When Eli Manning has been really good, the New York Giants have won games. When he’s been anything less than really good, the Giants have lost.
Manning completed 18 of 35 passes for just 199 yards with a touchdown against the Packers in a 23-16 loss on Sunday night. Manning’s performance is vital to the team’s success and coming off three straight defeats, he knows he needs to up his level of play.
“It doesn’t matter. I didn’t play as well as I needed to last week,” Manning said, via Jordan Raanan of ESPN.com. “Missed some throws. I’ve got to play better, make some more throws, better decisions, can’t turn the ball over.
“But we’ll improve. We’ll keep working hard and figure it out.”
In the Giants’ two victories, Manning has posted passer ratings over 100 and completed at least 68 percent of his passes. In their three losses, Manning has been far more pedestrian. Despite throwing for 350 yards against Washington, Manning was intercepted twice. The last two weeks, he’s completed less than 57 percent of his attempts and posted passer ratings of 63.3 and 78.2.
While passer ratings aren’t an all-encompassing measure of quarterback play, it points to a lack of efficiency in the Giants’ passing game.
Even with the two victories, New York has been held to 20 points or less in four of their five games. They rank 27th in the league with just 17.8 points per game.
The offense as a whole has to do more and Manning is the most important piece.