Eli Mea Culpa: I'm sorry soooo sorrrry by White Boy South Bronx -------> hypocrite

It was a frigid night at Giants Stadium. Coming off an exciting if not nerve racking 2 game road sweep of the NFC rival Bears and hated NFC east rival Eagles, I was excited to see my beloved Giants clinch a playoff berth at home against rival Washington. Particularly, I wanted to see Eli step up his play in a fairly big game. Unfortunately, Eli put together a historically awful performance. He managed to complete a paltry 18 of 52 passes, was off the mark all game and left the field to a constant chorus of boos. It was this night that I wrote off Eli Manning for good, so I thought.
It just did not seem that this highly touted star from Ole Miss would even be a good NFL quarterback, let alone draw comparisons to his already legendary brother Peyton. I had enough of his erratic play, I had had enough of his poorly shaven, 8 year old looking face. However, in the span of 4 games Eli has gone from a mediocre quarterback at best, to a very good NFL hurler. Somehow, Eli finally learned to be smart with the football. I think this is the main reason for his late season ascension. He has zero turnovers in the playoffs and only 1 in his last four games dating back to the epic battle against now super-bowl opponent New England. He played one of the best games I’ve ever seen a Giant’s quarterback play vs. a stout Patriot’s defense in the regular season finale. Although Eli’s Giants lost the game in part due to a badly overthrown interception intended for Plaxico Burress, He looked like a new player in this game. He was confident, smart and impressively accurate. Compliment this with his greatest strength, his good arm, and you’ve got yourself a good QB. However, I needed to see this performance repeat itself in the playoffs before I was convinced he had turned a corner.
Yea, Eli had great QB ratings against a good Buccaneer’s defense and a solid but overrated Dallas defense in the wildcard and divisional playoff games respectively. However, Eli threw the ball a combined 45 times in those two games and never threw the ball more than 15 yards down the field. I was impressed with his decision making and accuracy but he did not win those games for his ball club; his excellent and fantastically coached defense did. The real test for Eli would come this past Sunday in what was the most dramatic Giant’s game I have ever been a part of as a fan. As the FOX music glared through the television set, they flashed to Eli warming up before the game. Although I can’t put my finger on it, he had this look to him that gave me a certain confidence. He looked excited but not anxious, intense but not crazed, fired up but not on edge. It really took one pass for me to realize this was going to be Eli’s game, win or lose.
I get chills thinking of that first bullet he threw to Plax over the middle to start the game. I was as stunned Eli came out throwing as I was at how accurate and strong his throws were in this unbelievably frigid field. He looked more than calm, he looked like, well a leader. Although his numbers don’t say it, he was incredible Sunday night. He made incredible throws to perfect spots and was robbed of close to 300 yards if a few balls were not dropped. Eli, who had been horrendous in bad/cold weather in his early Giant’s career put to bed the notion that he was a warm weather quarterback, that his recent hot streak was a flash in the pan, and that he could not lead the Giants to the super-bowl all in one game.
Although it was the emergence of another once maligned Giant, cornerback Corey Webster with his timely inerception that ultimately put previously disgraced kicker Lawrence Tynes in position to nail a 47 yard game winning field goal; (So I guess he only makes the hard ones) Eli got the Giants to overtime against an excellent Packer’s defense. He did this in horrid cold that even made the Artic Circle seem warm. No really it was 25 degrees warmer there than in Green Bay. You won this game for us with your gusty play and calm stewardship of YOUR offense. It’s your team and your town now man. Eli, I’m proud that you’re my franchise quarterback. Oh yea, feel free to kindly disregard the insulting things I said about you from the last article I wrote about you. Thanks