Brown

He got booed and replaced at quarterback, but this time he wore an Arizona Cardinals' uniform.

Brown, who spent six years with the Giants, played the first half and then watched on the sidelines as Jake Plummer took over and led the Cardinals to a 34-24 win over the Giants on Sunday.

"It was tough," Brown said of the experience of starting in the stadium where he once was the Giants' main guy. "As much as you would like to say it's in the past, I still have some friends over there. Coming back to the stadium and taking the first couple of snaps was tough, but after that first series I settled down and enjoyed being out there."

The crowd of 77,809 booed the kid from nearby Westfield when he trotted on the field for the Cardinals' first possession, much like they did last season when he was asked to mop up for Plummer in a 34-7 Giants win.

The reaction was also similar to 1997 when a chest injury forced Brown, then a Giant, out of a game with Dallas. Danny Kanell replaced him and never gave up the job in leading the team to the playoffs.

New York eventually cut Brown after the season, and he signed with Arizona.

While frustrated that he wasn't allowed to finish on Sunday, Brown understood coach Vince Tobin's decision to play Plummer, who had been sidelined the last four games with a broken finger on his right hand.

"Jake had practiced all week, and Vince said it was a gut feeling," said Brown who hit 11 of 17 passes for 126 yards. "He said it was nothing I did or didn't do. It was just he was the starter, and he was ready to go."

With the Giants having scored on their last two possessions to take a 10-6 halftime lead, Tobin felt he needed more offense in the second half.

Plummer (12 of 18 for 125 yards) responded by throwing two touchdown passes and leading three touchdown drives to help the Cardinals win their third straight.

Like the Giants, Arizona has a 5-6 record and is two games behind Washington (7-4) in the NFC East with five games to play.

Brown is a big reason for that.

"I can take a lot of pride in that," Brown said. "The ship was kind of going south there for a while, and I stepped in, and the team and myself kind of picked everything up and we are back in the hunt again."

Brown, who admitted he could have done better as the Giants starter from 1994-97, refused to gloat after the Cardinals beat his old team for the second time this season.

That might have been tempting considering Brown took a couple of shots from defensive tackle Keith Hamilton and cornerback Jason Sehorn during the game. Still,he took the high road.

"Looking back on it and seeing the talent we have here and that other teams have, it wasn't that great of a team we had back then," said Brown, who only saw New York make the playoffs in 1993 and '97, both times when someone else was the starting quarterback.

"You guys are honest, and you realize it too," Brown told reporters. "I don't want to come off sounding like `It wasn't me, it was everyone else.' I threw 20 interceptions one year."

Brown said the Giants are more talented now.

"But that's ancient history," he added. "I'm just happy where I am now."

For now, that means again being Plummer's backup.

"It's good seeing Jake back in there," Arizona safety Tommy Bennett said. "I still have to give credit to Dave Brown. He handled the offense well since Jake's been gone. I think we have two good quarterbacks."