The rebirth of Eli Manning

After writing off Eli Manning near the end of the 2007 season I never thought he could win me back over.
Oh sure Eli had a winning record and had led the Giants to the playoffs in his first two years as the teams starting quarterback but he had three flaws that are killers for any NFL QB.

(1) He routinely missed wide open targets. Too many times you would see Amani Toomer or Plaxico Burress shake free from coverage, run the route they were supposed to and Eli’s passes would either be high or wide of the target. You can’t be an elite QB without a high degree of accuracy. The job of the quarterback is to get the ball into his playmakers.

(2) Turnovers. Really I don’t need to add much here. He was tied for the league lead in picks this past season (20) and had averaged over 18 interceptions a season since being named the full time starter.

(3) Eli had been too much of a push over. He let Tiki Barger and Jeremy Shockey run the locker room. He never got on, at least not publicly, guys like Burress and Jeremy Shockey for skipping voluntary team practices. The quarterback is supposed to be the leader of the team but he didn’t seem to know how to be that guy.

Well over the course of the past month all that has changed. He threw one interception (again not his fault) in the playoffs, he was hitting his passes at a 60% completion rate against four tough defences and he is has entrenched himself as the unquestionable leader of the team.

Manning’s leadership grew, not by calling out Tiki, but by two massive drives.
The first was against the Cowboys near the end of the first half. Remember he led the team on a 7 play, 71 yard drive in 46 seconds to tie the game at 14 at the half. If they don’t score the second half could have ended up very differently and Wade Philips would probably not be worrying about his job security.

The second drive, well we all know about that one. Down by four with 2:39 left to go … the crazy David Tyree play, you don’t need me to refresh your memory. Eli led the team 83 yards to the game winning touchdown against the supposedly greatest team of all time.

It is these kinds of drives that instil confidence in your team mates and you can’t win in this league unless the other 10 guys on offence believe in the guy who is under center.

Just an unbelievable turnaround for Eli Manning as a football player and as a leader. Yes he always had the talent to be this good, but no one saw it coming, not like this. I don’t think you can blame me for writing off Eli. He was a major factor in the teams poor second half play over the past three years, he stunk in his first playoff game and was so-so in last year’s loss to the Eagles.

This season Manning had two historical stinkers:

Week 15: Eli tied Joe Namath’s record for most incompletions in one game (35) in a loss on Sunday Night to the Washington Redskins.

Week 16: Manning threw three passes in the second half of that pivotal game against Buffalo and had two of them picked off, he even lost a fumble. The Giants needed that win bad and Eli was horrible.

The great thing about sports is that it has always been a bastion for that great redemption story. Next to the Patriots failing to obtain perfection, Eli’s accession to the level of elite Quarterback will be what people remember the most from this year’s playoff.

Eli and I have talked it over. He apologized to me for his inconsistencies and flaws and I apologized for pulling the classic sports fan knee jerk reaction and writing off Eli as a legitimate NFL quarterback.

So in the end I couldn’t be happier with having Eli Manning winning me back as a fan of his. No matter what happens for the rest of his career Eli has met every expectation you could ever want from your first overall draft pick QB.
He got his team a Super Bowl win and was named the Most Valuable Player.

It still hasn’t sunk in.

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