MAN WITH A PLAN
Giants need Eli to take charge vs. Big Ben & Co.
THE two-ring franchise quarterback the Giants secured with that blockbuster 2004 draft-day deal with the Chargers.
Opposing the two-ring franchise quarterback the Steelers secured with the 11th pick of the 2004 draft, the two-ring franchise quarterback who would have been a Giant if there was no blockbuster draftday trade.
Eli Manning throwing to his Antonio Brown.
Ben Roethlisberger throwing to his Odell Beckham Jr. Eli versus Ben, again. Eli-Ben IV. The stakes between them have never been higher. The Giants are 8-3 and trying to chase down the 10-1 Cowboys and reach for a stranglehold on a wild-card berth. The Steelers are 6-5 and tied atop the AFC North with the Ravens.
“We gotta prove that we belong,” Manning said on WFAN. “Hey, if you’re gonna be a good team, if you’re gonna make a run to the playoffs, you gotta beat good teams. We gotta keep winning.”
Eli takes a sixgame winning streak into Heinz Field on Sunday, along with the exhilarating prospect of his first playoff game since Super Bowl XLVI ... and an offense that very well may need to score 30 or more points for the first time this season.
“We can be a quick-strike team, which is good, ’cause you never know when we can just hit a big one,” Manning said.
These Ben McAdoo Giants have mostly been carried by their defense, but against Big Ben and Brown and Le’Veon Bell, they cannot count on a D-ecember afternoon.
And they sure cannot count on their pedestrian running game, which can only improve when left guard Justin Pugh returns, possibly against the Steelers.
“We’re gonna hang with it. We’re getting close,” Manning said.
They need Manning to raise his game now and carry them to the finish line, to the playoffs, and to the top of the NFC East if possible — and it starts Sunday.
They need their Super Mann of Steel. For a December to remember. “It’s gonna come down to the fourth quarter, and can you step up? Can you raise your level of play in those moments, in critical moments, in critical times?” Manning said. “We’ve been in those situations and we’ve made those plays, we’ve raised the level.”
Manning doesn’t have a wondrous running back like Bell, but he won’t have Jason Pierre-Paul and Olivier Vernon getting after him or Janoris Jenkins shadowing Beckham.
We are 11 games into the third year of the Manning-McAdoo marriage and the explosive offense they both trumpeted this season is still long overdue.
The Steelers are 22nd in passing yards allowed. The Giants are 23rd.
An Eli-Big Ben Shootout would