Eli Manning and the Fourth Quarter

The fourth quarter now belongs to Eli Manning.

A little less than a year ago I wrote a post entitled, "Sanchise Vs. Ellie" documenting the two New York quarterbacks, Eli Manning and Mark Sanchez, and their woes in the big city. I defended both men even though their times in New York up until last year weren't exactly glorious at times. Yet since then the two have headed down divergent paths. Sanchez (excluding yesterday's great performance vs. the Pats) has continued on his struggling journey, especially since Tim Tebow has unfairly invaded his territory. Manning, on the hand, has matured, improved and become a master of the fourth quarter.

Before last season, Eli Manning held dearly onto the fact that he was a Super Bowl-winning quarterback. Especially early in last season when Manning threw up duds vs. the Seahawks and the Redskins, Manning had a growing target on his back and that 2007 championship was becoming a distant memory. But something changed last season, something clicked in the back of his head. Whether it was the emergence of Hakeem Nicks and Victor Cruz as the league's best wideout duo or just a light going on in Manning's brain, the fourth quarter all of the sudden shed it's burdensome nature and became his domain. He tied Johnny Unitas' record of 14 fourth quarter TDs last season and had eight game winning drives, seven of which came with New York trailing. This includes two magical drives in the NFC Championship Game and again in the Super Bowl, clear signs that the maturation process was in full effect. Manning put together the sort of clutch resume that leapfrogged him from mediocre gunslinger into the ranks of the elite quarterbacks in the league.

A lot of people will take up an argument with that statement. There's a consensus out there that Rodgers, Brees and Brady are the best QBs in the league. No disagreement here. They are certainly masters of their craft, but have they outshone Manning in the last two seasons so greatly that he doesn't deserve to be in the discussion? Nope. Brees might have had a statistically phenomenal season last year and Rodgers may have led his team to 15 wins, but neither won the Super Bowl. Manning beat Brady twice and Rodgers once (controversially could have been two). Oh and Eli had the last laugh in both games against Brady executing flawless game-winning drives that left mastermind Bill Belichick wondering how Charmin-soft Eli Manning out dueled his stud QB twice in the big stage. 

Last season might have been the release party for Eli Manning's "4th Quarter" mixtape, but this year he's ready to release an album. In one of his wildest performance's ever, Manning recovered from a putrid fourth quarter against the Bucs by putting on a show in the fourth quarter. He might have finished with a head-scratching 510 yards, 3 TDs and 3 picks, but he stamped his name all over the final stanza in that game. Then yesterday, he put on an even greater encore performance. After watching the up-and-coming RGIII put together an impressive, what-looked-like a fourth quarter game winning drive, Manning came up even bigger. In almost hysterical fashion, two plays were all that were needed for the fourth quarter master to craft another masterpiece. Victor Cruz found himself all alone at midfield and Eli hit him in stride with what could be called a perfect ball; the rest was history.

Obviously there are a bunch of folks out there that still haven't bought into the Eli Manning hype, probably because of his previous track record or the fact that he looks like a schoolboy. Well the time to stop disrespecting Eli is upon us.

The fourth quarter may have been Tom Brady's child in the mid-2000s, but it's the only man that has ever beat him in a Super Bowl that now calls the moment his son.