This is not Eli Manning’s forte, taking the emotional temperature of his teammates, but he knew desperate times call for desperate actions. The Giants went into Sunday’s game with the Chiefs with a record of 1-8, and there was discussion during the week that Manning and the entire offense had to be more engaged.
“Just that we’ve got to do a better job keeping the energy up,’’ Manning said after a 12-9 upset victory in overtime at MetLife Stadium. “It’s easy to start before the game but before the second half, third quarter, celebrate the stops, get the offense going, communicate a little bit more and just keep the excitement going and take that the whole game.’’
It was going to be difficult for Manning, going without his top receiver, Sterling Shepard, who was not in uniform after reporting to the team facility on Saturday with a migraine headache.
“We felt it wasn’t in his best interest to play,’’ Ben McAdoo said.
Manning’s best interest is to have his passing options on the field, but it was not to be. Odell Beckham Jr. and Brandon Marshall are gone for the season and the loss of Shepard was noticeable, considering he was coming off a career-high 11-catch, 142-yard performance in last week’s loss to the 49ers. Manning had his rookie tight end, Evan Engram, who has at times been a force this season, but Engram was asked to play a heavy role in the run-blocking and pass protection and struggled as a receiver, dropping two passes and finishing with only one reception for 9 yards, not much for the six times Manning threw to him. So, Manning had to look elsewhere. Roger Lewis caught three passes for 55 yards. Tavarres King caught three passes for 48 yards. Travis Rudolph, an undrafted rookie, caught three passes for 34 yards. Lewis made the play of the game, as he was knocked to the turf as he was interfered with by cornerback Phillip Gaines and still managed to hold onto the ball for a 34-yard completion to set up the game-winning field goal.
“I thought [offensive coordinator Mike Sullivan] called an aggressive game in overtime,’’ Manning said. “Second-and-7, we checked to a run right there and got the first [down] and then hit a couple of nice plays to Roger Lewis and Tavarres King and then obviously Roger with the big play on fourth down down the left sideline. I thought the guys stepped up, were excited about the opportunity and we wanted to go get the win. We could smell it, we could taste it. It was there for us and we went and got it.’’