PEY’ IT FORWARD
Eli ready to follow big brother’s play-it-safe path to Super Bowl
ELI MANNING turned 36 on Tuesday, which is a nice reminder that he’s still almost five full years younger than the other Manning who used to play quarterback in the NFL. Growing up, Peyton was always much closer with his Irish twin( and first favorite receiving target) Cooper, with less than two years separating them.
He and Eli got closer as they got older, which is how it usually is when there’s an age gap between siblings. And you can tell how much Eli has paid attention to Peyton. It was obvious in the pitch-perfect way he defused the silly boat brouhaha that was still clinging to Monday’s news cycles, for instance.
“I was a little disappointed,” Eli said, employing a quintessential deadpan expression straight out of the Peyton Playbook. Then, pausing a beat for maximum comic effect, he dropped the punch line: “They didn’t pack accordingly. They didn’t have any shirts.” He all but reminded us to try the veal, and to tip our waitresses.
Sunday, when the Giants invade Lambeau Field and take on the Packers in the first round of the playoffs, there will be an even more useful way for Eli to channel Peyton. It’s no secret Eli had a subpar season this year, or that the Giants’ offense never came close to maximizing its highoctane potential. It’s something even Eli himself has conceded publicly.
Now, those struggles weren’t near as bad as Peyton’s were a year ago, when he was benched (in favor of Brock Osweiler, for goodness’ sake), and but for the fickle finger of fate may have been bubble-wrapped for the playoffs, too. But Osweiler banged up a knee, Manning took over and … Well, he wasn’t vintage Peyton. What he was, though, was good enough. Peyton had spent most of his career carrying the teams he played on, but the Broncos were powerful enough, especially on defense, that in the final few furlongs of his career it was Peyton who hitched a ride. Eli is not the glacial monument his brother was last year. But neither is he the slingshotarmed kid who ignited the Giants in 2007’ splayoffs, who artfully placed the football in a barely footballsized window opening to Mario Manningham in 2011. He has thrown his share of bad picks this year. He has missed his share of receivers (and, to be fair, had his share of receivers drop balls placed squarely between numbers).
He laughed Tuesday when the notion of a “Playoff Eli” was broached. He’s a good enough sport to understand why such a concept is a real thing, but he’s a proud enough professional to realize that isn’t exactly a complimentary description.
“I think I’m the same quarterback,” he said.
It’s just that this time around, the Giants have enough defense that they can do their share. They can do the carrying. It’s like a full playoff game plan based around the way they beat the Patriots in their first Super Bowl meeting: Pound and punish on one side of the ball, and be effective and efficient on the other side.
That much, Eli already seems on board with.
“We have to play smart and find a way to win,” he said. “Keep it close and win the game in the fourth quarter.”
It’s actually amazing that at this stage in his career, at age 36, after 108 regular-season victories and 210 consecutive starts (playoffs included) and, by the way, two Super Bowl championships, that there still seems to be, in many eyes, a referendum attached every time Eli makes an important start.
It’s hard to remember another prominent athlete with a championship track record who so consistently finds himself under both microscope and interrogation lamp.
Actually, maybe it’s not so hard. Maybe all Eli has to do is look at a family photo album, for even after Peyton won his f irst Super Bowl, and long after he reserved a f irstballot place for himself in Canton, he was still dogged by questions: Why has Brady won more? Why has Roethlisberger won more? Oh yeah: Why has your kid brother won more?
Funny. You don’t hear much of that anymore, thanks to the way Peyton went out last year. Eli’s not close to saying goodbye; when the subject was brought up he all but laughed at the notion that he was even pondering how much longer he has left.
Still: It wouldn’t hurt him if, one more time, he stole a page from his big brother’s guide book. No need to be perfect in Wisconsin this weekend, or wherever else January (and February) may bring him. This time around, good enough will do. Good enough, in fact, might even be great enough.