http://www.nypost.com/seven/11272007...ame_674860.htm
November 27, 2007 -- THE truth hurts Eli Manning, but he prefers to hide it from outsiders. But 24 hours after his dog day afternoon, Manning recognized that the game was up. So he shed that stoic mask he wears while standing calmly and patiently for half an hour at his locker and offered a blunter version of the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth about his unacceptable, unconscionable nightmare against the Vikings.
The BLAME ME version rather than the Mama-Said-There'd-Be-Days-Like-This version you heard from him after the shame game.
"I took responsibility for the loss; I threw three interceptions that went back for touchdowns," Manning said. "I threw another one that gave them great field position for a touchdown.
"It was my deal."
If you have never been an Eli Manning fan, then today you are firmly ensconsed in the camp that is virtually certain that he will never be a franchise quarterback or win a championship for the Giants.
If you are a Giants fan, you are undoubtedly wishing today that Ernie Accorsi hadn't made that blockbuster Draft Day trade four years ago for Manning and stayed put and let Ben Roethlisberger fall in his lap.
If you are a Giants owner, or general manager, you may for the first time be creeping, however reluctantly, toward the realization that you better at least start thinking about a search for your next franchise quarterback.
Forget the last name is Manning. He was the first overall pick of that 2004 draft. New York expected a star. He has been a good quarterback on days when he isn't skittish in the pocket and throwing off his back foot and hurrying throws. But good isn't good enough, not at these prices.
"I think I'm getting better," Manning said. He's gotten better from one year to the next but not better enough. He promises to keep trying. "Being a quarterback, there's pressure on you and you have a lot of expectations, and your team expects you to play well, and put you in a situation to win," Manning said, "and [Sunday] I didn't do that."
Manning needs to get up in a hurry over the final five games of his fourth season, starting Sunday in Chicago against Rex Grossman, and finally put together a sustained period of excellence in December.
And make sure that New York will not remember him some day as E-lie.
E-lie: a quarterback who requires a strong supporting cast to get to where the franchise wants to go.
Eli: a franchise quarterback who makes everyone around him better.
E-lie: a quarterback who displays flashes of brilliance, then gives you a four-interception clunker on a day perfectly set up for him to be Eli.
Eli: a quarterback who gives you a blinding light show week after week after week.
Manning was asked if Giants fans have a right to expect greatness from him.
"Sure," he said, "but in greatness bad games still occur."
How does he see himself as a quarterback?
"I'm just trying to win games; there's definitely room for improvement . . . you don't look at one game and assess how you're playing for a season or your career," he said.
Correct. But no one cares big brother Peyton threw six interceptions earlier in the year; everyone yawns when Tom Coughlin reminds the world that Johnny Unitas once threw five in one game. Let's talk after Eli wins his first playoff game.
I asked him if he's the right man for this job.
"Yeah, I'm the right guy for the job," Manning said.
How do you know?
"Because I want to be here . . . I'm excited about being the quarterback of the Giants, I'm excited about what we're doing and some of the talent that we have on this team and what we can accomplish and it's just a matter of putting everything together and doing it," he said.
He doesn't read the papers or listen to talk radio, but he must know New York is growing impatient with him. Will he ever be great? Highly doubtful. He just isn't a great thrower of the football. Do you choose to write him off because he looked like a rookie Sunday? That's your right. Me? I still maintain that it's too early for any definitive judgments about what his career will ultimately look like.
In the meantime, wherein lies the truth?
Eli? Or E-lie?
Eli Takes Blame 
Linear Mode
