Sports Radio Interviews

Eli Manning On His Sore Foot: “…It hasn’t affected my play and it’s not going to affect my play…”

A week after righting the ship against the Atlanta Falcons, the New York Giants stumbled in a major way on Thanksgiving. New York traveled to Denver and got thumped by the Broncos 26-6. The loss puts the Giants at 6-5 with just five games to go. They’re two back of the Dallas Cowboys, and one back of both the Philadelphia Eagles and the Green Bay Packers. The road won’t be getting any easier for the 2007 champs either. For one thing, they face Dallas and Philadelphia the next two weeks. That’s not such a bad thing though considering those are two teams they’re chasing. What’s more troubling is the fact that quarterback Eli Manning is dealing with a stress reaction in his foot. After playing clean games against the Falcons and the Chargers the previous two weeks, Manning struggled to muster much of anything against the Broncos tenacious defense. He completed just 24 of his 40 passing attempts for only 240 yards, 0 TDs and 1 INT.

Manning joined ESPN Radio New York to talk about how his foot is not bothering him, how he’s not concerned about the stress reaction turning in to a stress fracture, the disappointing loss on Thanksgiving and what’s wrong with the once-formidable Giants rushing attack.

On if he’s concerned about the stress reaction in his foot and if he’s concerned it’s effecting his play:

“No, I’m not concerned. It’s nothing new, I’d like to get that message across. It’s something that’s been going on for the last three or four weeks. And it’s not a big issue, it’s just kind of one of the deals that just happened from the plantar fasciitis – you start walking differently and you get some soreness, and that’s all it is, there’s some soreness. That’s all it is. It’s something that’s gotten better, you know, the whole foot, since it happened. So it’s nothing I’m worried about, it hasn’t affected my play and it’s not going to affect my play or being able to practice and do everything I need to do. So it’s no worse than it was three weeks ago and it’s getting better.”

On how his play could possibly not be affected if he’s experiencing pain his foot:

“I don’t feel it. During the game I’m not thinking about it. I can move in the pocket, I can run around, I can step into all my throws. So I never have a throw and say after the throw, ah well, I couldn’t step in to it. That’s never an excuse to myself or to the coaches when I’m studying my film or what not. Or hey, I couldn’t move in the pocket because of my foot; or you know, we can’t run this play. So it’s not like it’s a tremendous pain or keeping me from practicing or doing any drill work or what not. So I’m able to function and do everything I need to do. I’ve had injuries in the past that have been worse, and it’s just a soreness and all football players have soreness going in to Week 13 – whether it’s their shoulders, their knees, ankles – everything’s a little sore at this point. And it’s nothing I’m concerned about. I’ve been getting treatment and just trying to get it 100 %, and you know, I don’t know if it will get to 100 %, but it’s…I’m not complaining about it. There’s worse injuries you could have, there’s more annoying ones. This is just one, you know, the whole foot has kind of been a nagging thing for most of the season now. But I feel like I’ve adapted to it and can go out there and get the job done and play at the level I want to play.”

On if there’s a concern that the stress reaction will turn in to a stress fracture if he continues to play on it:

“Well I hope not and it hasn’t gotten worse in the last three or four weeks. It’s not like it’s getting to the point where after the game, I can’t go and practice. Especially coming after a short week last week where I was able to go out there Monday – even though Monday was mostly a walkthrough. But Tuesday we had a practice where usually we’re off for a couple of days after the game to rest it up. You know, it didn’t bother me to be able to do everything. So having the off week helped a little bit with it; having the time to rest; having this past weekend off to rest it. I tried to take advantage of it. But again, I’d like to get it…it’s one of those things where I’d like to get as healthy as I can be; I’d like to think of myself at 100 %, so I’m doing everything I can possibly do to get it where hopefully it won’t be any problem or anything I even think about or notice. But again, it’s not awful; it’s not effecting me and my play, and I’m able to do everything that I want to do.”

On the disappointing loss at Denver on Thanksgiving:

“Yeah, I wasn’t expecting that. The first half was just really bad, and you know, it was not what you wanted to do. You know, we really could just not get anything going. 1st down, we’d have a sack; twice we had 2nd and 19s, two different situations. One was after a completion and it was fumbled, and you lose 8 yards on that. So it was just little things and it’s hard to bounce back from those plays. In the second half, I thought we did play better. Not as well as we needed to, but we went out there, started moving the ball. We started throwing it better; we started running it better. But then we just had little things that hurt us. So we got down in the red zone and we’d have a penalty and all of a sudden you got 2nd and 20 again. Those things..it’s just hard to overcome those mistakes against a good defense like Denver. And then we had the three turnovers that obviously hurt us. You know, it was disappointing. It was not the game we wanted to play. I thought in the second half, we drove down there and had to settle for two field goals. If we had gotten at least one touchdown on one of those two drives and put a little pressure on Denver – kind of see how they react to that, just knowing, hey we’re just one touchdown; or if we had two touchdowns, we’re just 2 points down. Those types of situations. But you know, we had to settle for field goals and weren’t putting any pressure on them and they were able to get more points. So it was just – we never got the momentum going in our way. And it was disappointing because I thought we had a good week of practice even though it was on the short week. But we now know we’ve got five games, we would have liked to have gotten a win and not a whole lot of breathing room, just a touch. But we know we got a tough road ahead of us, but we’re going to kind of see what this team’s made out of with five games left, we’ve got to play great football. And this one coming with Dallas is a big game for us in the division and we need to come out there and play our best.”

On if he thinks the Giants are a playoff team given how the team’s played recently as well as the recent news that linebacker Antonio Pierce has been lost for the season:

“We’re going to find out. I think we are a playoff team. We have the talent and the guys that can definitely get there. We’re not in the exact position that you want to be in right now, but if we’re going to make the playoffs, we’re going to have to get hot and if we go in to the playoffs, we’re going to be a team that’s been playing real well and coming off a hot streak and playing our best football. So hopefully we can get that done andthat’s kind of how you want to end the season. That’s something we didn’t do last season – we started out hot and we faded and didn’t play well at the end, andthen took that to the playoffs. So, I’m hoping we can turn this thing around. I think we have the players and the character guys that can do that. Yeah, we’re frustrated and we’re disappointed in our play. But we’re going to work hard, we’re going to keep our heads up, prepare ourself and go fight. That’s one thing I know about this team – we’re going to go out there and compete and give it our best these next five weeks and see what can happen. I don’t make guarantees but we’re going to give it our best shot, go out and compete, and hopefully we can make a great run.”

Listen here to Manning with Michael Kay on ESPN Radio New York (interview begins at 14:30 mark)

Tags: Eli Manning, ESPN Radio New York, Michael Kay Show, New York Giants, NFC East, NFL playoff picture