If you missed the Giants victory over the Eagles, you missed the Game of the Day, if not the Game of the (albeit young) Season.  I won’t recap the game for you here (if you are truly interested, an incredible recap can be found here).

With 3:28 remaining, and the Eagles clanging for dear life to a 24-21 lead, Eli caught fire.  He threw 13 more passes, completing them all except for one that he spiked to stop the clock. In the first three quarters, he was 11 of 17 for 138 yards. In the fourth quarter and overtime, he was 20 of 26 for 233 yards.  Read that again: 20 for 26 – which means that his completion percentage (if you strip out his spike of the ball to stop the clock) was a shade under 81% (overall for the game he was at 72%).  The big knock on Eli going into this season was his completion percentage; but even when he struggled throughout the first 3 quarters (he was sacked 8 times in the game, 5 times in the first half alone) he STILL threw the ball with an almost 65% completion rate.  Not too shabby, especially considering the fact that the Eagles were beating him like a rented mule AND he had ZERO running game to ease the pressure.

Now consider this statistic: Eli was 8-for-8 in the overtime session and went 5-for-5 on the drive that won the game.  I have been as big of a critic of Eli Manning as any Giants fan.  But there’s something about him, something that drives him to get better as the game moves closer to crunch time.  Consider their win over the then-vaunted Broncos last season.  On October 23, 2005, the headline read Eli Leads Dramatic Comeback Against Broncos; Giants Win 24-23:

Trailing 23-10 in the fourth quarter, the New York Giants looked like they were about to lose their second game in a row and fall to 3-3. But QB Eli Manning led the G-Men on two fourth quarter touchdown drives, the last ending with a 3rd-and-goal touchdown pass to WR Amani Toomer with only five seconds left on the clock as the Giants won in dramatic fashion over the Broncos.

Consider these quotes from various players on the team:

• “This is the most dramatic win at the end that I have been a part of,” said FB Jim Finn
• “That has to be the best come-from-behind victory that I have ever played in,” said OC Shaun O’Hara. “Eli found a way to win.”
• “It was the greatest victory I have ever been a part of,” said DE Osi Umenyiora

Eli played well in the first half of last season and had a well-documented free-fall that was probably a combination of the opponent’s defenses adjusting to his style of play and taking away his preferred routes AND a major breakdown in mechanics.  But it seems like he still possesses a will to make the incredible play and he has demonstrated a flair for the dramatic.  The importance of this cannot be understated, as his teammates (especially the Giants D) know that all they need to do is keep the GMen close and in the game and then give Eli the ball in the 4th Q with a chance to win.

Several interesting notes from the game that swtood out to me:

1. The Eagles burned the Giants in the first half by using a no-huddle offense, similar to what the Colts deployed last week.  I fully expect teams to do this to continue to pressure the Giants D.  They must figure out a way to get into a base D when their opponent goes into a no-huddle.
2. The penalty woes continue.  My fellow blog contributors here love this guy, and Joe Buck called them “flat-out undisciplined” at one point.  The Giants are the third most penalized team in the NFL in the time since Coughlin took over – only the Raiders and the Cardinals have been worse.  Considering that Coughlin was hired to shake up the culture from the laissez-faire Fassel era, this is completely ridiculous.  There has to be a way to fix this problem.  The Giants simply cannot win games in the NFL if they continue to shoot themselves in the foot in this manner. 
3. Eli has to improve at avoiding the rush.  Older, more savvy QB’s know when to slide/sidestep/move into the pocket, but this is a skill that Eli seems to be lacking on.  Unfortunately, only game experience can teach a QB how to effectively do this, so I expect Eli to continue to mature and get better at the process.  Obviously, the protection schemes improved throughout the game (I think they switched to a max protect and kept both TE’s – Shockey and Shiancoe – in to protect, as well as Barber/Jacobs).
4. Madison had a brutal game covering the WR’s from the Eagles and was routinely steps behind Stallworth – this problem wasn’t rectified until the Safety (in this case Wilson) rolled over from the top to help out with the double team.
5. The lack of effective blitzes – especially involving Lavar Arrington – was alarming.  Unfortunately, I think that this problem is hand-in hand with #4 – when you need to give your cornerbacks help, you lose one more player that can blitz.  Defensive Coordinator Tim Lewis must figure out a way to blitz with more than just the front four.  I don’t think that the Giants interior lineman are good enough to take pressure off of the Giants stable of excellent DE’s (congrats to Osi on his first sack of the season).

All in all, a huge win, and one for the ages.  This win is sure to fuel the tremendous rivalry between these two franchises.