Take the money... and finally run

The Giants won in the preseason -- that's nothing new. Ron Dayne was unstoppable in the victory -- that most certainly is.

Dayne, 40 pounds lighter, looked more like the Heisman Trophy winning younger version of himself than ever before Friday night. Two touchdowns, 118 yards on just 11 carries.

My buddies and I watched the game last night without very high expectations seeing Tiki Barber and Jeremey Shockey on the sidelines -- especially after the 14-0 first half disaster. But Dayne was just ridiculous.

His first touchdown, a 29-yard Barry Sanders-esque second, third, and fourth-effort touchdown run up the middle left us speechless. Dayne doesn't go into a pile, seemingly tackled and churn his legs with enough power to somehow emerge -- Ron Dayne hits the line and drops like dot-com stock.

Then Dayne busted out a 67-yard TD run that could otherwise be credited to the O-line, except for the breakaway speed that blew away the Chiefs secondary. Dayne doesn't have breakaway speed -- he's been running up a down escalator his whole career.

Amazingly, he wasn't done there. Dayne had another very impressive 14-yard run up the middle where he showed his ability to finally find holes and follow blockers.

While Dayne undeniably played the game of his NFL career last night, we can't jump to conclusions about the future of the Giants running game. Dayne was impressive in one performance, and terrible in 30 others. I liked what I saw last night, but then again as fans we all liked what we saw at Wisconsin too.

Barber, despite his slick hands, is still the man in New York. I'd love to see Dayne earn his money for once, but even if he has a breakout year, he will not be staying in blue. Take it from Travis Henry -- running backs do not like to split time.

Therefore, unless Barber has a disastrous year or sustains an injury, Dayne will not be doing much for the Giants besides giving us someone to be excited about over the next three preseason games. He will be backing up a star, and then taking his expiring contract and new physique elsewhere in the NFL.

So what did we get for our $7.14 million and $4.5 million signing bonus? We got a meaningless preseason victory against K.C. and a cool "Thunder" and "Lightning" concept for the backfield. Helped sell a lot of posters I'm sure.

So fans, don't go crazy, don't go dig out your No. 27 jersey from the bottom of your closet -- not just yet. Let's let Ron Dayne face a first-team tougher defense before we all forget the last four years.