Now that the Giants have won the Super Bowl and Eli Manning was named the game’s MVP, it’s fun to look back at some of the things said before the season began.
If you follow fantasy football closely, you may recall that Eli’s draft stock fell after he failed to throw a touchdown in the preseason. The New York media strongly emphasized his preseason struggles, telling Giants fans there was something to worry about.
This was written by Mike Garafolo of the Newark Star-Ledger on August 30th after the team lost 17-3 to the Jets in the preseason.
Truth be told, Eli Manning did not have the best of training camps. He was very much out of sync with his receivers, misfiring on plenty of deep balls, overcooking some short passes and putting passes over the middle in places that might have gotten receivers crushed in live games.
It’s all gone underreported and underanalyzed because, well, it’s Manning and he tends to be erratic in practices. Often, it doesn’t translate to the field, so there was little concern.
Until now.
In a 17-3 preseason loss to the Jets tonight, Manning and the Giants’ passing game were shaky, as he compiled a somewhat deceptively good stat line (15-for-30 for 200 yards) while throwing a pair of interceptions, looking jumpy in the pocket and seeming to be on a much different page than his receivers.
It might have been his last action of what has proven to be one of the worst preseasons of his career and (so far) his first since his rookie season without a touchdown pass.
Out of sync, misfiring, and having the worst preseason of his career? Yeah, that all looks pretty stupid now, doesn’t it? I never really bought into this overly dramatic reporting. Were we supposed to believe that Eli Manning suddenly lost the ability to play quarterback? That’s what some members of the New York media were trying to get us to think. Eli fell in fantasy drafts and became a sleeper, rewarding the people who stuck with him and took him late.
So what’s the point here? It’s obvious that preseason play has no bearing on the regular season. Also, when you hear panic coming from the media (especially the New York media always looking to create a story), feel free to ignore it.
