Eli Manning Reaches ELIte Status

At the beginning of this season, Eli Manning made some bold statements about how he viewed himself. He told reporters he believed that he was in the same category as Tom Brady. When Eli made that comment this pre-season, he received lots of criticism from a variety of different people, including myself.

As the season started, Eli got off to decent start, but nowhere near the insane first game of Tom Brady. Eli threw for 268 yards in a losing effort against the Redskins, while Brady threw for 517 yards and 4 touchdowns. It looked like his comparison might fall short this season, but as the season progressed, it started to look like maybe Eli’s bold statement didn’t seem so absurd.

Heading into his bye week, Manning had thrown for 1,728 yards 11 TDs and 5 ints. While these aren’t the stats of an elite quarterback, Manning was beginning to show his critics that you can’t spell elite without Eli. He kept up his performance coming out of the bye week, and even beat the quarterback he had compared himself to. In that game Brady threw for more yards, but he also threw more interceptions than Eli did.

But after that upset win over the Patriots, Eli and the Giants went into a tailspin of four straight losses that almost kept them out of the playoffs. After a close win over Dallas and a big loss to the Redskins, the Giants were sitting at 7-7, with little to no hope to squeeze into the playoffs. They needed to win out to even have a chance.

That is when the Giants and Eli got hot at the right time. The running game and defense all started to click again and Eli was playing like a wizard when had the ball in his hand. He was looking off safeties and avoiding pressure, like he was an elite quarterback in the league. With two consecutive wins over the Jets and Cowboys — where Eli threw for 225 and 346 yards respectively — the Giants were looking much better than a 9-7 team.

All of this culminated in a blow out win over the Atlanta Falcons in the wildcard round, where he threw for 227 yards and three touchdowns. In the divisional round against the Packers, Eli managed to out duel Aaron Rodgers for the upset win. In the conference championship Eli, had to go up against the most physical defense in the league the 49ers. He was under duress all night, but was still able to throw for 316 yards and 2 scores, even though he was sacked six times and hit or running out of the pocket countless other times.

All of this lead to a rematch of the 2007 Super Bowl, when Eli and the Giants upset the then perfect Pats. Going into the game the Giants were 3 point under dogs, but Eli had all but silenced the critics of his preseason comments about his elite status. In the regular season, Eli had thrown for 4,933 yards, 29 touchdowns and 16 interceptions — all elite numbers. He added to those numbers in the post season throwing 1,169 yards 9 TDs and only 1 int.

In the Super Bowl against the Pats, Eli threw for 296 yards and 1 score. Manning’s brightest spot was the play of the game to Mario Manningham. Manning looked off the two deep safeties and lofted a beautiful pass to Manningham, who made a breathtaking sideline catch, while getting slammed into by Patrick Chung. It was a perfectly placed pass made by the hottest quarterback in the game.

After an outstanding season and a nearly flawless post season highlighted with his second Super Bowl MVP award — something only 4 other players had ever done: Terry Bradshaw, Joe Montana, Bart Starr and, the person Eli compared himself to, Tom Brady. After all that he has accomplished this season and post season, Eli Manning has truly shown us that you can’t spell ELIte without Eli.

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