With Dallas rooks next, Eli & coach have to fix mess
ITIS almost incomprehensible a rookie quarterback and rookie running back have brought the Cowboys back, and given Jerry Jones a chance to celebrate a division crown in the visiting owners box Sunday night at Met Life Stadium.
But here they come, Dak Prescott taking Tony Romo’s team and making it his, Ezekiel Elliott (1,285 yards) running the way DeMarco Murray did two years ago behind the league’s best offensive line and threatening Eric Dickerson’s rookie rushing record (1,808).
And there is no better time for the two most important Giants — the rookie head coach and the two-time Super Bowl MVP quarterback — to stand at the gates of Met Life Stadium and defend it and the franchise’s honor and take down the 11-1 Cowboys.
For the Patriots, it has been Bill Belichick and Tom Brady. For the Giants, it was Tom Coughlin and Manning. And now it must be Ben McAdoo and Eli Manning. McAduo-Or-Die. This is the biggest week and biggest ga me of McAdo o’s coaching life because he will be standing in the eye of a national media hurricane spawned by the stunning resurgence of America’s Team and by the evolution not revolu - tion of the New York team he inherited from Coughlin, and he cannot flinch or blink. It is the biggest game Manning has played since Super Bowl XLVI.
“Hey, we’re t he only team to beat Dallas,” Manning said Monday on WFAN, “and we’re going against ’ em at home now, and we’ve been playing great at home. So this is a chance to prove that we are a good team and we are a playoff team.”
There was hope in the summer McAdoo and Manning could be the Giants’ version of the M&M Boys — Mantle and Maris — but their home runs together have been few and far between, and this is not the time for them to strike out.
Manning has not lifted an offense that ha s no heavyhanded running game or receiving tight-end threat, and figures to hail the return of left guard Justin Pugh as the young John Hannah hopefully riding to the rescue of that ever-problematic offensive line. It is clearly no easy feat.
When Manning, in successive weeks, fails to target Sterling Shepard then Victor Cruz, it is alarming commentary on the play-caller and franchise quarterback’s failure to be on the same page.
There is no excuse for targeting Odell Beckham Jr. once in the first half against the Steelers and then 15 times in the second half in a catch-up situation at Heinz Field when everyone knows good things tend to hap- pen when he is involved early and often.
“As a quarterback, I’m not in the targeting business,” Manning said.
Every week the Giants tel l us that breakout game is coming, and we are still waiting, and time is running short. Only eight teams have scored less than the Giants’ 20.4 points per game. A year ago, without Shepard and Cruz, they were eighth ( 26 . 3 ppg). In the first year of the McAdoo offense, they were 1 3t h ( 23. 8 ppg). The 2016 Giants have yet to score 30 points. Only the 49ers (26 minutes, 44 seconds) are worse at time of possession than the Giants (26:49). And only the Eagles (32:06) are better than the Cowboys (32:03).
“Each year is a new year and you have to earn it and up to this point, me included, we haven’t earned it,” McAdoo said.
Manning’ s QB rating has dropped from 93.6 in 201 5 to 88. 3 in 2016. Manning cannot show up the way he did in Pittsburgh, pressing again to complete deep shots and making illadvised decisions.
In one sense, the Cowboys are just what Dr. McAdoo ordered because the mere mention of them will allow his 8-4 Giants, 3-point underdogs, to focus on the task at hand rather than the deflating reality that all Big Blue eyes should no longer focus on the NFC East prize.
Maybe the practice in pads that McAdoo is planning for Thursday will help. Maybe the return of Shane Vere en will help.
“Right now, we believe we have the players and the scheme to make a run at this thing,” McAdoo said.
Manning and McAdoo must f ind a way to get to 10 wins. A sweep of the Cowboys would give t he Giants the momentum they lost in Pittsburgh. A loss, and they’ll need two wins against the 8-4 Lions, 5-7 Eagles and 6-5-1 Redskins, the latter two on the road.
McAdoo may h ave beaten the Cowboys 20-19 in his headcoaching debut, but he has no chance of beating these swaggerlic io us Cowboy snow if Manning can’t do better than 20 points and be better than his rookie counterpart.
The overburdened defense, which has saved the offense’s bacon all season, will likely be without Jason Pierre-Paul (groin), and will need help. The Cowboys will be rested after 10 days off, and seeking revenge, and a 12-game winning streak.
McAduo-Or-Die.