Trent Dilfer gave some extremely high praise for Eli Manning after the Giants beat the 49ers in a sloppy but exciting overtime NFC championship game this past Sunday. The praise was so high, that I had to look a little more closely at Dilfer’s claims.
“Eli Manning was as good today as you can play quarterback in the NFL. Never was he more brilliant than on the critical downs, the third down plays that defined the game. He was brilliant on every critical third down. Eli Manning was as good as you can possibly be.”
Luckily, ESPN has play-by-play stats on the whole game, and they’re very helpful.
Eli ran a total of 19 plays on 3rd down. I’m not counting two 3rd downs in which he spiked the ball to kill the clock. Here’s a chart of his 3rd down plays broken by quarter and effectiveness:
Qtr total gained 1st failed results of plays
1st 5 3 2 1 inc, 1 sack, 3 complete
2nd 3 2 1 1 sack, 1 complete, 1 TD
3rd 4 0 4 3 inc, 1 sack
4th 5 1 4 3 inc, 1 TD, 1 short gain
OT 2 0 2 1 inc, 1 sack
Tot 19 6 13 8 inc, 4 sacks, 7 completions
Really Trent? Brilliant? Out of 19 plays on 3rd down, Eli was sacked four times, threw five incompletions, and six completions. Six of 19? That’s less than 33%. That is not brilliant. Dilfer also crowed that Manning had no interceptions, but hold off there a second. With less than two minutes in the 3rd quarter at their own 32, Manning put a ball 10 feet away from any Giant and right into the hands of not one but two SF deepbacks. The problem was they collided, neither caught the ball, and the Giants punted. If the collision did not knock 49er Tarell Brown out of the game and the ball out of his hands, it would have been 49er ball in Giants territory with a 4-point lead and in position to make it either a 7 or 11-point lead. It goes down as yet another incompletion, but it was way off target and could have easily been a game changer.
The Giants two touchdown drives were at the beginning of the 2nd quarter and early in the 4th quarter. As for the 4th quarter, let’s keep in mind that the Giants had just gone 3 and out and punted on 4th and 15 on their own 15 yard line. It was only because the 49ers muffed the punt and basically gave the Giants 46 yards of offense, taking them from 4th down on their own 15 to 1st down on the 49er 29 yard line. The only reason Manning was in position for a second touchdown was because of a 49er fumble after Manning had failed on a 3rd and 15 with yet another incomplete pass and a sack.
Did the Giants win? Of course. Do they deserve to be in the Superbowl? Certainly. However, to call Manning “brilliant” and to say he was “brilliant on every critical 3rd down” is just absurd.
