Read more about Eli Manning's debut in this week's Sports Illustrated, appearing on newstands on Wednesday, Nov. 24.

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. -- By their very nature, little brothers have a lifetime's worth of experience coming up a little short, but you got the feeling watching Eli Manning on Sunday at Giants Stadium that he grew even in defeat.

Granted, it wasn't the stuff of storybooks for the first pick in last April's draft. Manning's debut as an NFL starting quarterback will go down as a frustrating 14-10 loss to Atlanta, in a game where his failures and tantalizing near-misses far outweighed his successes.

But this much about Peyton Manning's kid brother you can't deny: He looked every bit the part in his new role as the New York Giants' offensive leader, and the game, from its first to last snap, never seemed beyond his grasp.

"He's got that calmness,'' said Atlanta middle linebacker Keith Brooking, who broke up Manning's 37th and final pass of the day, with 45 seconds remaining and the Giants dealing with a fourth-and-3 at the Atlanta 42. "You can just tell. He wasn't rattled throughout the whole course of that game. And we got a couple interceptions. He had some bad plays. But he stayed right in there.''

Nobody was afforded a better vantage point into Manning's all-new world on Sunday than Brooking. Perched just across the line from the Giants rookie, the Falcons' Pro Bowl linebacker liked almost everything he saw. Even when New York and Manning got the ball back at the Giants 26, with 1:52 remaining and the chance to play the hero.

"I was 10 feet from him and I saw the look in his eyes,'' Brooking said. "When he was sitting in that huddle, he didn't have that wide-eyed look. Even though he didn't know what the hell was coming, he was calm the whole time, and that says a lot about the kid. That's what's going to make him good.

•  It would appear that the light has definitely gone on for Kyle Boller in Baltimore. From the second half of the Ravens Week 8 loss at Philly on, Baltimore's second-year quarterback has actually looked like a big-league passer. Brian Billick's patience -- or stubborn streak -- is being rewarded. In his past 14 quarters, Boller has thrown five touchdowns and just one interception, with a 58.4 completion percentage. The Ravens (7-3) have won three in a row and are headed for a showdown at New England next Sunday. •  Not to put too fine a point on it, but that was a save-the-season win for Minnesota at the Metrodome. Down 19-7 in the third quarter against visiting Detroit, the Vikings (6-4) were in danger of dropping a fourth consecutive game and entirely dissipating the momentum created by their 5-1 start. Had Minnesota woken up at .500 and in second place in the NFC North on Monday, there's no telling when the freefall might have ended. •  Speaking of the Vikings, sorry, but you can't vote for Daunte Culpepper as league MVP, no matter how strong his numbers wind up being. As has become painfully apparent during the past month, Minnesota just isn't the same team without receiver Randy Moss. It's a rule. You can't be the league's most valuable player when you're not even your team's most valuable player. •  So much for that old Craig Krenzel magic. Don't sweat it, rook. Everybody loses out these days when paired up against Peyton Manning's mojo. Manning now has 35 touchdown passes on the season, and a mind-blowing 24 in his past six games. My guess is that Mr. Marino is preparing to see at least one of his cherished league passing records go bye-bye. •  Back to the drawing board for Mike Martz and his maddeningly inconsistent Rams. Martz got kudos last week when he pushed the right buttons and motivated his St. Louis team by instituting full-contact practice sessions on Wednesdays. But when your defense gives up 37 points to the Drew Bledsoe-led Bills offense, you obviously didn't hit much of anything. •  Actually, losing to Buffalo at Ralph Wilson Stadium is no disgrace. The resurgent Bills have won four of six after their 0-4 start, including four consecutive home games. The Bills (4-6) got their act together too late to be a factor in the AFC playoff chase, but if they were in the mediocre NFC, they'd still be very much alive. •  Some day, and we're not sure when, Ben Roethlisberger will lose another football game. Between his 2003 season at Miami of Ohio and his rookie year in the NFL, Big Ben has been like clockwork in the victory column, winning 21 starts in a row. It can't last, though, because no quarterback has ever won every one of his NFL starts. We looked it up. •  Pretty impressive win for Tennessee at Jacksonville. The once-proud Titans (4-6) may not appear to have much to play for at this point, but they had enough gumption to go into Alltel Stadium and get a little payback for the Jaguars' Week 3 win at The Coliseum. And now they're just two games behind Jacksonville (6-4) with six games to go. •  It's official. The San Francisco 49ers (1-9) are the worst team in the NFL. Bar none. And it's not even close. Take a bow, John York. Your efforts to turn the 49ers into a lean, mean organization were half successful. •  Atlanta general manager Rich McKay, who co-chairs the league's competition committee, on whether the NFL is susceptible to the same kind of violent scenarios that unfolded at NBA and college football games this weekend: "Well, we had the Pittsburgh-Cleveland pre-game fight last week, but since we started fining players for fighting in 1997, and started bringing the officials out early before the game, we've really done a great job of almost eliminating the fighting. It really has cured it. But that NBA fight, I've never seen anything like it, have you?'' -- Don Banks, SI.com

"Obviously you see a lot of quarterbacks come to this league with a lot of talent and a strong arm and all those things. But they don't have success. One thing you know is he's going to work his tail off, and he's got what it takes inside to be very good.''

Where others saw promise, Manning saw mostly growing pains Sunday. But both perspectives were entirely accurate. Though he didn't deliver a final-drive comeback victory, Manning helped put the Giants into position to win a game that once looked like a potential blowout. On another day, the outcome will be different.

"It's a position you want to be in as a quarterback,'' Manning said of New York's final drive. "You want the ball to be in your hands, with a chance to win the game. But we've got to do better than that. It's a learning experience. I definitely learned a lot tonight. When your defense holds Atlanta to 14 points, you've got to win that game. We had a chance. We had a chance to win the game.''

Soon enough, Manning will find ways to win games in the final two minutes, with everything on the line. On Sunday, he lost the game, but won his share of fans on the opposite sideline.

"I think the guy was a pretty cool operator,'' Falcons defensive coordinator Ed Donatell said of Manning. "Hats off to him. It was a tough situation. He didn't have much success in the first half, but he hung in there and came back and played good in the second half.''

Falcons first-year head coach Jim Mora has been watching Eli throw the football since the latest Manning quarterback to hit the NFL was a youngster of 9. Mora's dad, Jim, was head coach of the Saints back then, and Archie Manning, Eli's father, was the team's radio color analyst and a former New Orleans quarterback.

Finding his team up by only four points inside of two minutes, with a Manning across the line of scrimmage, was not where Mora wanted to be as Sunday evening's conclusion neared.

"You go, 'Darn it, I wasn't looking forward to this,''' said Mora, whose first-place Falcons improved to 8-2 with the win. "But you can see he's going to be really good. I'm very impressed with him. The poise he showed, and the great composure. There's some things he'd like to have back, some bad throws, but I was really impressed.''

After watching and waiting while Kurt Warner started New York's first nine games, Manning initially didn't appear ready for his close up against Atlanta. He had a shaky first half as the Giants fell behind 14-0, completing just five of 14 passes, for 46 yards, with one interception, one sack and a paltry 15.8 quarterback rating. But he persevered, and behind him, New York (5-5) fought back into a game it desperately needed to keep its flagging playoff hopes alive.

"I knew I had to throw the ball better,'' Manning said of his poor start. "I had to be more accurate.''

In the second half, he was, completing 12 of 23 passes for 116 yards and a touchdown. He finished 17 of 37 for 162 yards on the day, with one touchdown, two interceptions, and a 45.1 rating. But those totals would have been far better had the Giants not dropped at least six catchable balls -- three by tight end Jeremy Shockey -- and Manning's ability to avoid the Atlanta pass rush was a highlight.

Manning took just one sack, for four yards on New York's opening drive. For the Giants, who had seen Warner dumped 24 times in the past four games, it was a vast improvement. Especially since the Falcons entered play with 27 sacks, second most in the NFC.

"I was so concerned with getting the ball out of my hands and not taking the sack, that sometimes I threw the ball too quickly, even before the receiver turned,'' Manning said. "But I knew it was a long game. I knew if I hung in there and made some throws, I'd get my confidence back.''

Manning's growing confidence was obvious after the Giants made it 14-7 late in the third quarter on his 6-yard touchdown toss to Shockey, capping a 16-play, 72-yard scoring drive. For Manning, it was the first touchdown pass of his NFL career. From the looks of things on Sunday, the first of many.

"I told him that he played a great game,'' said Falcons quarterback Michael Vick, who like Manning was the No. 1 overall pick in the draft, a mere three years ago. "His first game starting there's a lot of hype and pressure on him. He came out and played with poise and made some plays. Like I told him, I think he's going to be just like his brother in due time.''

Manning is one week closer to that time already. That's how it is with little brothers. They don't stay little for long.

Don Banks covers pro football for SI.com.