By Dave Goldberg
The Associated Press

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. - Kurt Warner's comeback season already has given him a problem to come back from.

Warner was bruised and battered Sunday by the New York Giants, ending up with a concussion after being hit at least a dozen times by Michael Barrow, Michael Strahan and their friends in the Rams' 23-13 loss. He stayed in the area overnight and was to return to St. Louis on Monday.

A CT scan and X-rays on his neck and head taken Sunday night were negative.

His comeback game Sunday had what might appear impressive stats, but weren't: 34 completions in 54 attempts for 342 yards.

But about half were garbage yards against a prevent defense that backed off and let him complete passes inbounds to keep the clock running.

The other stats were awful. He was sacked six times and fumbled six times, losing three. One of them was on the game's turnaround play, a first-quarter sack by rookie William Joseph that was recovered by Kenny Holmes in the end zone to give the Giants a 7-3 lead they never lost.

"I thought he played all right," Rams coach Mike Martz said. "I put him in bad position with a lot of bad play calls."

Warner himself never talked. After the game, he felt nauseous, and lay on the table in the training room and was finally diagnosed with "a mild to moderate concussion" by Dr. Bernard Garfinkel, the Rams' team physician.

Whatever the reason, Warner looked confused most of the game.

It could have been the concussion. Martz said he wasn't sure when it happened, but it might have been on Joseph's sack, which came with 2:10 left in the first quarter.

It could have been the New York front seven. Or it could have been the Giants' pass defense - on a number of plays, Warner seemed to be confused - looking one way, only to find no one open. On one play, he saw Torry Holt wide-open downfield, but overthrew him because a blue shirt barreled into him as he released the ball.

For what it's worth, Warner seemed to throw the ball all right after missing nine games last season with finger and hand problems. He was 0-6 in games he started and threw just three touchdown passes and had 11 interceptions.

On Sunday he was 1 and 1 - a TD and an interception. The TD was a beauty to Holt, who had Will Peterson draped all over him.

Nothing wrong with Warner's hand on that one, but it didn't come until the first minute of the fourth quarter, when the Giants had a 23-6 lead. And while the Rams gobbled up yardage after that, Warner could never make another big play. He completed a 10-yard pass to Marshall Faulk on fourth-and-11 to end one drive, then threw an incomplete pass to Shaun McDonald on fourth-and-8 from the New York 24 with 2:24 left to end any faint hope of a comeback.

"I didn't see anything to indicate there was anything wrong with his arm," Martz said.

Faulk's underutilization was another reason Warner was battered so much; he carried just nine times for 28 yards and the Rams finished with 40 yards on the ground. That lack of a ground game was the reason the two-time MVP was pounded so much all day.

Warner has not won a game he started since Jan. 27, 2002, when the Rams beat the Eagles 29-24 in the NFC championship game. He is 0-8 since: the Super Bowl loss to New England, the six games last year, and now Sunday's game.

But he was solid in exhibitions, especially in a game against Super Bowl champion Tampa Bay, when he was 7-for-7. Still, everyone plays vanilla during the preseason, and the variety of looks the Giants showed Sunday was like nothing he saw in the preseason.

The Giants' defense has played the Rams very well the last two seasons, holding them to 15 points in a loss two seasons ago and beating them 26-21 last year. Warner looked bad in that game, although there was nothing "officially" wrong with him.

On Sunday, the Giants gave him fits again.

"I'm sure he's surprised in himself," Holt said before the Rams got word their quarterback had a concussion. "We're still going to stick behind Kurt and continue to support him. He can get better, we can get better and everybody can get better."

Or maybe not.

Unless there's a major upset, Marc Bulger will play next week against San Francisco. These days, NFL teams take no chances with concussions.

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