The Continuing Evolution of Eli

As everyone who read this blog knows I am a continual defender of Eli, he is my man crush. Eli is a work in progress, as are all careers. Yes there are flashier QB’s (Peyton, Brees, Rivers) there are QB’s who the chicks fawn all over (Big Ben, Brady) but non of that is what Eli is about. He is about leadership and winning as a team, and not to say those other guys arent and I am not saying Eli is the best in the league. I have argued that since his playoff run he is in the upper echelon of QB’s and he keeps making improvements every year.


Last night midway through the 2nd quarter I was embroiled in a text-a-thon with my good friend Mr. Reinitz and all he was doing was complaining about Eli. This throw was bad, and that throw was bad, he needs to play better blah blah blah. I tried to calm him down and tell him to wait until the end of the game to completely analyze his performance. He complained about the Giants red zone inefficiency (which is a concern), and as always blamed everything on Eli. Not to say anything of the offensive line who for some reason cant block inside the 20 or some of the most uncreative play calling in the world by Kevin Gilbride. All that, along with Eli’s pkay inside the 20 has contributed to a heavy dose of Lawrence Tynes FG’s, but it is not Eli exclusively. The people who hate Eli always make him the blame for everything. Damn him for interrupting Taylor Swifts speech.


Again, what we all forget is the harder the spot, the more hectic the situation the type of guy you want in the pocket is a guy like Manning. Calm, cool, collected, trusting in his line, backs, receivers, all of them. He threw a ball last night after scrambling to a guy I have never heard of. His overall numbers were excellent, 25/38 65% 330 yards and 2 TD’s. His fourth quarter numbers were even more ridiculous, 10-12 83% 140 yards and 1 TD and the game winning drive with under 4 minutes to go.


Below are his numbers from 2005-2009, his totals, his 3rd down numbers and his 4th quarter numbers. They are completion %, INT’s, and QB Rating
As you see he just continues to improve (obviously this year is a small sample size).


Totals
52.8---17---75.9
57.7---18---77.0
56.1---20---73.9
60.3---10---86.4
67.2---1---103.2


3rd down
51.2---7---71.5
47.6---7---64.9
58.3---7---73.3
62.0---2---93.1
73.9---0---146.9



4th quarter
57.2---4---85.7
61.2---8---72.1
55.7---6---74.3
63.6---2---93.8
77.3---0---123.3