CHARLOTTE, N.C. — These are the triumphs, triumphs of the human spirit, that can bring a team together and quite possibly launch a season. When you are severely undermanned and it is Giants-Against-the-World and the bond among you becomes so strong that no one, maybe except the Lombardi Packers, was going to deny you. When you walk tall and proud out of a hushed stadium, drained and exhausted at the end of one of those delicious 36-7 Road Warrior victories and filled with the satisfaction of knowing you are a fighter, and every last one of the men in the arena will fight to the death alongside you.
It was Eli Manning showing so much command from the start that you would have thought he had prepared for four weeks rather than four days. It was Manning making everyone around him better, the way elite quarterbacks so often do. It was Manning efficient in a Simmsian Pasadena way, miles better than Cam Newton.
It was the Big Blue Bully Boys — led by Jason Pierre-Paul — playing with a defiant chip on their shoulders. It was Michael Boley intercepting his third pass in three games. It was rookie Jayron Hosley and Stevie Brown with interceptions. It was 11 Angry Men across 60 minutes. It was Spencer Paysinger forcing and recovering a fumble on the second-half kickoff.
Mostly, astonishingly, it was Andre Brown and Ramses Barden.
The Killer Bs of the Giants.
Replacement Giants showing replacement refs how it’s done.
It was Brown, he of the 70 career rushing yards and one touchdown, exploding through holes and around flailing Panther defenders for 96 yards and a touchdown in the first half alone. It was Brown, honoring the words the Replacement Giants heard from Manning before the game: “’You wouldn’t be on this team if we didn’t believe in you, so go out there and make plays,’ and that’s what we did.”
Brown, finishing with 113 rushing yards and two touchdowns, and three receptions for 17 yards to boot. “It’s satisfying, but I still want more,” he said. “I don’t want this to stop.”
Brown, giving an inspirational performance not far from his North Carolina State roots. “I had to go out there and put on a show for my hometown,” he said with a big smile.
Brown, a long, long way from the roller coaster he rode as a journeyman bouncing from team to team, clutching desperately to his dream all the way, somehow overcoming a ruptured Achilles in 2009, finally ending up with the dream team that drafted him earlier that same year, making you wonder what Ahmad Bradshaw might have done last night if he wasn’t home resting his neck. “I’m gonna just ride this wave … hopefully it’s a long wave,” Brown said, and laughed.
Brown, making you scramble through his biography to see if he is in any way related to the great Jim Brown. “I feel I can be a productive back in this league,” he said.
Brown, showing he is no one-hit wonder. “Never give up … you never give up,” Brown said. “I learned that in college. Jim Valvano. He always said that: ‘Never give up, never give up. In anything you do.’”
Barden, he of the 16 NFL catches entering the night, unleashing his physical gifts, finding open holes, catching everything, abusing rookie corner Josh Norman and catching seven passes for 123 yards in the first half, making you wonder what Hakeem Nicks might have done if he wasn’t home rehabbing his foot.
Barden, finishing with nine catches for 138 yards, smiling widely when asked how gratifying this night was for him after all the years of unfulfilled promise. “Words can’t describe,” he said. “I’m not easy to satisfy, but it’s definitely an OK start for me.”
Barden, the 6-foot-6, 224-pound physical specimen who was supposed to be the heir apparent to Plaxico Burress before his body kept betraying him. “I want more to say the least,” Barden said.
Victor Cruz, of course, knows a good fairy tale when he sees one. Asked about Brown, Cruz said: “He’s just a guy that’s been persevering, man. Since the day I met him, I knew he was hungry to play, hungry to get his opportunity, and he’s really taken advantage of it.” Asked about Barden, Cruz said: “He understands how to use his body to catch the football, and he played awesome tonight.”
Killer Bs, staging one honey of a coming-out-party.
steve.serby@nypost.com