Joy of Eli Manning’s Return Is Fleeting in Giants’ Loss to Cowboys
On Pro Football
By BILL PENNINGTON DEC. 10, 2017
EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. — Giants fans were on their feet early Sunday afternoon, rising in an ovation as Eli Manning jogged onto the MetLife Stadium field having reclaimed his job as the team’s starting quarterback.
In that moment, it was as if all was right with the Giants again. The fan base and Manning, stung by a forced separation just a week earlier, were reunited.
If you closed your eyes, the Ben McAdoo era in Giants history seemed like an afterthought.
Less than three hours later, Giants fans were again on their feet early, this time to scurry from the stadium with haste and a familiar angst.
The Dallas Cowboys were well on their way to a 30-10 thumping of the Giants, whose record tumbled to a mortifying 2-11.
If there was an ovation in the grandstand in that instant, it came from beneath the private box of the Cowboys’ owner, Jerry Jones, where fans were tossing hats and other apparel toward Jones to autograph. Jones, smiling and giggling, obliged one and all, interrupting his celebratory mood in the Giants’ house only to look up when Manning threw his second interception of the final quarter.
Later, outside the Cowboys locker room, a grinning Jones said, “It was nice to see Eli out there again.”
So much for the storybook comeback that Giants fans, and Manning, might have imagined — and one they desperately needed. Instead, Sunday was another stomach punch — just more evidence of how enduringly disheartening the 2017 season will be for the Giants.
Even the most remotely positive outcomes were squashed Sunday. A Giants loss to Dallas could have been twisted into encouraging news because the winless Cleveland Browns had spent most of the day leading the Green Bay Packers.
A Browns victory and a Giants defeat would have meant that the Giants had at least a credible chance to have the first overall pick in next year’s draft. For the Giants, that might be the only good thing to say about a two-win season.
But alas, when it rains it pours. Not long after the Giants trudged off the MetLife turf as 20-point losers — as Jones was waving goodbye to his admirers in the grandstand — the Browns, who led Green Bay in the fourth quarter, 21-7, lost in overtime.
And so after an emotional 12 days that began with the benching of Manning, a move that spawned fury and outrage from fans, newspaper columnists and talk-radio hosts and led to the firings of McAdoo as coach and Jerry Reese as General Manager — a purge almost without precedent in Giants history — the team was seemingly back to square one. The Giants are overmatched, beaten down by injuries and lacking the cohesion it takes to sustain winning efforts.
Returning Manning to the starting lineup restored some equilibrium, but what ails the Giants will take months, and maybe years, to fully remedy. Giants fans might have hoped for some kind of cosmic boost from Manning’s presence in the huddle, and indeed, the Giants played with more energy and sense of purpose for three quarters, and the game was tied, 10-10, entering the fourth. But the Giants remain a flawed team, and with 19 players on season-ending injured reserve, the inexperience on the roster is manifest.
The Cowboys eventually exposed the Giants’ weaknesses and rawness. Rising for a last gasp, the fans implored Manning for one of his patented fourth-quarter comebacks. But the Giants’ offensive line is a patchwork of reserve players and, to protect Manning, the offensive game plan called for few downfield throws.
The Giants’ rally — if you could call it that — was a series of dump-off passes. It was a popgun approach when the Giants need a howitzer, and it did not end well. While the Giants offense was improved, Manning threw for only 228 yards, completing 31 of 46 passes with one touchdown and two interceptions.
Afterward, Manning was understandably torn between thanking fans for protesting his benching and lamenting another numbing defeat in a season full of them.
“It was a good crowd today, and I appreciate all the support these past weeks,” he said. “I’m sorry we couldn’t get them a better game. For three and a half quarters, we were right in the mix.”
Manning, who had started 210 consecutive Giants games before last weekend, when he was replaced by Geno Smith, was asked how he had envisioned Sunday’s game. He turned philosophical.
“The last few weeks have been difficult with losing my starting job and losing your head coach,” Manning said. “Those things are hard and they are personal. And they hurt. I don’t like losing a head coach; I take that personally. That’s on me for not doing my job. I don’t like losing my starting job — that’s personal also. It’s just tough right now. We’re trying to find something.”
What Manning seemed to be searching for was some sense of normalcy. But with three weeks left in what will most likely be one of the worst Giants seasons ever, familiarity will be elusive.
Sunday evening, the Giants’ interim head coach, Steve Spagnuolo, all but announced that Manning would again be the first-string quarterback in their next game, against the Philadelphia Eagles.
It means that Manning’s streak of consecutive starts will reach two.
Amid the Giants’ lost season of 2017, there are no guarantees after that.
AI
