Eli: A Giant among men.
It's eerie. Way too eerie.
Giants-Patriots, Super Bowl 42, fourth quarter, New England up 14-10, 1:15 to play, third and five, Giants' 44. Eli Manning, pressured, looks downfield for No. 85.
Giants-Patriots, Sunday in Foxboro, fourth quarter, New England up 20-17, 1:07 to play, third and 10, Giants' 39. Eli Manning, pressured, looks downfield for No. 85.
There's more.
Super Bowl 42: David Tyree hauls in the highly unlikely Velcro Catch with Rodney Harrison in close coverage. Gain of 32. First and 10 at the Patriots' 24. Fifty-nine seconds left, timeout Giants.
Sunday in Foxboro: Jake Ballard hauls in a one-handed catch, bending back with Tracy White in close coverage. Gain of 28. First and 10 at the Patriots' 33. Fifty-nine seconds left, clock running.
And more.
Super Bowl 42: Four plays after the drive-saving Tyree catch, Manning coolly finds Plaxico Burress in the left side of the end zone for a touchdown. Giants by three, with 35 seconds left.
Sunday in Foxboro: Four plays after the drive-saving Ballard catch, Manning coolly finds Ballard in the left side of the end zone for a touchdown. Giants by four, with 15 seconds left.
And finally ...
Super Bowl 42: After the Patriots return the kickoff 17 yards, Tom Brady throws three desperation passes to no avail. The Giants upset New England 17-14.
Sunday in Foxboro: After the Patriots return the kickoff 17 yards, Brady throws two desperation passes to no avail. The Giants upset New England 24-20.
"It's hard not to think about it,'' Manning told me from the locker room, after his biggest victory, all things considered, since that Super Bowl. "But in a way, before then, it was the complete opposite. Last time, it was the Patriots giving us the ball with three minutes left, up four. Today, after we took the four-point lead with three minutes to go, we're handing the ball to Tom Brady. And that's not a very good feeling.''
He's right. Four seasons ago, Brady threw a touchdown pass to Randy Moss with 2:45 left to give New England a four-point lead. And Sunday, Manning threw a touchdown pass to Mario Manningham with 3:07 remaining to give the Giants a four-point lead.
What made this Giant drive so interesting -- and, in some ways, tougher for Manning -- is that it came on the road instead of a neutral field, with noise and some of his mainstays out, hurt. Two guys Manning never heard of 20 months ago, Victor Cruz and Ballard, were his go-to receivers on this drive. And to go to Ballard twice ... it shows not only how undervalued the 6-6, 275-pound Ballard was coming out of Ohio State after being a blocking tight end and going undrafted, but also how adaptable and user-friendly the excuse-free Manning is.
The way he managed his receivers on this drive, and the comfort he showed with all of them, shows why Manning is such a terrific player (and why, wherever he watched the game Sunday, the GM who dealt for him, Ernie Accorsi, had to be nodding knowingly at his cool demeanor and laser accuracy) and why it surprised no one with the Giants that he was seven of 11 with two touchdown passes in the last seven minutes of the game.
On the throw to Ballard, Manning said it was a simple seam route and Ballard got over the linebacker, White, and he thought there was a tiny window to make the throw. What he didn't see was Patriot safety Patrick Chung charging into the play almost the way Harrison did four years ago. The ball was high, a smidge to Ballard's left, and he had to reach for it awkwardly, bringing it in with one hand to the other. A great catch. Not a Tyree catch, but what is?
"Huge,'' Manning said. "Jake's got great hands. He made a great catch there.''
Four plays later, at the Patriot one, the Giants had a third-and-goal. No timeouts left and 19 seconds to play. "You almost have to throw it there,'' Manning said. "If you run, and you don't make it, then you run your field goal unit on the field while you're unpiling, and it's chaos. Their guys laying on our guys, untangling the pile. You might not get the field goal off. So you've got to throw.''
"You audible?'' I asked. "Or was it the called play you ran?''
"No audible,'' he said. "Just a play-action, off the run. We sold it, and I saw Jake with a step on his guy.''
Not to dramatize the throw, but FOX had a camera in the corner of the end zone focused on Manning's throw. There was no wavering. In the Super Bowl, he had to place the ball deftly over a New England corner into Burress' hands. Here, Manning had to rip it, and he did. It was a perfect dart.
Manning is not his brother, the precision player and the prototype. But I believe Eli is a better clutch player than Peyton. No knock on Peyton. But look at the moments Eli's had. His 2007 postseason is one of the best any quarterback has ever played, winning three on the road (including beating Favre at Lambeau in minus-18 weather) and then upsetting the 18-0 Patriots in the Super Bowl. And Sunday, with 80- and 85-yard drives in the final seven minutes to beat Bill Belichick and Brady.
They don't make many like Eli Manning, and if you're a Giants' partisan, you've got to be thrilled he's yours.
Read more:
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2011/writers/peter_king/11/07/Week9/index.html#ixzz1d3EhuyW0
