It’s never easy for a quarterback to not have his full complement of receivers. Steve Smith had just returned from missing a month with a torn pectoral muscle only to suffer a season-ending knee injury in the Giants’ win over the Vikings on Sunday night. Now he’s done for the year and just as Hakeem Nicks returned to the starting lineup following a leg injury of his own, Mario Manningham suffered a hip flexor in the victory over Minnesota.
But while the Giants’ receiving corps has been tattered and frayed for the better part of a month, Eli Manning can’t blame all of his struggles on injuries to his wideouts.
Up until Monday night, the Giants hadn’t given up a sack in five games and while sack numbers can be a little misleading (defenses can still pressure quarterbacks without recording sacks), it shows that Manning has had time to throw. Kevin Boothe has played very well at left guard and now that David Diehl is back in the starting lineup, the offensive line as a whole should be in tune for the stretch run.
But even with the success New York’s offensive line has had of late, Manning continues to struggle. He leads the league in interceptions with 19 and while some of those had to do with balls that gleaned off the hands of his receivers earlier in the year, the ones he’s thrown lately have been mostly on him. (The two picks he threw against the Vikings were a product of releasing the ball late.)
Granted, Drew Brees has 18 interceptions and nobody is concerned about him. But he’s not routinely throwing off his back foot either. It appears as though Eli has reverted back to some of the bad habits he had early in his career, where he’s not setting his feet or squaring his shoulders to his target. He also seems to be hesitating while making decisions, which is causing him to throw off his back foot and often times, into the waiting arms of a defender.
With Asante Samuel set to return to the Eagles’ secondary this weekend, now would be a perfect time for Manning to shake out of the season-long funk he’s been in. It’s a little perplexing that his coaching staff hasn’t ironed out the kinks yet, but now it’s up to him to figure out why his mechanics and decision-making are off and fix them immediately. While Philadelphia can’t eliminate the Giants from playoff contention this week, the G-Men’s hopes will certainly take a massive hit with a loss. The Saints don’t show any signs of slowing down and the Bucs can continue to feed on poor competition (i.e. the Lions and Seahawks) over the next two weeks until they play New Orleans in Week 17.
Thus, it’s gut-check time for Eli. His offensive line is playing well and the running game isn’t opening up passing lanes. He can’t be the factor that holds them back from this point on.
