Eli Manning had his best game of the season in a win over the Dolphins Monday night. Some will point to his six-touchdown performance against the Saints several weeks ago, but the stakes were higher against Miami.
Manning’s determined leadership didn’t begin with kickoff, either. According to Ralph Vacchiano of the New York Daily News, Manning gave a “passionate speech” earlier in the week when some Giants players were fighting among themselves and the NFC East was seemingly slipping away.
Days before the Giants beat the Dolphins 31-24 to save their season and keep their playoff hopes alive, the 34-year-old Manning planted the seeds of victory with a passionate speech to his struggling teammates. He implored them to stick together. He told them it was time to step up and make plays. He told them “The playoffs start now” because they can’t afford any more losses at this stage of the season.
Then, even better, Manning went out and showed his teammates the way.
With the Eagles and Redskins having already won, Manning led the Giants to a much-needed victory by completing 27-of-31 passes — a franchise-record 87.1 percent — for 337 yards, four touchdowns and no interceptions.
“This week was just about having a sense of urgency about where we are,” Giants offensive lineman Marshall Newhouse said when asked about Manning’s speech. “It was kind of a do or die thing. That’s kind of what he was trying to convey: ‘We’re in playoff mode right now. Everyone’s going got to have a fire lit under them. Let’s start this run now. There’s no waiting around. We’ve given too many games away this year. There’s no waiting around anymore.’”
Manning has a reputation for making terrible decisions with the ball and committing ugly turnovers. The two-time Super Bowl champion also has a reputation for coming up big in clutch situations, and that’s exactly what we saw on Monday.
Eli has made some questionable decisions late in games this year, but the 6-7 Giants still have as good of a chance as anyone in the NFC East to win the division. That’s all that matters with just three games left on the schedule.
