Manning laments poor play
Giants’ offense lacks finish
EAST RUTHERFORD, N. J. — Early in the fourth quarter, the scoreboard at the north end of Giants Stadium put up a cookie advertisement featuring quarterback Eli Manning, offering, “Good luck in your other sport,” which involves eating double-stuffed Oreos.
The Eagles had just scored again — their lead in the NFC divisional playoff game was up a seemingly insurmountable nine points. Manning was about to be down to one sport.
“When we needed to get something done, when we needed to get a spark and make a big play — that is when we didn’t do our best,” Manning said after Philadelphia finished off its 23-11 victory.
He didn’t offer alibis for his own play, for his first-quarter interception, thrown right to Eagles cornerback Asante Samuel, who returned it to the Giants’ 2-yard line.
“Just threw it high,” Manning said, saying the wind didn’t affect that ball at all. “I rolled out right and had [Domenik] Hixon open over the middle. The ball sailed on. You can’t throw it high over the middle. There’s a good chance it’s going to get intercepted.”
Manning, who was 15 for 29 for 169 yards, was asked about the absence of Plaxico Burress and gave the obvious answer, saying it’s not about Burress.
“We have players that can make plays and do things,” Manning said. “It’s not the issue.
“I have total confidence and faith in the guys we had out there. I could have hit them on a few more plays and we could have made things happen.”
Earlier, Manning had said, “It’s not like we came out here and they just flat-out beat us. We moved the ball, we had opportunities, we had chances, we just didn’t make the plays when we needed to.”
Giants coach Tom Coughlin would not blame the inconsistent Manning, who had trouble stringing plays together.
“All I can tell you is this — no one guy, no one person, lost that game out there,” Coughlin said. “. . . We were not effective enough with our pass opportunities. . . . Our third downs were not good. We’ve had a pretty good season in that regard, but today was not very good.”
At his news conference, Manning was unshaven and dressed casually, not dolled up for the cameras as he had been during last season’s Super Bowl run. Not even dressed for a cookie commercial.
“It’s a disappointment,” Manning said this time. “We felt this was a special team and that we could go far with this team.”
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