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CHARLOTTE, N.C. — What already loomed as a Giants-Against-the-World primetime showdown Thursday night has tilted heavily in favor of the world.
Hakeem Nicks (foot) Wednesday unexpectedly joined the conga line of Battered Blue that already included Ahmad Bradshaw, David Diehl and Domenik Hixon.
OK, Eli, let’s see what you can do for an encore now against the Panthers.
This isn’t about throwing again for 510 yards. It is about finding a way to win, somehow, some way. It is what elite quarterbacks do.
There has been little about the Giants — aside from Eli Manning-to-Nicks and Eli Manning-to Victor Cruz — that allows you to believe they are ready to remember how to be road warriors, or how to be champions.
There is even less now about the Giants that assures their faithful that they will be able to save their best for last and squeak into the playoffs — Deja Blue all over again.
It can get late early this season, against this schedule.
It isn’t just that Cam Newton will be waiting in ambush for them tonight, or that longtime Panthers offensive tackle Jordan Gross has declared this one of the biggest games in Carolina franchise history in a long time.
The Giants haven’t looked right.
The 49ers look right. The Falcons look right.
The Giants look in trouble.
They have given us the impression that they expect Elite Eli to save their collective bacon every Sunday — or Thursday night.
Except now the reality is they will need Elite Eli to save them again Thursday night. Some how, some way.
If Cruz draws the constant double teams, Elite Eli needs to find completions to tight end Martellus Bennett, or one of his backs, or one of his inexperienced receivers.
It is about making everyone around him better. It is what elite quarterbacks do.
The Giants showed their championship pedigree and resolve and resilience coming back the way they did against the Buccaneers, but, in truth, for long stretches over the first two weeks, they have looked nothing like the champions who were supposed to be building the bridge from the end of last season to the beginning of a new one.
Something is missing. And now someone else important is missing.
They need a big game tonight to convince everyone, perhaps most of all themselves, that something is not missing.
Mostly a big game from Elite Eli, especially with a rookie cornerback (Josh Norman) getting his Welcome-to-the-NFL opportunity.
Because at the current time, the running game is missing. It is missing because Bradshaw has a neck injury and No. 1 draft David Wilson remains very much a rookie, and that leaves Andre Brown in a prominent role. It is missing because Will Beatty has been missing and Diehl has a knee problem. It was missing a year ago and it didn’t matter. It didn’t matter because the quarterback was elite and the pass rushers made the opposing quarterbacks, even the elite ones, less than elite.
That pass rush is missing.
Kevin Gilbride’s mustache is missing, but that can be overcome.
A mortal pass rush that cannot cover up a depleted secondary that cannot cover sufficiently cannot be overcome.
“We need to stop talking about our pass rush so much,” Justin Tuck said. “I think other teams are noticing it, and it’s in the media so much that offensive coordinators are saying, ‘Hey, we’re not gonna let these guys beat you.’ ”
John Madden’s Most Valuable Protectors for Week 3? The Panthers offensive line.
If Tampa Bay’s Josh Freeman and Vincent Jackson can have a field day against the Giants, whose to say that Corey Webster will remember how to be a top-notch corner and Prince Amukamara will return from an ankle injury to be a savior of sorts against Steve Smith and dangerous new sidekick Brandon LaFell?
Chris Canty is missing, and Marvin Austin has been missing, which leaves the task of holding the point of attack tonight against DeAngelo Williams and, if his ankle permits, Jonathan Stewart, on the interior of the defensive line — while someone else (Michael Boley?) spies Newton — to Linval Joseph and Rocky Bernard. But again, there is no crying in football.
Something is missing when your elite quarterback throws for 510 yards and you still are only one victory formation fumble away from a potential overtime.
The 2012 Giants quickly have served as a reminder that you never start a new campaign with the same personnel or intangibles. The 2012 Giants are not the 2011 Giants. It is why Bill Parcells greeted the 1999 Jets team that advanced to the 1998 AFC Championship at the start of training camp with T-shirts emblazoned with the motto “Start Over.”
The worst-case scenario: The Giants lose another conference game tonight, and the Eagles win in Arizona on Sunday, meaning the 1-2 Giants would be heading to the Linc to play the 3-0 Eagles a week from Sunday night. The Giants need to show the kind of fire they have shown ripping Greg Schiano’s victory formation shenanigans and the replacement refs.
But now Nicks is missing. Elite Eli is not missing.
steve.serby@nypost.com