Eli Manning: “We’re Confident That We Can Get Back to Playing Good Football”
November 3, 2009 – 11:10 am by Chris Fedor
It has been an interesting season so far for the Giants. It really started in the offseason when Plaxico Burress who shot himself in the leg last season, was released by the team and ultimately sent to jail. However, after feasting on some weaker opponents, the Giants started out the season undefeated at 5-0 and people started to forget about Burress and started thinking that the Giants could realistically contend for a Super Bowl in the NFC. Since their red-hot start, the Giants have now lost three straight games, Eli Manning looks nothing like a top-ten quarterback in the NFL, the receivers have slowed down their production a bit and the defense has given up 112 points in the last 3 games combined.
It’s safe to say, the Giants are reeling right now and have fallen behind both Dallas and Philadelphia for the top spot in the brutally tough NFC East. They need to get things turned around this week and for the third straight week their defense will have their hands full with another explosive offense in the San Diego Chargers.
Eli Manning joined ESPN 1050 in New York to talk about what has happened to the Giants since the 5-0 start, whether the easier schedule inflated the record, on how his foot is feeling, and whether or not the team has lost any confidence.
On what has happened since the hot start:
“I wish I had the answers because if I had the answers it would be easier to fix. You just say let’s just change this and we’ll be good to go, but we just kind of reached the point where we were just not playing good football. It’s all the way around and we’re just not consistent and it’s hurting us. We just have to find a way to get back to being consistent. I’ve always said winning a football game, it’s not easy. It’s not easy at all, you never take a win for granted and the first five weeks it almost felt easy. It almost seemed easy and I think you lose one and you say ‘oh it’s a loss it won’t happen again and we’ll just keep doing what we’re doing and we’ll get back to that winning edge.’ We just haven’t found that way to win yet. We gotta keep fighting. I know we will. I got no question or doubt about the character of our team. The players, we want to win, we’re willing to put in the commitment and the effort to win and so we just gotta get back to work, get out there and compete this week and see if we can find a way to win.”
On how the weak schedule helped their good start:
“Well I think it’s a combination of everything. We were definitely playing better earlier in the year. We weren’t making mistakes, we were converting on third downs and we had a great confidence about us. We were very productive, we were just consistent in moving the ball. We played Dallas and we played Washington, obviously their record is not great, but they are still a talented defense and have good players. We were definitely playing better, but these last few weeks we just haven’t played as well as we’ve needed to, the competition has been better and we haven’t stepped up our play. When you play in big games and you play against tough teams, you’ve gotta step up your play and we haven’t done that.”
On whether the injury to his foot is effecting his play:
“No. My foot feels great. I’m not really having to tape it up or do anything differently to it. This is kind of the first week where it has felt really, really good, so that wasn’t any reason for the performance, (or) the lack of performance this week I would say. It finally feels like I’m done with the foot issue and I’m over that. (My) Body is feeling healthy and strong, so I feel like I’m coming back to where I want to be health-wise. It’s just kind of the way it goes sometimes. That’s not an issue. I was in a great rhythm before the injury and you can get out of whack a bit just because you’re trying to overcompensate something and just get you off just a touch. I just have to work really hard on my fundamentals this week, I have been doing it the last week, but I think I can really just concentrate on getting back where I need to be. Make sure everything, my movement in the pocket, my throwing motion, everything is back to where I want it and I can get back in rhythm.”
On losing confidence:
“No. That’s something that we’ve talked about. That can’t be a problem. Not every game is going to start perfect. You’re not always going to have a lead. We can’t get down on ourself, we can’t get out of our game plan, out of our confidence, we can’t start forcing things because we’re down seven points or we’re down a little bit. We just have to stay within our offense. We’re confident. We’re confident that we can get back to playing good football. We’ve been through slumps before. That’s part of football and you go through tough times and as a team, this unit has been through them in the past and we’ve come out and we’ve come out strong. Hopefully you go through a season and you don’t have them. Usually you’re gonna have a game or two when you’re not playing your best football. We’ve had three in a row. It’s no fun, but if your gonna have it, this is kind of when you want to get it out of the way. Get this bad football out of the way. Let’s learn from our mistakes, let’s fix the problems now so when we get into this game and the second half of the season…Once you get into November and December that’s when you want to be playing your best football. That’s when you want to get hot and that’s when these games really mean something in the playoff picture. That’s where you want to gain your confidence.”
Listen to Eli Manning on ESPN Radio New York with Michael Kay (Eli Manning interview starts at the 29 minute mark)
Tags: Eli Manning, ESPN New York, Michael Kay, New York Giants, NFC East, NFL
