The New York Giants have fallen to 0-2, but is it entirely Eli Manning’s fault?
By Bryan Pol
– Tuco from The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly (1966)
In the sports world, manning the most scrutinized position near the epicenter of all cultural divide amounts to careful inspection, criticism of endless variety, and aspersions galore.
Sometimes in said position, one feels the noose around his neck.
It may be early, but Eli Manning is certainly feeling the hangman’s rope about his collar.
Recently signed to a four-year, $84 million contract extension that guarantees him $65 million and entitles him to a $31 million signing bonus, Manning went from the 17th highest-paid quarterback in the NFL to now the league’s fourth-highest, just behind Aaron Rodgers, Russell Wilson, and Ben Roethlisberger.
Under a newer, pricier contract, Eli finds himself under a thick swath of expectations, as he is now called upon to lead his team to the playoffs for the first time in four seasons, especially now that he possesses an improved offensive line, a more dynamic running game (with the addition of Shane Vereen), and a world class receiver to whom he can now throw for a full season in Odell Beckham, Jr., who missed the first four games of last season with an ailing hamstring.
Unfortunately, Eli leads an organization that started the young season 0-2, with much of the blame set at his feet. Should he fail against Washington on Thursday night–hardly out of the realm of possibility, given that he has had little time to prepare in a shortened week–Manning will endure an even tighter yoke around his neck.
Here is the chance to claim the task of “doing the cutting” of the rope upon which Eli is beset: listed now are the good, the bad, and the ugly of Eli’s 2015 campaign thus far.
The Good
In 76 pass attempts, Manning has yet to throw a single interception, let alone hoist a pass doomed to enter the hands of an awaiting member of an opponent’s secondary.
All told, Manning has been solid in throwing the ball, completing passes at a respectable completion rate of 61.8%, a conversion clip well-above his career average.
Against the Falcons on Sunday, the ball was coming out of Eli’s hand far more crisply than it had against Dallas the week before. He continues to zip the ball through tight windows, evidenced by his third-down conversion to Odell Beckham, Jr. in the closing moments of the Dallas loss and his first touchdown throw to Beckham against Atlanta. His rapport with Beckham remains synchronized, if not transcendent, and as the season progresses, the connection between the two will only blossom, regardless of what coverage Beckham finds himself battling.
For as long as Eli and Beckham are healthy, there is no counting out the tandem as one of the NFL’s best, not to mention the Giants’ chances at winning the division in light of injuries to Tony Romo and Dez Bryant in Dallas, the growing ineptitude of Chip Kelly’s offense in Philadelphia, and the uncertainty of Alfred Morris and Matt Jones continuing their pace in Washington.
To add to his past accolades, Manning, on Sunday, became just the fifteenth player in NFL history to throw for over 40,000 yards, and with his touchdown to Beckham, he is tied for twelfth all-time (261) with Dave Krieg. Other than Krieg and Vinny Testaverde, every quarterback above Eli is either in the Hall of Fame (Dan Marino, Fran Tarkenton, John Elway, Warren Moon, Johnny Unitas, and Joe Montana) or will be (brother Peyton, Brett Favre, who could be inducted as early as next year, Tom Brady, and Drew Brees). Additionally, only three of them (Brady, Elway, and Montana) won multiple titles as Eli has.
The Bad
Aside from Eli’s two touchdowns against Atlanta, one of which came as a result of a defensive pass interference call that thrust the Giants deep into its red zone, Manning did not throw a single touchdown in Dallas, shocking considering the state of the Cowboys’ secondary and their yet-to-be-proven ability to get to the quarterback with the losses of Greg Hardy (serving a four-game suspension) and Randy Gregory (lost to a high-ankle sprain, an injury he suffered early on in the Giants game).
Up 20-10 in the third quarter against Atlanta, the Giants were threatening after a long 35-yard run by Andre Williams. Inside the Atlanta nine yard line, Eli rolled left, not aware of Kroy Biermann pursuing to his right, and was sacked and stripped, resulting in a drive-killing fumble recovery. The Giants would not reach the red zone the rest of the way, and the defense would allow fourteen unanswered points.
Because of such miscues, the Giants became the first team in NFL history to head into the fourth quarter with a double-digit lead and lose their first two games to start a season. Much of this can be attributed to Manning’s puzzling inability to close games, hardly a problem for him in years’ past (see his 26 fourth-quarter comebacks and Super Bowl resume).
Clearly, Manning does not line up for Big Blue defensively, but his lack of awareness on Sunday cost the Giants a likely touchdown and a 17-point lead, assuming Josh Brown would have nailed the extra point afterwards.
This fault would be easier to atone for had Manning not been stripped (resulting in another fumble) several series later. Luckily for Eli, the stray ball skittered forward and was later recovered by Larry Donnell, resulting in a first down. Hypothetically, however, a second mental lapse nearly resulted in another giveaway and a dead drive. Not what you want out of your newly-minted $84 million quarterback.
The Ugly
At times this season, Eli has looked flat-out overwhelmed. How so? Take your pick.
- Manning reportedly told Rashad Jennings NOT to score a touchdown against Dallas in the closing moments of a 27-26 loss, despite what that potential score (managed inside the one-yard line, no less) could have done to put the Giants up 30-20 (after the PAT), as opposed to settling for a field goal and a 26-20 lead that was quickly snatched away within mere moments.
- In the closing minutes of the Dallas loss, Eli was not aware of how many timeouts the Cowboys had as they were in the process of using them.
- Several times, the Giants, under Eli’s tutelage, did not let the play clock run down on their final series, giving Tony Romo more time than was needed to send the game-winning touchdown into the waiting hands of Jason Witten with seven seconds remaining.
- On the infamous third-down play that lead to Brown’s aforementioned field goal, Eli rolled right on a pass play, saw nobody open, and opted to throw the ball away, stopping the clock at 1:37. While a field goal put the Giants up six, forcing the Cowboys to score a touchdown and not a field goal to send the game to overtime, a sack AND a field goal would have given the Giants the same lead and Dallas forty less seconds to operate, as they were already out of time outs.
- Several more times against Atlanta, perhaps jittery from the clock mismanagement that torpedoed his team the week before, Eli let the clock simply run out or down to a second or two left, resulting in a delay of game penalty on one occasion and a broken series of plays on another few attempts to extend a drive.
Should Manning will his team to victory on Thursday night, Eli will again be without Victor Cruz, still ailing from a calf injury, and may miss left tackle Ereck Flowers, who has held his own these last two games despite an ankle injury that ultimately forced him out of the Atlanta matchup. While the short week gives him less time to fret over his uneven performance on Sunday, Eli consequently has had less time to gameplan for the Redskins, who, on Sunday, utterly thrashed the St. Louis Rams, who themselves thwarted the Seattle Seahawks only a week earlier.
The pressure is most certainly on for Manning to deliver not only on his contract, but also perform as his team’s best player against Washington in what is now a must-win for Big Blue.