Eli Manning won a wild card game, but Eli Manning is not a wild card. All season long, and all off-season, too, NFL analysts across the board love to talk about Eli Manning’s unpredictability. People love to lay into him about his demeanor not becoming of a winning quarterback, and his number one overall draft selection as a byproduct of his last name only, not his talent. I’m sure that last name on the back of his jersey just handed him the Johnny Unitas Golden Arm Award in 2003, as well as naming him SEC Offensive Player of the Year. Undoubtedly, if I had that last name I would have been able to pass for 3,600 yards, 29 TD’s and only 10 INT’s, while amassing a completion percentage of 62% my senior year. Even as recently as this past weekend prior to the Giants/Bucs kickoff, the FOX studio crew was pondering which Eli would show up? The Good Eli or the Bad Eli? And yet as recently as halftime during the same game, the same studio crew was praising Eli saying that we may be witnessing the coming of age of the young quarterback.
Correct me if I’m wrong, but isn’t this Manning’s fourth year in the NFL? Number one overall pick or not, $45 million 6-year investment or not, $20 million in bonuses notwithstanding, no team would stick with a starting quarterback this long if he weren’t producing for them. The Giants have as much reason to expect their signal-caller to transform into Peyton Manning overnight, as the Raiders do when they turn the reins over to JaMarcus Russell. There is only one Peyton Manning. Not to say that he’s the greatest quarterback of all time, and not to say that Eli will never be as good. Suffice it to say that each NFL quarterback, and indeed, all human beings bring their own strengths, weaknesses, and personalities to the jobs they perform. I find it very ill-informed of sports fans and analysts to assume that the Giants management was infatuated with Eli’s pedigree to the extent that they blindly sought him, are blindly paying him, and will always blindly start him, despite performance.
Every time Eli strings a couple of quality starts together consecutively, we get the joy of hearing the talking heads ask “Is this the coming out party for Eli Manning?” But we need not wait long to hear the nay-saying because the next mistake Eli makes, be it a bad game, a single interception, or just a minor delay of game penalty, commentators will flip through their Eli-Manning-Insult-Rolodex until they uncover the gem that fits the situation. A quip about his poor decision-making or how lackadaisical he appears.
After Tony Dungy won the Super Bowl last year, everybody loved to point out that there’s more than one way to coach a team. The menacing, brooding, no-nonsense approach that Belichick employs can work, but so can the soft-spoken, supportive, gentle demeanor of Dungy. The Colts did not win a lesser trophy because their coach didn’t resemble the stereotypical NFL head coach. So why doesn’t that same dichotomy translate to the quarterback position? Why must a quarterback be fiery and have an intense glare to be considered a good leader? All a quarterback needs to be an effective leader is the respect and trust of his teammates, and as human beings, we have multiple ways of earning said respect and trust. John F. Kennedy had the respect and trust of his country when he held office, but guess what? So did Adolf Hitler. Two very different personalities, two very different people, two very similar approval ratings. Just check out what Amani Toomer said about Eli following Sunday’s Wild Card game at Tampa Bay. "Eli had a great game today. He took what was out there and didn't force anything. He doesn't get real excited; there is more than one way to lead a team ... and he showed that today." If Amani Toomer, the Giants’ franchise record-holder for touchdown receptions, a twelve-year veteran who has caught many different QB’s over his career, can be that level-headed about his teammate, why can’t the rest of us?
The Giants are advancing to the Divisional round and are doing so on the merits of their passing game. That just shows you what a good quarterback like Eli can do when the play-calling is there to support him. The Bucs came into the game ranked 2nd in the NFC in total defense and 1st in the NFL in pass defense. Hmmmm, and Eli just happened to grow up before our very eyes in the face of a blitz-happy, dominant Cover-2? Doubtful. Isn’t it possible that Eli has already grown up and is in the process of making the transition from good to great? Look at how Kevin Gilbride addressed the defense in his play-calling. He catered his game to the defense’s known strengths and not their supposed weaknesses. Remember the Vikings game at the Meadowlands earlier this year? The Vikes were allegedly terrible in the passing game so the only game plan seemed to be “Let’s exploit it.” Backwards approach, I estimate. Now fast forward to the Bucs. The Bucs play a lot of zone, so let’s find the seams in the zone and let’s try to make them stack the box and check into man coverage. Aha! Suddenly, we have Plaxico Burress turned loose to beat the safeties (tremendous height advantage) and we have Toomer and Steve Smith finding soft spots in the middle of the field on intermediate routes and quick slants. The flawed strategy would have been to say “Okay, they’re a good pass defense, so we’ll just run the ball.” While this approach has its merits, you’re setting yourself up for disappointment if you base your whole game plan on one assumption. I have never seen a better called game than what Gilbride authored and Eli executed Sunday. They had trouble getting the running game going early, so they turned to a smart, efficient passing game, but not as a permanent fix. They didn’t abandon the run game, they merely used the pass to set up the run. The Giants’ first scoring drive was capped by a pass to Brandon Jacobs who had run a five yard release pattern. So on their subsequent scoring drive, the linebackers were playing a little deep in anticipation of a repeat. Logically, the Giants run the ball, with Jacobs again, but this time the offensive linemen had the space to hit their blocks further up field and the ultimate result was the same. Six points on the board.
Regardless of what happens this season, Eli deserves a chance to play under a less tumultuous season. For various reasons, he seems to have been fighting more adversity on his own team since he entered the league, than anything his opponents could provide. He has the talent he needs. Just give him a system under which he can thrive and the only next step will be to get the team’s ring sizes.
