GOTCHA! Mathias Kiwanuka forces a JaMarcus Russell fumble during yesterday’s 44-7 romp over the Raiders yesterday at Giants Stadium.
Sometimes we forget, or fail to appreciate, the mettle of this man, this quarterback, this Giant. He delivered a Super Bowl, against all odds, and still there were cries of anguish when the Giants made him their $100 Million Man.
Eli Manning, playing less than one half on one good foot, threw those naysayers under the bus yesterday, the way the Giants threw the Masqueraiders and their beer-league quarterback JaMarcus Russell under the bus, 44-7. The Giants are lucky to have him.
“He looked comfortable,” Archie Manning said.
Archie had been leaning against a wall in the tunnel waiting for his youngest boy to exit the field, and the two of them walked and smiled together on Eli’s way to the Big Blue locker room. Their next reunion comes Sunday in the Superdome, when 5-0 Eli plays there for the first time, against his father’s old team, the 4-0 Saints.
Eli will be there. You can count on it. You can count on him.
“I was a big Saints fan — my dad was announcing the games when I was growing up for most of the time, and so I’d go to every home game, traveled with him a few times and saw some away games” Eli said. “My brothers and I, we’d go to every home game. It’ll be good to go back to the Superdome, I’m really excited about that.”
Archie talked about how good these Saints are and said: “Peyton’s been there a couple of times, so we’ve been through that. I’ll be there, and I’ll be pulling hard for the Giants.”
It was a certainty only after pregame warm-ups that Eli would be allowed to drag his right plantar fasciitis into battle.
“Hey,” he told Tom Coughlin, “it feels good.”
David Carr was fairly certain that he would be the backup again in the locker room when the quarterbacks talked offense.
“He was really locked in, he wasn’t concerned about his foot — that’s one of the things he did a good job of is kinda putting it out of his mind, worry about it later,” Carr said.
Eli doesn’t get any Purple Heart for willing himself to play. Football players play. Franchise quarterbacks play.
But Mannings always play, even if they barely practice.
“You want to go out there and just be with your buddies, be with the guys out there,” Eli said. “Offensive linemen, they play injured every week, they’re all banged up and this and that so, as long as I didn’t think I was gonna put myself in a worse condition playing the game, I knew I’d be out there.”
And never mind that Y.A. Tittle, even now, could have quarterbacked the Giants to victory against those Silver & Black stumblebums.
“He knew that we count on him, and he doesn’t want to let his guys down,” Shaun O’Hara said. “That’s why we love him.”
Eli’s bodyguards guarded their crown jewel with extra urgency. Some extra tape and orthotics gave Eli the extra support he needed.
“I felt I was able to push off and plant and make all the throws,” Eli said. “Once I started playing, I wasn’t gonna think about it, and just go out there and play.”
His perfect 43-yard strike down the right sideline to Steve Smith was all you needed to see. Eli (8-for-10, 173 yards, 2 TDs) directed four touchdowns on his first four series, and at 28-7, he was done.
“I didn’t tell Coach [Kevin] Gilbride or Coughlin, ‘Hey, don’t run this, or don’t do that,’ ” Manning said.
He suffered no setback, which means the Giants dodged a bullet, and he hopes to practice this week. Eli’s consecutive games streak is 76. Big Brother Peyton’s is 181.
“They have been so blessed,” Archie said. “And you have to be lucky. They always play. Even in high school, they had nicks in college . . . they’ve been fortunate.”
Archie chuckled when he said: “My phone rang off the hook this week with people who have this . . . with their own personal remedies.”
The wackiest?
“One guy told me, ‘You absolutely have to stretch it before you get out of bed in the morning — don’t get up,’ ” Archie said. “I’ve known [Giant medical quarterbacks] Dr. [Russell] Warren and Ronnie Barnes long before Eli came to town; I figured I’m not getting involved in voodoo treatment.”