Eagles Spoil Eli's Return

Eli Manning doesn't know how many more opportunities he'll get to quarterback the Giants, so he and his family are trying to soak in whatever time he does have left before the curtain closes on his amazing 16-year career.

PHILADELPHIA, PA -- The attractive young blonde woman's image flashed several times on the television monitors during the three-hour, 20-minute rain-soaked slogfest between the New York Giants and Philadelphia Eagles at Lincoln Financial Field.

Abby Manning, the wife of Giants quarterback Eli Manning, promised herself to never set foot at an Eagles home game again. 

But this time was different. This time, she decided to brave the elements--specifically a well-known raucous Eagles crowd--to see her husband's first start for the Giants since his Week 3 benching.

Abby, joined by some of her in-laws in a luxury box, watched as the Eagles score 20 unanswered points to top the Giants 23-17 in overtime.   

It could have been easier for Abby, who has seen Eli play professionally so many times during his 16+ year career, to catch this one from the comfort of her home. 

But this wasn't just another game; it was one at which she felt she had to attend.  

"I haven't played in three months," Eli Manning said after the game when asked why his wife broke her own rule. "And you don't know if I'm gonna play again, so I think it's pretty obvious why (she came)."

What the Manning family witnessed is a continuation of a downward spiral that first began in 2012, the year after the Giants won their last Super Bowl.

Since then, however, Manning's Giants have gradually deteriorated into a shell of the once-proud franchise that used to pride itself on playing fundamentally sound and disciplined ball--a group where winning and not losing, was the only option. 

Thanks to a combination of poor personnel decisions in both free agency and the draft, and the evolution of the coaching philosophies that favor mobile quarterbacks such as Daniel Jones, Manning's successor who was a spectator due to a high ankle sprain, are a long way from being the franchise of Manning's prime.

Their latest loss saw them fail to preserve a 17-3 halftime lead only to be shut out by an Eagles team that posted 418 net yards of offense to the Giants' 255 on their way to their sixth win in a row.  

But there was Manning, who, after being demoted by head coach Pat Shurmur disappeared from public view determined not to upstage Jones, back in the spotlight. As he has done so many times of late, he tried to explain why the Giants fell short of their goal. 

"It just didn't hit the big plays," he said, staring off into the distance. "They did a good job--playing a little bit more zone in the second half and keeping everything in front of them, and we just weren't able to convert on third downs."

It was that failure to extend plays in the second half--no one drive went for more than four plays as the Giants only converted two of 12 third-down attempts all game long--that hurt the Giants on offense and forced them to put their young and still struggling defense on the field.

The Giants defense had very few answers to stop the screens the Eagles ran with running back Boston Scott, or corral the tight ends, Zach Ertz and Dallas Goedert, who combined to catch 12 of 19 pass targets for 132 yards and two touchdowns, including the game-winner in overtime caught by Ertz. 

 Manning, in his first postgame press conference since September 15, let just the slightest hint of wistfulness slip when a Philadelphia reporter asked the holder of 37 regular-season game-winning drives what it was like for a young quarterback like Carson Wentz to get over that hump.

"I would like to have one today," Manning said wistfully before trying to answer the question.

What Manning would also probably like to have is more time to continue as the Giants starter, something he's not going to get once Jones is healthy. Manning refused to talk about his thought process beyond this season, saying that he would take things one week at a time, one day at a time. 

Deep down, Manning, whose regular-season career record is now one game below .500, knows that this team is no longer his.

But for 30 minutes of football, Manning, who went 11 of 19 for 179 yards and two touchdowns, gave fans tuned into the game one last glimpse of the quarterback he used to be.