NFL Week 14: I Beeeelieve in Eli!

     That's what Dieon Sanders says and I'm with Dieon. Eli is the Rodney Dangerfield of NFL quarterbacks. Recall Tiki Barber's uncharitable comment that when Eli tried to assume a leadership role in the locker room it was "ludicrous."

    That was in 2007 before the season Manning took the team to a super upset of Tom Brady's undefeated Pats. The season where Tiki missed out as he retired too early. Since then there is no doubt that the players in that locker room respect Eli Manning.

    I still talk to people-many of them Giant fans, especially Giant fans-who want to tell me that he may be ok but he's not on the level of whoever-Brady, Rogers, Drew Brees(admittedly Brees is on an incredible level) Farve when he played, his brother Peyton. Coming into yesterday there were still those who claimed he's not on Romo's level. Maybe they will reconsider that at least?

   Yesterday at Applebees when he through that pick it all started again-Eli-skepticism. Some guy said that his mechanics are all wrong that he never throws off his foot. Right did he throw off his foot to David Tyree in the 2007 super bowl? Either he did and that fellow was mistaken or he didn't and so who cares about throwing off your foot?

   Eli threw a number of passes during the game that everyone thought were gonna be intercepted. I admit that even for me every time he throws a pick it seems like he is constantly throwing them, but he really isn't. I guess you can argue whether or not his picks are somehow especially bad or show particularly bad decision making. In fact he has only 12 interceptions against 25 touchdowns. If you have a 2-1 ratio in tds to ints, you are not throwing too many ints.

  Kurt Warner says that what Eli does especially well is find the big money ball play, not settle for just moving the chains. This has served the team well this year. If it weren't for Eli there would be no Giants, they might not look much better than the Colts without Peyton this year. He is without question the team MVP-no knock on Cruz or Ballard, but Eli is the single player they can't lose.

  I appreciate in particular that he "went there" in the summer when asked if he's in the same league as Brady. He said yes and many of his teammates appreicated it too. As tackle David Diehl says:

  "I think it’s funny,” Diehl said. “You look back before the season, and he said he’s in the same caliber as elite quarterbacks, and everyone laughed at him. I think it’s awesome. He showed the confidence in himself, and most importantly, he’s shown it on the football field.”

  “Talk about a guy who has elevated his game,” Giants tackle David Diehl said after Sunday’s dramatic victory, which ended with defensive end Jason Paul-Pierre blocking Dan Bailey’s 47-yard field-goal attempt in the final seconds. “Our offense goes as far as Eli allows us to go: The checks he makes at the line, the way he’s able to identify blitzes and coverage and all of the things he does to put us in the right situation."

    http://sports.yahoo.com/nfl/news;_ylt=Aj2LKALiUai6kDeGBaZbT.9DubYF?slug=ms-silver_morning_rush_eli_manning_giants_cowboys_121211