Manning was 10-for-24 for just 125 yards with a nearly invisible 41.1 QB rating against Pittsburgh, his fewest yards since throwing for 123 against the Eagles in the second game after Plaxico Burress shot himself in the leg late in the 2008 season. That’s not counting the 119 yards he had in the final regular season game in ’08 when he played only the first half of a meaningless game.
By Gary Myers
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
PUBLISHED: SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 4, 2012, 11:14 PM
UPDATED: MONDAY, NOVEMBER 5, 2012, 2:18 AM
KEVIN HAGEN FOR NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Eli Manning sulks on the sidelines during Big Blue's loss to the Steelers.
Tom Coughlin was distraught that the Giants let down all the good people in the tri-state area who have been devastated by Hurricane Sandy and were counting on the Super Bowl champs to provide an enjoyable three-hour diversion from their problems.
There was no Mike Piazza tear-jerker moment for the Giants as there was in the bottom of the eighth inning for the Mets in the first post-9/11 game played in New York in 2001, no 80-yard touchdown pass in the final minute from Eli Manning, who was forced to evacuate his family from their Hoboken apartment, or game-saving sack from Mathias Kiwanuka, whose Hoboken townhouse eight blocks from Manning was overrun by foul-smelling sewage and forced his family into a hotel.
The Giants blew a 20-10 late third quarter lead to the Steelers and lost 24-20. They have been so accustomed to Manning providing fourth quarter magic and bailing them out, but they went three-and-out on all three of their fourth quarter possessions as they were outscored 14-0.
Manning may have two Super Bowls MVPs, but he is now in a big-time slump that has reached four games even though the Giants were able to win three of them.
“We’ve got to get him back on track,” Coughlin said. “He is our guy and we have to get him back playing the way he was a couple of weeks ago. And we have to do it in a hurry.”
Manning was 10-for-24 for just 125 yards with a nearly invisible 41.1 QB rating against Pittsburgh, his fewest yards since throwing for 123 against the Eagles in the second game after Plaxico Burress shot himself in the leg late in the 2008 season. That’s not counting the 119 yards he had in the final regular season game in ’08 when he played only the first half of a meaningless game.
His last sub-200 yard game had been in the 13th game of the 2010 season. He passed for over 200 yards in all 20 games he played last season and the first five games this year. That 28-game streak ended when he had just 193 yards against the 49ers on Oct. 14 when the first trouble signs surfaced after he failed to convert two Antrel Rolle interceptions on back-to-back possessions into touchdowns, despite getting the ball in point blank range each time.
He followed that up by throwing for 337 yards against the Redskins, but he really had a poor game with a bad late interception until tossing a game-winning 77-yard touchdown to Victor Cruz with 1:13 left. That camouflaged the developing problem.
Now he’s had back-to-back games under 200 yards for the first time since December of 2010.
How bad in this slump? In the games against the 49ers, Cowboys (192 yards) and Steelers, he’s thrown for 510 yards, the same total he had against the Bucs in the second game of the season. The Giants are so dependent on Manning that’s it hard to overcome when he is truly awful as he was against the Steelers.
Touchdown drives are turning into field goal drives. That happened five times in Dallas. He seems out of rhythm and comfortable only throwing to Cruz.
Manning denied he was in a slump and doesn’t agree that throws he was making earlier in the season aren’t there for him the last few weeks. “I feel like I’m throwing the ball accurately when I have opportunities. It’s just trying to find guys open and trying to just get in good situations,” he said.
The two biggest plays in the passing game on Sunday were the result of pass interference calls: A 41-yard pass intended for Hakeem Nicks that set up Andre Brown’s one-yard touchdown run in the second quarter and a 50-yard pass into the wind intended for Domenik Hixon that led to a missed field goal.
“I don’t feel off-rhythm,” Manning said. “I don’t feel like I’m throwing the ball inaccurately, I don’t feel like I’m missing guys, so I think it’s just a matter of getting back offensively to where we’re playing fast, making good decisions, guys are winning and we’ll hit them.”
Manning is trying so hard to make plays that it’s impacting his decision-making. His one interception against the Steelers was a poorly thrown ball to Cruz, who was doubled. Manning says he was hit as he threw it. “It was just a bad decision by me,” he said.
He had another pass that should have been picked off in the end zone. Last week, the Giants had one offensive touchdown, one defensive touchdown and five field goals. They had only one offensive touchdown against the Steelers.
Manning downplayed having to move out of his home last week having anything to do with his poor game Sunday. Coughlin refused to use the distractions of the week as an excuse. “Has everyone in this part of the world been affected by this tragic storm? Yes, we have,” he said. “But is that an excuse? No. We are professional football players. The game will go on.”
Coughlin said the Giants “wanted emotionally so badly to win the game for all our neighbors who are struggling and who need some type of inspiration. Of course, we didn’t provide it for them.”
It’s becomes nearly impossible to accomplish when the Super Bowl MVP quarterback is in a slump.
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