Yesterday marked the one-year anniversary of the nadir of Eli Manning’s professional career, a game that Ralph Vacchiano describes as “his hideous, 21 for 49, 273-yard four pick performance” against the Vikings.  Two of those four picks were returned for touchdowns in a game we lost, 41-17.

Since then, as Vacchiano writes, the Giants have won 17 of their 20 games.  Eli has completed 58.9 percent of his passes for 4,133 yards, 31 touchdowns and 13 picks, good for a QB rating of 87.3.

I attended this depressing game with loyal NYGMen commenter Dan, and the thoughts running through our heads leaving Giants Stadium went something like this:

Wow, that sucked.  We’re 7-4, so we might luck into another bogus playoff appearance in the weak-ass NFC, but this franchise clearly isn’t going anywhere serious.  After more than three full seasons as a starter, our quarterback has pretty much shown us what he is.  Yes, he’s capable of some clutch moments, but he doesn’t seem capable of exceeding a mediocre 55% completion percentage and 75.0 rating.  And great quarterbacks – the type Ernie Accorsi’s old, deluded, Frankensteinish ass convinced himself Eli was – simply don’t turn in performances like that. 

The Giants are halfway decent now, and we should be halfway decent for the next several years.   But our quarterback will hold us back from elite status, a sad irony considering we drafted him to take us to the Promised Land.  Despite his last name and the early promise he showed, Eli is officially a mediocrity.  And now we have to wait an hour and a half for this fucking bus.  This sucks.

This is worth reflecting upon because 1) It shows us how miraculously our fortunes have turned for the better since then; and 2) It reminds us that there was nothing in Eli’s past performance that pointed to his sudden improvement.  It’s not as if Eli had gradually gotten better since 2004, and that last year’s playoff run represented the culmination of a linear progression.  No, Eli was sputtering more than ever until the New England Week 17 game, when behind his goofy smile and tousled hair, a lightbulb switched on.  Nearly a full season later, it hasn’t gone off.

It’s worth noting that the title for Vacchiano’s blog post – “It all began one year ago today, at rock bottom” – is a bit misleading.  For Eli, there were more depths to plumb after the Minnesota game.  He followed the Vikings game with two uninspired efforts against the Eagles and Bears (granted, in the Bears game, he led one of his patented fourth quarter comebacks).  Then came the ugly Sunday night game against Washington, in which – windy conditions and brutal Gilbride playcalling notwithstanding – he went 18 for 52, averaging an unsightly 3.5 yards per attempt.  Then came the two-interception, five-fumble performance against the Bills the next week, during which he went 7 for 15 for 111 yards.  Think about how bad Eli was at this point.

Anyway, as we approach Thanksgiving, it’s worth reflecting with gratitude upon the miracle we’ve witnessed in the past year.  There was nothing to indicate that this would happen.  No, Eli isn’t a world-beater, but as Tom Coughlin said after Sunday’s game, “He just continues to do what has to be done to win a game.”

Did you know that when Eli Manning has faced blitzes this year, his passer rating is 76.6, while when he’s not blitzed, it’s 101.0?  Neither did I, before I read this piece by Mike Garafolo in the Star-Ledger.  (Garafolo’s the best Giants beat reporter out there, in my opinion – I recommend making his daily coverage your go-to.)

I’m not exactly sure what to make of this statistic because teams blitz more in obvious passing situations, when a guy’s rating is more likely to be lower anyway.  The article didn’t put these numbers in any kind of context in terms of where Eli stands vis a vis the rest of the league.

But according to Pro Football Prospectus 2008: “Eli Manning was hurried on a below-average percentage of pass plays, but when he was hurried – during the regular season, at least – he had the worst DVOA of any quarterback with at least 30 passes.”  So there you go…

On Eli’s first pick Monday, the Browns brought 5 (which means they blitzed one) and he was hit as he threw.  He had pressure in his face on the third pick too, though the Browns didn’t blitz.

His tendency to throw off his back foot in the face of pressure is well-documented.  A frequent shit-talking line of opposing teams is that they feel Eli can be rattled if they get pressure on him.  This isn’t to say that Eli’s turns into a total jellyfish in the face of pressure; rather, it just means that protecting the quarterback may be a little more important for us than for other teams.

Speaking of guys hitting Eli, the Browns’ Shaun Rodgers was not fined for intentionally driving his 578-pound upper body onto Eli a full step after he threw, which led to Eli’s chest injury.

I think he should have been: It’s not as if Rodgers’ momentum carried him into Eli, and he knew Eli had released the ball when he delivered the initial hit.  Now, I suppose he’s entitled to that initial hit, but driving the force of his upper body as they went down was just unnecessarily rough, given that he knew Eli had thrown the ball.  And that’s what that was: unnecessary roughness.

Eli has downplayed the injury, but he always does.  But last year, the shoulder injury sustained in the opener against Dallas was much worse than anyone let on – I got this from Ralph Vacchiano’s Eli Manning: The Making of a Quarterback.  So on this one, it’s kind of anybody’s guess if he’ll be limited or not.

Last but not least, no discussion about Eli under pressure would be complete without mentioning this play. 

Here’s an amazing quote in Vacchano’s book from head Mike Carey, the Super Bowl’s head referee:

“It was like a scene out of National Geographic, where it’s a lion jumping on the back of a wild horse.  You could see him just desperately trying to pull out and some how he did.  Usually, a quarterback goes straight ahead when that happens and just tries to get yardage.  For some reason he turned around and ran back deeper into the pocket.  Lucky for him that he did.  He had a little safe haven.”

With a strong start, the New York Giants look like they are well on their way to defending its championship.

Eli Manning’s development has made the Giants on the best NFL football tickets out there. But it’s more than the younger Manning. Plaxico Burress has become one of the top receivers in football and Brandon Jacobs has taken up the mantle of the great Giant running backs of the past.

And then there’s the defense, which is why most fans buy New York Giants Tickets. Justin Tuck has become one of the best defensive linemen in the game, which is making the loss of Michael Stahan much easier.

It’s a great form of entertainment.

After the game, fans can go into the city and take in the sights and sounds of New York. And on non-football days, take the wife to a play with Broadway tickets, paticuallySouth Pacific tickets.

Not taking credit for the turnaround, Mets manager Willie Randolph admitted he gave Eli Manning a peptalk at a last year according to Dave Lennon of Newsday.

“I met Eli [Manning] right when they were on that run,” Randolph said today. “Not that I want to take credit for it, but I guess it sounds like that, I gave him a nice little pep talk. I saw him at a jewelry store. He got hot after that and never stopped, so that was kind of a cool. He’s a nice kid.”

As for today’s visit by Giants linebacker Antonio Pierce, Randolph was thrilled to have some of that Lombardi Trophy magic in camp.

More on Lennon’s blog at Newsday.

Just got it last night. I have to tell you, I expected something different; something closer to Giants Among Men or True Blue. 

The highlights only give you the games and nothing more and the music is pretty much the same throughout.

But the special features give you a lot. Interviews with Eli Manning, Tom Coughlin, Michael Strahan, for some reason, Mathias Kiwanuka highlight the extras. There’s also the two playoff games in Dallas and Green Bay and the Super Bowl Halftime show with Tom Petty.

I paid $21.99 at Blockbuster, but I am sure you can find it cheaper elsewhere.

The endorcements start. Eli is now in Gatorade’s League of Clutch commercial, which is pretty cool if you ask me.

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On Giants.com, there’s a good piece about Eli Manning and the lessons of the Super Bowl.

The protagonist of the drama is Eli Manning who, up until late December,2007, was badly and erroneously characterized by the press. He was not a good leader; indeed, he was a failed leader said they. “Eli the Terrible.” As a student of leadership, I could not concur in this judgment. What I saw in the man – the look in his eyes, his body language and speech – was a very good leader with great potential – albeit one not easily recognized in these times. I characterize Eli Manning’s style of leadership as that of the Knight, perhaps a Knight-errant on a quest. He’s the Blue Knight, a medieval man in modern metro New York! The strengths of his leadership resemble the chivalric ideals: Fortitude, Courage, Prudence and Humility employed in a high cause of self-development that is self-assessed. Modern media doesn’t know what to do with an individual like this.

Such a leader seems inscrutable because he needs little outside stimulus and doesn’t glory in the fawning and praise of others. He is first and foremost his own champion and gathers followers to fulfill a quest. His coach reports that after bad games, the Blue Knight would come to talk, passionate in his desire to be better.

Our society is more used to the charismatic leader like Tom Brady, or the methodical professional bureaucratic (strategy, x’s and o’s) leadership of a coach Bill Belichick. They are modern, they are high-tech-hip and plentiful in the corporate world.They seem totally reliable. But the founder of modern political science and leadership studies, Nicolo Macchiavelli of Renaissance Italy, strongly believed that in life and leadership, fortune (luck) counted about 50% .I wouldn’t put the figure that high, but when I discuss leadership in class or in my seminar, I ask students to consider seriously the element of luck.

Read all about it at Giants.com.