I returned from Mexico last night just in time to watch the amazing WESTWORLD finale, and the Giants – Steelers game, which Parris had TIVO’d for me.

WESTWORLD won, but the G-Men lost. Can’t say I was surprised, but I was disappointed. My fears were confirmed: the six game Giants win streak was more an artifact of weak opposition than it was an indication of the strength of Big Blue.

Against a strong team like Pittsburgh, New York’s weaknesses were exposed. There’s still no run game — second worst in the league, at present — and the offensive line is a turnstile. Eli gets no time to throw, they can’t open holes for the RBs, and Flowers is still holding on every other play and getting beat on the others. Injuries have not helped. Justin Pugh was a huge loss. That being said, it would help if Eli threw the ball to someone besides Odell from time to time. Victor Cruz was not targeted once.

The defense still looks stout, but injuries there hurt as well. JPP going out was very worrisome. He’s desperately needed.

It should also be said that Odell was not wrong in his postgame comments: the officiating was terrible, and very one-sided. The Steeler DBs got away with mugging ODB repeatedly, but that was far from all. The Pittsburgh O-line was holding flagrantly on several big plays from Big Ben, but was never called on it.

Honest officiating would not have made a difference, however. The Steelers would have won anyway. They were the better team yesterday.

These next four games are all tough ones. The Giants need to step it up, or they could very well lose all four.