Giants need Eli Manning to be super for championship run
LANDOVER, Md. — They are a tough, hard-nosed, together team that will fight you for 60 minutes, reminiscent of one of those throwback Bill Parcells teams that would play you in the parking lot for free.
If you believe that Defense Wins Championships, then you have to feel good about the New York Football Giants again, because they throttled Kirk Cousins (four sacks, two Dominique Rodgers interceptions), stuffed Robert Kelley and kept the Redskins out of the playoffs.
Ben McAdoo, the defiant rookie head coach who played with fire by playing Eli Manning the entire way and didn’t get burned, won his 11th game, 19-10, with a Same Old 2016 Giants formula that will leave him with little or no margin for error unless the playoff Eli Manning emerges once the Second Season begins next weekend in Detroit or Green Bay.
What buoyed McAdoo was a heavy-handed rushing attack (40 attempts, 161 yards) led by slashing rookie Paul Perkins (102 yards) that enabled Manning to control the ball for 35:52.
But if the Giants plan on making any noise as Road Warriors, and this has been an ongoing plea all season, it will require Manning to find a phone booth somewhere and change into that missing SuperMann cape.
Because you are living on the edge when you keep kicking field goals instead of scoring touchdowns. When more is demanded of the two-time Super Bowl MVP than taking care of the Duke as if it were a bar of gold.
Inside a proud visiting locker room, Jonathan Casillas was asked if he feels the Giants defense will be the determining factor in the playoffs.
“No, I think Eli Manning will be,” Casillas said.
Why is that?
“Because I think the way he’s played in the playoffs in the past, the way he’s played on the big stages, we’re gonna need that from him,” Casillas said.
“We’re gonna need him to play Eli Manning ball. We’re gonna need it.”
The best example of Eli Manning ball came in the fourth quarter when he lofted a 44-yard rainbow down the left sideline to Tavarres King against Greg Toler. In fairness, McAdoo had wisely removed Odell Beckham Jr. (101 catches for the season) from any further jousting with Josh Norman early in the third quarter, and wasn’t about to open up the playbook and show his hand with the money games next.
But Trevin Wade scored the final six points on a fumble recovery as time expired, which means Manning’s offense scored 13, and just three in the second half.
“It’s all about getting into The Dance,” Manning said.
Can he be Fred Astaire?
“I gotta play smart, I gotta do my job,” Manning said.
He is well aware his job is getting his team in the end zone.
“We want to pick it up, but hey, you run the ball, don’t turn it over … we’ll hopefully have some opportunities to hit some big plays in the passing game as well,” Manning said. “But if we can run the ball, defense is playing great, protect the ball, we’ll be in good shape.”
The hope has to be that defenses will not dare the fresh-legged Perkins to run it against them.
“If we can control the clock and have long drives, run the ball well, we gotta just keep doing that, and eventually if they want to be more aggressive defensively, that’ll give us opportunities to hit some big plays,” Manning said.
The 11-play, 74-yard touchdown drive in the second quarter when Manning was 4-for-4 and hit Beckham three times for 35 yards at least is cause for optimism.
“We gotta score more points,” Justin Pugh said.
I said to Pugh: “Until you do, you’re living dangerously.”
“We’re living dangerously, and you can’t do that in the playoffs, you’re right,” Pugh said.
They haven’t reached 20 points nine times this season, and have fallen short of that total five times in a row. But this is no time for any of them to stop believing that Eli Manning will play Eli Manning ball when they need him the most. And they won’t.