NY Giants Rush – Film Session: Week 13
by Tom Peticca (@peticca95)
The Giants had a chance to prove they undoubtedly belong with the big dogs on Sunday and they did the exact opposite. Big Blue played their most talented opposition in weeks and it showed. They seemed outmatched from the start.
The $100 million defense played well enough to win, but it was the offense that really struggled. Nobody struggled more than Eli Manning, who probably played his worst game of the season and is the focus of this week’s film session…Dog of the Week.
I don’t think anyone would disagree that Eli was just flat out bad in Pittsburgh on Sunday. The offense goes as he goes and Eli did not give the offense a chance. From the start Eli was missing easy passes. On a third down and short he under threw a check down to the flat that more likely than not would have resulted in a first down. Down 5-0 Eli had a wide open Larry Donnell in the end zone that would’ve given the Giants the lead (assuming Donnell catches it, which is by no means a guarantee). Instead, Eli threw it right into the hands of Lawrence Timmons for the first of his 2 interceptions of the day.
Eli once again continued his trend on throwing to a covered Will Tye on crucial 3rd and 4th down plays. When you have receivers like Odell, Sterling Shepard and even Victor Cruz, going to a below average tight end on big plays just doesn’t seem to make sense. Cruz also didn’t see one pass thrown his way this week. Back to back weeks that Eli ignored one of his 3 main receivers after Sterling Shepard didn’t see any targets last week. With receivers this talented Eli has to spread the wealth more, it sets up more big play opportunities because you can’t cover all three.
The point is heading into these final 4 weeks Eli needs to play his best football of the season, especially on Sunday night football against Dallas. Each of the Giants final 4 games are equally as big. All in conference and 3 out of the 4 are divisional games. The way I see it is 10-6 will most likely get the Giants into the playoffs and 11-5 will absolutely get the job done. The thing is none of these games are cupcakes like the Bears or Browns. Eli needs to get the Giants playing their best football of the season right now
Get hot and get in and anything can happen.