GIANTS fans think they waited a long time for a win? Kurt Warner had gone 31 months, 24 days and 20 hours, give or take five minutes.

That’s even longer than one had best be seated and waiting for a Tom Coughlin meeting, just to be safe. Warner got beat, got hurt, then got beat and hurt some more before being replaced, which can happen to the best of them, obviously, since it happened to a guy whose last victory was in an NFC Championship game en route to his second Super Bowl in three years.

We wanted to ask him how the drive home felt Sunday night, if there was an extra bounce yesterday morning in his toothbrush, or even if he had dropped it in his excitement, ho, ho. Alas, after five questions from the media pack, suddenly Warner was whisked away by a Giants PR person, a hard lesson learned by this columnist about taking a shot when you get it because, like quarterbacks on top of the football world, you just never know.

We had to go to our correspondent, Tom Coughlin, who, when asked if Warner’s confidence had been potentially teetering before Sunday’s 20-14 reward said: “Kurt was very excited.”

Hopefully, more excited than Coughlin looked. Patrick Ramsey didn’t lob those two balls up for Brent Alexander any higher and softer than somebody started the coach off yesterday with: “Did a win take some pressure off?”

“There’s pressure every week,” replied Coughlin. Damn him for being so right, because 1-1 would be an excellent time for the Giants, who broke a 10-game losing streak, to quit while they are ahead. In fact, the only potentially better one might be Sunday night, if they can get past the underdog – although we’re not sure why – Browns.

After Cleveland come Green Bay and Dallas on the road, followed by the bye, which always has seemed to be the logical time to make the inevitable change to Eli Manning. Whether by then the Giants are 2-3 or 1-4, they might still be looking at the same two-game losing streak, but back to our original premise: who really knows?

In the meantime, far be it from us to suggest that Warner is on the clock. In Coughlin-land, the big hand is almost as fickle as Warner’s hands. He dropped his 15th fumble in his last five games Sunday to help get the Giants off to the obligatory rotten start, then recovered to throw an impressive 38-yard touchdown strike to Tim Carter.

“[Warner] was very solid,” said the ever-ebullient Coughlin about 22-for-33, 232 yards, one fumble, no picks and a 97 rating. Still, the quarterback’s fate is not in his own hands, as they like to say, although we would like to offer our hand to congratulate his perseverance.

“It had been a while, but it was a matter of time,” said Warner. “It was nice to win, but I keep thinking I can play so much better.

“As I get more and more comfortable in this offense, I have so much more to offer.”

He missed an open Amani Toomer on third-and-three at the Washington 33 during the first possession of the second half, followed by a couple of three-and-outs on the way to only four second-half first downs.

The Giants couldn’t run the ball or, three times in rookie guard Chris Snee’s case, even wait for the snap. But Warner knew he wasn’t exactly joining the 1999 Rams, only hoping to get enough protection and opportunities to show somebody he can still play.

Sunday is another chance, or, you never know, it could be another two years until the next win.

Kurt Warner’s 2004 stats

OPP ATT COM PCT YDS TD INT RTG

at PHI 28 16 57.1 203 0 0 79.9

WAS 33 22 66.7 232 1 0 100.0

TOTAL 61 38 62.3 435 1 0 89.2