ENOUGH ELI

Seems that every time the Giants play Minnesota it’s either a game of giveth or taketh. In one game the Giants are the fearsome drubber. The next they’re the dreadful drubbee. Seldom is there ever a gray area when these two teams meet. As for Sunday’s 41-17 thrashing at the Meadowlands, the Vikings could have been shouting “Valhalla” by the second play of the game.

We’ve seen this so much in the Fassel-Coughlin era, the Giants first showing such promise only to follow up the next week as utter duds. Though the Giants 16-10 victory in Detroit the week before wasn’t the most convincing of wins, it was at least enough to show that they could beat another team in playoff contention. So here come the visiting Vikings; supposedly an even lesser foe than the fast fading Lions, yet the Giants, as they have for the past ten years or so, show once more that they’re the most bipolar team in the NFL. Sure, the Giants have let games slip away; the playoff collapse in San Francisco five years ago will still take an entire generation to shake off. Heck, they’ve even let seasons slip away…but not this time. This time it will finally be different. As cynical as the Big Blue faithful are, there’s still a wide eyed belief that any team can still be beat.

That said, there is something about Sunday’s loss that cuts deeper than the fact that the Giants completely failed to show up. That they again -- in a supposedly fourth season under the “disciplinarian” reign of Tom Coughlin -- got called for stupid penalties, couldn’t tackle, catch, or run correct patterns. What cuts deeper about this game is that it marks the official point where Eli Manning’s pendulum has swung to the side of being a bust. Better said, two, five or ten years down the road, when the dust finally settles on whether or not Manning was the real deal or not, the point where hope truly faded will be traced to this game. Nobody expected a Manning miracle, at least not right away. There’s been plenty of data to show that Eli, at this stage in his career, is roughly at the same point where brother Peyton was with his career in Indianapolis; we know, we know, we know. But there was something about Peyton that showed some fire, determination and commitment to make the once moribund Indianapolis Colts into a winner. By New York standards, lots of patience has been shown with Eli. We’ve seen rookie Eli, first-year-as-a-starter Eli, that’s-why-we-gave-a-king’s-ransom-to-San Diego Eli, and fire Ernie Accorsi Eli. He’s made miracle comebacks as much as he’s given games away (though the latter seems to be what’s best remembered). We’ve sampled all the combinations this Chinese menu of a quarterback has to offer, but now we’re feeling the after affects of MSG.

For the record, Manning tied his career worst with four interceptions Sunday of which three (Darren Sharper 20 yards, Dwight Smith 93 yards and Chad Greenway 37 yards) were returned for touchdowns; indirectly becoming the Vikings top scorer while only throwing one TD pass to Plaxico Burress in a garbage time score. Afterwards Manning said, “They just had a good plan. They made plays when we didn’t. I didn’t play real well. I kept turning the ball over. They just outperformed us and they made a lot of good plays.”

And that’s where the concern lies. No so much that Manning stunk up the joint, but this perennial nonchalantness, this aw shucks attitude, this filling station goofball who pliantly asks if it’s OK to check the oil. In the past, when Manning was first getting broken into the league, his demeanor was positively spun as “unflappable” and “even keeled”. This is fine in a September match-up against the Arizona Cardinals, but with December looming, in his third full year as a starter, against a mediocre opponent at home, it’s time to step up and win…period. Enough of the drawling euphemisms. Seems that Manning is nothing more than a wealthy doll that says “I just got to make more plays” whenever the string in his back is pulled. We don’t expect Manning to take some magic pill and start snapping wet towels against the backsides of his teammates, but we do expect some fire. Thus far, Eli Manning’s approach to quarterbacking the New York Giants seems as much of a rote exercise as a cube dweller waiting for 5 O’clock. We’ve allowed a certain threshold for this “franchise quarterback” to settle into his groove, but time is up now. The pendulum has swung…

With the playoff picture starting to shape up, one would hope that the Giants would not choose the more difficult road, but alas, they have yet again. Next week the Giants travel to Soldier Field to play a very psyched up Chicago team who pulled off a huge comeback win Sunday against Denver. The week after, they’re at “The Linc” against a resurgent Philadelphia team who just gave New England their biggest scare of the season. After a six game winning streak earlier in the season, one would finally hope the Giants would be in pole position for a Wild Card berth. But these are the Giants, and this may be our quarterback for a long, long, time.