Giants season ends with one-point loss to Cowboys
EAST RUTHERFORD >> Eli Manning stood alone on the sideline with his hands on his hips, as Dak Prescott kneeled out the final seconds of the Cowboys’ improbable 36-35 victory Sunday at MetLife Stadium. A few days earlier, head coach Pat Shurmur said he envisioned Manning occupying that role at the end of potentially his last game in the Meadowlands.
No one knows for certain if Manning will be back in 2019, the final year on his contract. This offseason brings many unknowns as the Giants continue to rebuild the franchise.
“This is all I know,” Manning said postgame. “I love coming to practice, I love game-planning and having plays and getting the plays that’ll work and competing and winning games and celebrating touchdowns — all those things. All that’s fun.”
Creating a winning culture requires time, and firstyear head coach Pat Shurmur is adamant that New York is moving in the right direction.
“There was a lot to learn about everybody,” Shurmur said. “I do know that these guys have got a lot of fight in them, they try to do the right things, and some of the younger players that played a lot are going to benefit from the adversity that we faced this year. These guys we brought here are all winners. They’ve won every place they’ve ever been. I think it’s important to be able to learn how to fight through adversity.”
After posting a 3-13 record in 2017, the Giants finished this season with only five wins, but the positives were that four of the wins came in the final eight games, five of the losses were by three points or fewer and the offense had a resurgence. And most important, the suspensions and locker-room problems that engulfed the worst season in franchise history dissipated.
“It definitely feels different,” Manning said. “We went into every game this year feeling that we had a great opportunity to win games and score points and do things. Last year, obviously guys were injured, coach (Ben McAdoo) gets fired in the season — a lot of things going on. This (year) I think, we saw the progress. It didn’t start off great, but we saw us getting better and felt good about things and what we were trying to accomplish. Just saw hope that we could turn things around.”
The Giants nearly ended 2018 on a strong note — with a victory over their rival and NFC East division champion Cowboys (10-6).
Dallas escaped on a door-die touchdown pass on fourth-and-15 from Dak Prescott to Cole Beasley, a play initially ruled incomplete as the Giants celebrated with 1:12 remaining. The Cowboys took a onepoint lead with a two-point conversion, and even after an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty gave the Giants prime field position at their own 48-yard line after the ensuing kickoff, four straight incompletions never afforded them a chance at a game-winning field goal.
As of the conclusion of Sunday’s 1 p.m. games, the loss moved the Giants up from the No. 9 pick to the No. 6 pick in next April’s NFL Draft.
“I wanted to go out and win the game,” Manning said. “It’s never real exciting to play the last game of a season where you know you’re not going to the playoffs, but still want to go out there and play well and kind of have that feeling in the locker room where you’re feeling good about what’s going on and feel good about the work that’s being put in and the progress that this team has made. Obviously I think we made a lot of progress.”
One of the most promising aspects of the Giants’ future is running back Saquon Barkley.
Barkley broke Reggie Bush’s single-season NFL record for most receptions by a rookie running back with 91. He also finished second in the league in rushing (1,307 yards) behind only Dallas’ Ezekiel Elliott, and was the third rookie in history to total more than 2,000 yards from scrimmage, joining Eric Dickerson (1983) and Edgerrin James (1999).
“He’s going to be fun to watch around here for a very long time,” Shurmur said.
Manning posted his seventh 4,000-yard campaign in 14 full seasons. His 11 interceptions were the secondfewest of his career outside of his rookie season (10 in 2008), and his 66 percent completion rate established a new career high.
But Manning also threw only 21 passing touchdowns, and both his age — he turns 38 on Thursday — and $23.2 million salary cap hit next season leave questions about whether he will return to New York in 2019. The Giants could either look to negotiate a paycut, or sign a more cost-effective quarterback for the short-term while shoring up other areas of the roster.
While decisions and evaluations have to be made in the coming months, Shurmur offered a public endorsement of Manning, saying he “absolutely” believes he still has quality football left in him and will play again for the Giants.
Michael Strahan, Phil Simms and Mel Hein are the only other Giants to ever play 15 seasons with the franchise. None played 16.
“I expect all the players to be back at this point,” Shurmur said. “Everybody thinks I’m nuts, but I’ve seen the good in Eli, and I believe in the good ... and I believe everybody around him has to do their job as well.”