Eli Manning defies skeptics and comes of age in shocking Super Bowl upset
By Keith Schleiden
Feb. 6, 2008
GLENDALE, Ariz. — He may have been a Super Bowl quarterback, but in the week leading up to the NFL title game, Eli Manning was the “other” one.
Eli was the other quarterback, playing second fiddle to all-everything Tom Brady. Brady, after all, had led the Patriots to a remarkable 18-0 mark, setting a league record for passing touchdowns with 50 along the way. Manning, on the other hand, had been inconsistent over the course of the season and led the league in turnovers with 27.
Eli played for the other team, a Giants squad that was given very little chance of pulling off the historic upset, ending the Patriots’ bid for perfection. The Giants had won an incredible 10 games in a row on the road heading into the Super Bowl, but they were not undefeated like their counterparts.
And Eli was the other Manning. Having long lived in the shadow of big brother Peyton, a Super Bowl champion and MVP from a season ago, talking about his more celebrated sibling came as second nature.
After leading the Giants to a pair of fourth-quarter touchdowns and an improbable victory over New England, Eli may still be the other Manning. But it’s more complimentary, as if to suggest he’s the other Manning quarterback who can destroy an opponent under the most difficult of conditions. The other Manning quarterback who inspires confidence in his teammates. The other Manning quarterback who now must be included when discussing some of the game’s most memorable moments.
On the final two New York scoring drives, Manning was 8-of-12 for 144 yards, which accounted for more than half of his passing production for the day. His final numbers weren’t eye-popping — 19-of-34 for 255 yards with two touchdowns and one interception — but his ability to come up big when the odds were stacked against him earned him Most Valuable Player honors for Super Bowl XLII.
While the two touchdowns were special, the one play, more than any other, that may have secured Manning’s selection as MVP will long be remembered as one of the game’s most exciting. On 3rd-and-5 on the Giants’ 44-yard line, with 1:15 left to play and his team down by four, Manning came under heavy pressure from the Patriots. With multiple defenders getting their hands on him, Manning somehow escaped their clutches, stepped up and heaved a pass downfield in the direction of unheralded WR David Tyree, who fought off Rodney Harrison to make a circus catch, miraculously securing the ball between his hand and his helmet.
It was a play that left a mark on everyone who witnessed it, including Giants coach Tom Coughlin, who marveled at it more than once during postgame interviews.
“You see the quarterback look like he’s in the grasp, on his way down,” Coughlin said shortly after game. “All of a sudden, Eli’s able to shake that off. He steps up in the pocket, fires the ball down the field. It’s a contested catch. I mean, it’s not like the guy’s sitting in center field by himself. Two people go up. Two people come down with the ball, and David wrestles it away. I don’t know if there’s ever been a bigger play in the Super Bowl than that play.”
Less than a minute and four plays later, Manning hit Plaxico Burress in the endzone for the game-winning score.
“He was great,” Coughlin said of his much-criticized quarterback. “He did the things in the second half and the fourth quarter that you have to do to win a Super Bowl. He brought it down the field and got it in the endzone twice. … So he played very, very well. Very cool. Very calm.”
Manning’s Houdini act, escaping the mitts of Richard Seymour and Jarvis Green, wasn’t lost on his teammates, who were stunned by the moves they had never seen before from their passer.
“I saw Eli break a tackle, something I don’t think he’s ever done in his life,” C Shaun O’Hara joked. “Very Steve Young-esque, Joe Montana-like. I don’t know how he got free from that. He made a heck of a throw. For a second there, we didn’t know who was gonna come down with that throw.”
The poise that Manning showed during the final drive was something that impressed his teammates. But then again, they expected nothing less. Manning is often bashed for his lack of emotion. Because he is less animated than his brother, and most quarterbacks for that matter, he has been accused of lacking leadership ability, and others have questioned his confidence when facing adversity. After the game, Manning said he noted that, even after the Patriots scored to go up 14-10 late in the fourth quarter, he was confident the Giants would prevail.
“We believed in ourselves all year,” Manning said. “That’s the position you want to be in. You want to have the ball in your hands, four minutes left — go down, you’ve got to score a touchdown. That’s where you want to be, a chance to win the game, and so many big plays on that drive. David Tyree, man, that’s all you’ve got to say. David Tyree — huge catch. Plaxico (Burress) on the touchdown. Everybody stepped up and made huge plays. What a great win.”
Count OT Dave Diehl among those who recognize Manning’s leadership skills, even if most of those who watch the game don’t. As he, along with nearly every one of his teammates, was grilled repeatedly about Manning’s personality in the days leading up to the game, Diehl shed some light on the less-than-fiery passer.
“Eli is Eli,” Diehl said. “He’s always been that way. He’s not a big yeller. He’s not a big screamer, and you can’t fake that. People can see right through that. But when Eli feels like he has something to say, when he feels like he needs to step up and say something, he does it, and people listen because they know that it’s coming from the heart. When things don’t go our way and we lose games, then people think it’s a negative. But when we win games and Eli has that same face, it’s ‘He’s so calm and collected under pressure.’ It’s just the way that he approaches things. That’s Eli, and he’s always been that way. That doesn’t take away from the way he is and his competitive attitude, because he wants to win football games like all of us.”
DE Michael Strahan, who had his signalcaller’s back all week during interviews, noted that the Manning-Tyree strike took years off his life. But he never doubted that Manning had the ability to come up big in the clutch.
“I love the young boy and the composure he had to throw the ball the way he was throwing it, and he is the two-minute kid,” Strahan said. “When we got the ball, I got everyone and was begging them to repeat to me that we were winning it, 17-14, and that was because we believe in Eli and we know he’s going to do it. He’s done it time and time again, and now it’s unbelievable — a Manning last year and a Manning this year are Super Bowl champions.”
Late in the week, just three days before the Super Bowl was to be played, Tyree spoke of his relationship with, and the development of, Manning.
“I’ve been here to see Eli develop, and we’ve had some good moments as I’ve been playing a little more,” Tyree said. “There has always been a trust between us. He knows he can throw me the football, and I’ll be in position where I need to be. I don’t think that will change. … Nothing has changed with my relationship with Eli, but it’s good watching his maturity and his growth during this season.”
The maturity really shined through in a postseason in which he did not throw an interception until early in the second quarter of the Super Bowl, and that came courtesy of a bobbled catch by Steve Smith.
After the game, Tyree offered his thoughts on the cool-in-the-clutch Manning.
“He’s always cool,” Tyree said. “Whether we’re up by 20 or we’re down by 20, up by five, whatever the scenario is, he’s always cool. He’s always calm, and that’s what I love about him. The guy hasn’t changed since he got here. He’s only matured. And I always say, he’s proved his mettle. He’s the quarterback of the New York Giants.”
Going forward, maybe there will be no “other.” He is simply the quarterback of the Super Bowl-champion New York Giants. And a very unexpected Super Bowl Most Valuable Player.
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