Manning stays upbeat amid critcism

Nov 26, 2007 - 11:28 PM By Ian Parker Special to PA SportsTicker

Eli Manning was trying to keep his head up on Monday.

The much-maligned New York Giants quarterback is facing a swirl of media criticism after an awful performance in Sunday's stunning home loss to the Minnesota Vikings.

Manning tied a career high by throwing four interceptions and saw three of them returned for touchdowns as the Giants went down, 41-17, missing a chance to solidify their advantage in the NFC wild card race.

The criticism is not lost on Manning.

"I take responsibility for the loss," he said. "I threw three interceptions that went back for touchdowns. I threw another one that gave them great field position for a touchdown. I'm as hard on myself as anybody is."

Manning always attracts a little more scrutiny than most quarterbacks - his surname, the town he plays in, and the trade the Giants did to get him ensure that.

But even by his standards, the 26-year-old has faced a torrent of abuse following the loss.

What infuriates fans the most is Manning's easy demeanor, which they take for a lack of emotion. In that case, they likely will not approve of Manning's message on Monday, because the quarterback has no plans to change his approach.

"I'm trying to win games for the Giants. And I'm disappointed and I try not to show it," he said. "I try to not let the defense see you down and frustrated, so I try to keep a positive face and try to get the team going.

"Really, late in that game we still had an opportunity to drive down there. We had a touchdown throw to (Jeremy) Shockey, the ball gets picked at the line of scrimmage. They returned it the other way. That is a 14-point difference and kind of ended the game there. But it was just one of those days where they were making the plays and we weren't."

While he may not show it, Manning insists he gets just as upset as the fans who booed the Giants off the field at halftime on Sunday.

"No one likes to have a game like the one that happened yesterday or bad plays are happening," he said. "You are throwing interceptions for touchdowns. It is not fun. It is frustrating. But you just have to get back up and try to figure out what the problem is and go out there and keep from repeating it."

Manning was asked to step up as the leader of the Giants' offense this season after the retirement of running back Tiki Barber.

He's trying to do that, he says, but in his own way. Anger will not fix anything when plays go wrong.

"If you go in a tantrum, it doesn't make anything better; it doesn't correct the last play or the last few that happened," Manning said. "I figure if I start going crazy and getting wild, it is just going to make everybody else go into a tantrum. And I'm trying to keep everybody calm."

Manning's inconsistency is what can frustrate Giants fans the most. He shows flashes of talent, but then turns in a performance like Sunday's.

This season, Manning has thrown 15 interceptions, one less than his tally of 16 touchdowns, and he has a quarterback rating of just 75.

Perhaps the most valuable part of his unflappable demeanor is that games like Sunday's don't get to him.

"I'm going to keep fighting back," he said. "As a quarterback, you go through tough games and you can't let that affect you in the next week's practice. You have to keep going on and wipe that one away and learn from it and move on to next week."

Staying upbeat is not has hard as it might otherwise be for the Giants, given their standing in the NFC with a 7-4 record.

"We are not down, we are not disappointed," Manning said. "You look at where we stand right now in the NFC; we are right where we want to be. We are in a great position. We are in control of our own destiny."