At the end of the first quarter, down 14-0 to the Buffalo Bills, it started snowing. Hard. A cold wet blinding snow that made it impossible to see more than twenty yards, much less throw the ball. As a result, Manning went only 7/15 and threw two interceptions, and the comeback victory had to be keyed by the running game. Since that time, Eli Manning is 54/77 for 599 yards (7.8 yards per attempt), 8 touchdowns and only 1 interception. And he's done that against three playoff teams, including the teams with the best records in their respective conferences. So what's the deal here? Has he really turned the corner? Or will he turn back into Eli the next time he sets foot in Giants Stadium?
3rd straight game with 100+ passer rating. He's not getting better at picking apart secondaries, but he's playing smarter. He used to always throw a brainfade pick right before the half, it was virtually a guarantee. Towards the end of the season that hasn't been there. He's not forcing medium/deep balls into triple coverage anymore, if that keeps up and Jerry Reese keeps having solid drafts like he did this year (6-7 out of the 8 this year putting in significant minutes), huzzah.
I honestly don't think there is a corner for Eli to turn. He is now and will always be the same, which is a streaky quarterback. If he gets confident and on a roll at the right time of the year, the Giants can really play well and make a nice run (just like what is happening now). But he will always have that tendency to revert back to throwing 4 int's in a game, which I believe he will do next week in Green Bay.
I agree with Gumbi. I haven't seen any noticeable improvement season to season with Manning. This is his 3rd season as a starter in the league and it was statistically his worst. As a Broncos fan, he kind of reminds me Plummer (not in style, but ability). When Shannahan picked up Plummer, I cringed because I knew that no matter how well he played over 6-7 games, he would eventually always morph back to the same mistake prone QB. He could get you to the playoffs, but was just a timebomb waiting to screw things up. As soon as the running game faltered for the Broncos, so did the offense. As long as the running game is working for the Giants, Manning can serve as a game manager and do a decent job. As soon as they need to rely on his arm to win games, they are in trouble.
I would generally agree with you, Gumbi. Manning has gone through good patches in the past, only to revert to form. The difference this time is that he looks like an entirely different quarterback. He's reading the entire field, pump faking off defenders, and (most importantly) not making throws into double and triple coverage, which probably is a function of reading the entire field and properly accounting for defenses for the first time. But with that being said, by his own admission he's not a good quarterback in inclement weather. And I expect that will be his undoing this week. I don't think the Giants will be able to beat the Packers in Green Bay. Actually, the way they've played at the Meadowlands, I don't think they would be able to beat them at Giants Stadium, either. But it'll still be interesting to see.
In two successive weeks, he's outplayed Tony Romo and Brett Favre. It increasingly looks like some sort of light clicked on with him.
Another interesting question to raise now is...is Eli justified in his trade demand out of San Diego?
I thought he had made tremendous improvement the first time we saw him play this year against the Cowboys. He'll never be an elite qb, but he's figuring out how to manage the game and get Ws.
I still don't think he is any sort of special quarterback. He is not the reason the Giants are in the Superbowl.
NB- I actually disagree, if Eli plays like he has in the past with devestating interceptions and just awful throws, they are not in the SB. If you would've told me yesterday that a QB for one of the teams would throw an int inside their own 40 yesterday in OT to basically lose the game, the possibility of Favre doing it wouldn't have entered my mind. Good job Eli, go G men, F the Pats.
Well I have to admit that my impression of Eli Manning has improved after the last two weeks, at least as a football player ( I still think he is a douche for the "I wont play for SD thing). I didn't think there was a way in hell that he would outplay Favre in GB in subzero conditions but he did just that. His throws were accurate and he made good decisions all game long. I still doubt he will ever evolve into a consistent top flight NFL QB, but as LL mentioned above he is proving to be more than serviceable as a game manager.
That's a fair point--he threw to the right receiver and if he had thrown the ball where it should have been thrown, he probably would have completed it. I don't know whether it was a bad read to throw to the inside or whether it was a physical problem due to the cold. But regardless, it was consistent with Favre's performance in the post-season. The interception thrown to McQuarters, on the other hand, was absolutely terrible. I really can't tell what he was looking at or thinking on that one.