Eli screwed the pooch

[RiverDog]

Anyone watch SNF? Giants up by 3, 3rd down and goal inside the Cowboys 2, under 2 minutes left in the game, Cowboys with no timeouts remaining. Eli rolls out, under pressure, throws the ball away. Giants take a FG, make it a 6 point lead, Cowboys mount a game winning drive, scoring a touchdown with less than 10 seconds left.

Why in the hell didn't Eli take the sack? If anything, it would have helped his FG kicker to get a few more yards away from the goal posts and more importantly, could have taken another 30 seconds off the clock.

Eli Manning is one of the smartest quarterbacks in the league. I think he scored something like a 37 on his Wonderlic when he was a rookie, which is very good. So where was his head on that play?

[Hawktawk]

That's on Coughlin first of all. Why take a chance on stopping the clock in that situation? But yeah Eli was extremely boneheaded and the look on his face as the ball sailed away told it all, he already had figured it out.
But like a pick you cant get it back. That extra 45 seconds or more opened up the middle of the field and underneath routes to the Boys and you got to tip your hat to Romo. Carved em up like Swiss cheese with no Dez. He's out 4 to 6 weeks and it will hurt the boys but Romo seems to be on an extremely elite level.

[c_hawkbob]

Never mind, I see it, it's the time component. Yeah, a sack woulda been better. But sacks hurt.

[RiverDog]

That's on Coughlin first of all. Why take a chance on stopping the clock in that situation? But yeah Eli was extremely boneheaded and the look on his face as the ball sailed away told it all, he already had figured it out.
But like a pick you cant get it back. That extra 45 seconds or more opened up the middle of the field and underneath routes to the Boys and you got to tip your hat to Romo. Carved em up like Swiss cheese with no Dez. He's out 4 to 6 weeks and it will hurt the boys but Romo seems to be on an extremely elite level.

It wouldn't have been 45 seconds. The play clock is 40 seconds. They could have taken all the time off the play clock and take the 5 yard delay of game or snapped it with just a second or two left. Clearly at least 35+ seconds. Plus they had another 20 seconds or so earlier in the same drive that they left on the clock after an administrative timeout, although that one wasn't as grievous as Eli's brain fart.

I'm not prepared to lay that one on Coughlin for the play call. You score there, game over. Perhaps someone should have reminded Eli of the game situation, but my Lord, the man is one of the most experienced quarterbacks in the league. It is inexcusable.

Kudos to Romo, but it's doubtful he would have gotten into a situation to score a TD with 30 less seconds. Eli's mistake was huge.

[Hawktawk]

Eli was not sacked he threw the ball away. I would be surprised if at least a few more seconds hadn't run off the clock if he had died hard instead of throwing it up. That's where my 45 second estimate came from. Bob is right sacks hurt. Manning boys don't like contact very much.

[mykc14]

Never mind, I see it, it's the time component. Yeah, a sack woulda been better. But sacks hurt.

Sacks do hurt. Although he could have fallen to the ground in the fetal position like Peyton does anytime he feels contact coming. As far as the OP goes, this is about as bad a decision as a QB of his experience can make. Maybe Coughlin shouldn't have called a pass (I don't think he should have) but at the very least he should know his QB should be smart enough to only throw it if he is WIDE open and take a sack if he isn't.

[Zorn76]

That Giants choked harder than we did yesterday, which is sayin' something, lol.

[Hawktawk]

LMAO so did the Colts, Lions, lots of sexy picks. Its early.

[Seahawks4Ever]

Dealing with our own loss I could care less if Eli screwed up or not. I too did the math and knew that the Giants left way too much time on the clock. Oh, and once again the "prevent the win" defense rears its ugly head.

[Futureite]

Anyone watch SNF? Giants up by 3, 3rd down and goal inside the Cowboys 2, under 2 minutes left in the game, Cowboys with no timeouts remaining. Eli rolls out, under pressure, throws the ball away. Giants take a FG, make it a 6 point lead, Cowboys mount a game winning drive, scoring a touchdown with less than 10 seconds left.

Why in the hell didn't Eli take the sack? If anything, it would have helped his FG kicker to get a few more yards away from the goal posts and more importantly, could have taken another 30 seconds off the clock.

Eli Manning is one of the smartest quarterbacks in the league. I think he scored something like a 37 on his Wonderlic when he was a rookie, which is very good. So where was his head on that play?

He sure did. The minute he threw it, I yelled "Why didn't you just eat the sack?" at my TV. The call to pass was dumb too though. A run would have not only bled the clock, but it would have used about an extra 10 seconds total before the clock was wound and the FG attempt completed. Cowboys would have had the ball with about 40 seconds left, and the game is over. 1 easy call, and the game is over. Poor execution all the way around.

Then again, after that play I was also really looking forward to watching Romo in the 2 min drill. I could care less how many times he has or hasn't choked (every QB does). He definitely has that clutch gene in the last 2 minutes. Reminds me of what Staubach would have been had I been old enough to watch him.

[RiverDog]

Dealing with our own loss I could care less if Eli screwed up or not. I too did the math and knew that the Giants left way too much time on the clock. Oh, and once again the "prevent the win" defense rears its ugly head.

Not me. Next to the Hawks winning, I want to see the Cowboys lose, and that's even after taking into consideration that I picked them to win.

As far as sacks hurting, give me a break! He curls up in the fetal position, protects himself and the ball, and goes down, no problem. Eli just signed a monster contract, he can damn well take one for the team for the kind of money they're paying him if that's what it took, but it wasn't necessary. If I were a Giants fan, I'd be really pizzed.

I don't have a problem throwing the ball in that situation so long as there was a clear understanding that the ball didn't leave his hands unless his receiver was wide open. It was a similar dilemma to that of our infamous last call in SB 49, didn't mind the call to pass the ball nearly as much as that specific pass play and Russell should have never let go of that ball unless his guy was wide open.

[mykc14]

And another twist to this story that shows Eli actually screwed the pooch twice. We already talked about how he should have taken a sack, but apparently he told Jennings not to score on their first down play:

"I told (Rashad) not to score ... I thought we were on the same page, to try to get as close as possible, but not get into the end zone. I was wrong with that." Manning said.

Wow, that is just terrible. Worse than not taking the sack, IMO. Had he scored they would have been up by 10 points with 1:50 left. A QB with Eli's pedigree shouldn't make a mistakes like that, but two huge ones like that? Crazy.

[Hawktawk]

Just goes to show the wonderlic doesnt measure common sense.

[RiverDog]

And another twist to this story that shows Eli actually screwed the pooch twice. We already talked about how he should have taken a sack, but apparently he told Jennings not to score on their first down play:

"I told (Rashad) not to score ... I thought we were on the same page, to try to get as close as possible, but not get into the end zone. I was wrong with that." Manning said.

Wow, that is just terrible. Worse than not taking the sack, IMO. Had he scored they would have been up by 10 points with 1:50 left. A QB with Eli's pedigree shouldn't make a mistakes like that, but two huge ones like that? Crazy.

I saw that! WTF? Scoring a touchdown makes it a two score game with under two minutes and no timeouts for the Cowboys. I don't know if they can calculate odds for a situation like that, but they have to be about 98% or so under those circumstances. He can't be that stupid. Forrest Gump has Eli Manning beat all to hell.

Over the course of the past 24 hours, I've lost a ton of respect for Eli Manning.