense is going to struggle this year. With the hits the defense has taken already, it’s kind of hard to fathom any situation that has them repeating, especially when they’re not even the best team in their division.