Eli comes of age despite loss to Big Ben
Giants QB no longer looks lost, shows promise
Bill Kostroun / AP“It was back to playing football again and it was a good feeling,” said Eli Manning, who was 16-for-23 for 182 yards and two touchdown passes against the Steelers on Saturday. “My feet and my mind were working together.”
COMMENTARY
By Barry Wilner
updated 9:23 p.m. ET Dec. 23, 2004
EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. - To all that Roethlisbergsteria, add a touch of Manningmania. For Eli, not Peyton.
In the meeting of first-round draft picks whose early NFL careers have been totally dissimilar, Pittsburgh’s Ben Roethlisberger and New York’s Eli Manning did exactly what they’ve done so far. Roethlisberger won Saturday, Manning lost.
But Manning no longer looked like a little lost boy in the 33-30 defeat. And even though he fell to 0-5 as a starter — and the Giants dropped to 5-9 with their seventh straight loss — for the first time he somewhat justified his lofty draft status.
“It was back to playing football again and it was a good feeling,” said Manning, who was 16-for-23 for 182 yards and two touchdown passes. “My feet and my mind were working together.”
Those elements have been quite sharp for Roethlisberger. In the midst of the most successful rookie season for any quarterback, he made some bad decisions on two interceptions Saturday, but also made some huge plays.
So much so that with the Steelers at 13-1 and on their longest winning streak ever — yes, even better than in the Steel Curtain days — his teammates have begun to expect greatness from him.
“You do forget he’s a rookie,” said Jerome Bettis, who certainly has been a major helper for Roethlisberger with five 100-yard rushing games and 13 TDs. He had one of each against the Giants. “He’s so poised, he does not get rattled. That’s what you look for in a general.”
While Roethlisberger has done a Patton imitation since Game 3, Manning had been a flop. The Giants have been torn apart by fans and local media for mortgaging a chunk of their future on draft day to get Manning after he was chosen No. 1 overall by San Diego. Some of the criticism has been fair because Manning played so poorly in his first month as a starter after veteran Kurt Warner was benched despite a 5-4 record.
And any comparisons with Roethlisberger have been totally off-base. It’s doubtful the No. 11 overall choice would have been much more efficient than Manning with New York, which has been plagued by injuries, indifferent play from its receivers and tight end Jeremy Shockey, poor blocking and some strange decisions by coach Tom Coughlin.
No, if the Giants had gone with Big Ben instead of Peyton’s younger brother, they probably would be an also-ran just the same. They simply don’t have the support group or the strong coaching that Roethlisberger enjoys.
But at least the Giants got a small dose of hope from Manning, and it came against the NFL’s top-ranked defense.
“I think this was the most vocal I’ve seen him in the huddle,” running back Tiki Barber said. “It showed he was confident in what he was doing.”
Added Steelers linebacker Joey Porter: “I’d like to have rattled him more, but he sat back there and battled and had some time to make plays and made them.”
Manning approached Coughlin on Tuesday about simplifying the offense. Coming off one of the worst performances for any quarterback, rookie or otherwise — a 0.0 passer rating in a 37-14 loss against Baltimore — Manning was wise enough and bold enough to suggest he was being handed too much too soon.
“I talked to coach Coughlin on Tuesday about why I was struggling and what can we do to change things,” he said. “We put in so many new plays from week to week I’m not comfortable with if we see a new defense ...
“We condensed the package of offensive plays, ran plays I am comfortable with and plays I’ve been running a long time. I knew where to look and how to make my reads and where to get the ball out of my hands.
“I still made some mistakes and missed some balls I wanted to have back, the plays you could have made to put yourself in position to win.”
Those are the plays Roethlisberger has made all year and just might make during the postseason, while Manning and the Giants sit home. At least Eli isn’t looking dazed and confused anymore.
© 2010 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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