QB Eli Manning
Conference Call
September 14, 2015
Q: Eli, there were reports that Rashad was instructed not to score on the first two plays of that last possession inside the five-yard line and the communication apparently didn’t come from the sidelines. Is that something on the field you were instructed to do?
A: Well, I told Rashad on first down that—I was a little, not misinformed, I was a little—I thought they only had one timeout after the play to Odell. They would’ve had to take their timeout. I guess because there was a defensive penalty, even though we declined it, that stopped the clock. So I thought with the decline, they would just have one timeout. So I thought that they may let us score to get the ball back, so that’s why I informed Rashad if they let you score, just go down at the one-inch line. Don’t score. He still ran hard, we got two yards on first down and second down, third down that was my—it’s still my mistake. That did not come from the sideline. Coach Coughlin and I talked about scenarios like this, but this did not come from the sideline and I can’t be the one to inform a back. That’s not my decision to do that in that scenario, so that’s where I’ve got to make sure if that’s the case, it’s coming from the sidelines and doesn’t get pulled to me and I can relay the message under those, if it’s the right scenario. Because they had two timeouts, it wasn’t the right thing to do, so I made that mistake. Then we got on third down and not taking a sack there. I’ve got to do a better job managing the game, managing the clock and make better decisions in that scenario.
Q: Eli, just to be clear, did you tell Rashad on both first and second downs not to score? And at any point did you discuss that with any of the assistant coaches on the sidelines?
A: First down, I told him, yeah, if they give up, don’t score. Second down went to the sideline, told coach that. I told him not to score if they were giving up. He still ran hard and got a few yards. Second down, I told Rashad—we talked about it a little on the sideline and I thought we were on the same page where we’re still not trying, trying to get as close as possible but not get in the end zone. I was wrong on that so that’s my miscommunication and my mistake on thinking that was a scenario for second down and expecting that from Rashad. So I’ve got to do a better job of not making those game management situations.
Q: When you did tell the coaches on the sidelines, none of them said anything? None of them tried to stop you?
A: Well, I mean on the first down it was already done. On the second down I thought we were on the same page; obviously, I think that’s where I—they called the play, time to go. That was my fault in informing Rashad on that second down play and first down.
Q: Are you talking about…
A: They did not inform me to do that and I thought I had bad communication with them for that second down and that was not the case. I thought we were on the same page for the second down play. First down was a 100 percent on me, it shouldn’t have been done. Second down shouldn’t have been done also, but I was wrong in doing it there as well.
Q: Eli on third down, with the play call to throw the ball and you executed the play call or did you choose to go that route?
A: No, the third down was a play action. That was the call. We were trying to get the touchdown right there and score and that’s where I’ve got to do a better job of understanding that if it’s not open, wide open, then you don’t have a chance to get a touchdown, I’ve got to take a sack so we can run 40 seconds off the clock and get that field goal. I’ve got to be smarter in that scenario and understand that the clock is the most important thing there and that we weren’t going to go for it on fourth down. So that’s bad management of the game in that scenario and understanding how important the clock was right there.
Q: After the second down play, they called their third timeout, it’s a 30-second timeout. Do you have the opportunity to go over to the sideline and talk to them or just stay in the huddle or how did that sort of work out?
A: I went to the sideline. I was on the sideline and that’s where I got the play.
Q: Eli, did anybody at that time remind you to take the sack there in that situation if nobody is open?
A: No, no. I’ve got to know that being a veteran and understanding the circumstance or I’ve got to ask are we going to go for it on fourth down if we don’t get it here and get the understanding from the sideline what our game plan was. Usually, if we ever go for it on fourth down, they’ll tell me beforehand and it will affect your decision making. They did not tell me that. That was not expressed, so I’ve got to assume we’re going to kick a field goal and take the sack right there.
Q: At what point did you notice or realize that they hadn’t used the timeout on that three timeout play? Was it when they announced they used the third…
A: No, when they used their second I went to the sideline and realized they still had a timeout left and I thought they were out at that moment. We were kind of talking scenarios there and that’s when I realized they still had another timeout left. Yep, I’ve got to do a better job at understanding the circumstances and all the scenarios and how many timeouts they had and understanding the rules of a situation where you have a declined penalty does not mean that the clock keeps rolling under two minutes.
Q: What were your thoughts on the offense in general? You only had the one touchdown?
A: We didn’t have many possessions to start with. I think we only had 10 possessions really. We only had one three-and-out. I thought we had some decent drives going, we just didn’t do a very—once we got in the red zone, we just didn’t do a very good job converting on third down. We had some third-and-10s, some third-and-long situations that we didn’t convert on so those are hard. It’s usually occasionally you had to do better on first and second downs in those scenarios. We did—I thought they did a good job, they weren’t going to let us have very many big plays. They wanted to keep everything in front and for the most part, we took that. We were taking our completions and those were the best drives that we had where we just got completions, we were getting six or seven yards, we were getting the ball out quick, getting in third-and-manageables and converting on third down. I thought overall it could’ve always been better. I think I’ve got to do a little better job on first and second downs, finding completions, throwing the ball more accurately. But I thought there was definitely some good stuff but also definitely some room for improvement.
Q: You have a lot of new faces on this team, how do you think they’re going to react to this loss? It was a pretty devastating loss last night.
A: I think—hey, the guys are disappointed, the guys are upset because we were so close and had a great opportunity to win the game and we didn’t do it. It hurts but it’s supposed to hurt when you play your tails off and you work hard and you do a lot of good things and don’t come out on top, it hurts. We’ve just got to stick together, we’ve got to keep fighting, we have to have another great week and get ready for Atlanta and go out there Sunday at home, we’ve got a home game and home crowd so hopefully have them fired up and ready to go find a way to get a win.
Q: You talk a lot about taking responsibility for this, did you say anything to the team?
A: Yeah, I talked to the offense in our meeting today. Just told them that my mistake on informing Rashad and making that decision and the third, really the third down decision is what bothers me more than anything, for my sake. I think not making the better decision right there and taking that sack. That would’ve made a bigger difference than anything.
Just an all around 'WTF?' moment, something that has become all too common recently.
Eli is a team player...
He only has 84 million reasons to say " Yep, My Fault"
One guy is like 170 years old and the other just signed a deal for like $60 million guaranteed dollars.
Then he throws a ball away that if it they aren't fooled and isn't wide open he hits the turf and keeps the clock running. He also snapped a number of balls on that last drive with around 10 secs left on the play clock. The entire drive was a cluster fuck. At best dallas should have gotten that ball back with under 55 secs and that's being generous.
This is the kind of shit you expect to see with an inexperienced QB and head coach. Not two guys with two Lombardi's and over a decade working together. Panic mode and a national embarassment.
^This. Who cares about their timeouts if you get up by ten with less than two minutes left? They could have all three, and it wouldn't matter.
But why would he tell Rashad to go down if it seemed like the Cowboys were letting him score?
Who cares what the Cowboys were doing?
The more is said, the worse it gets. He sounds like an idiot.
Was thinking exactly the same thing. It's possible, tho I don't remember seeing him take a shot to the head. Yeah, probably not, but even so, with Eli's stoic manner, it could have gone unnoticed/undiagnosed. At one point Collinsworth said Eli didn't look comfortable, saying maybe it was the heat in the stadium.
But his first response is just mind boggling on two different levels: didn't know how many timeouts Dallas had ....and even if they only had one, you go for the touchdown since there wasn't enough time to kneel down for victory. Both the facts and reasoning were wrong
He only has 84 million reasons to say " Yep, My Fault"
How about Eli blew it, period. He screwed up several times in that last drive, not the least of which was failing to run the play clock down to the last couple seconds every snap.
If you're Eli Manning, it's what you do. Not hating on him. I love the guy. But you take the good (XLII/XLVI) with the bad.
I also suspect the second mistake (the throw-away on third down) might have been an aftershock from the initial brain-fart. It's hard to regain focus in thirty seconds after screwing up that monumentally, especially if you're not quite sure what happened (i.e. how the Cowboys wound up with an extra time out).
Eli made an inexcusably stupid play, but it never should have gotten to that point. The coaches calling the plays have to have total understanding of down, distance, clock, and score.
If you're Eli Manning, it's what you do. Not hating on him. I love the guy. But you take the good (XLII/XLVI) with the bad.
I also suspect the second mistake (the throw-away on third down) might have been an aftershock from the initial brain-fart. It's hard to regain focus in thirty seconds after screwing up that monumentally, especially if you're not quite sure what happened (i.e. how the Cowboys wound up with an extra time out).
Best explanation I've read.
I just don't get the basic math...A td gets us a two possession lead. Nowhere near enough timeouts to score twice. It doesn't matter how much time is left if we're up by 10 at that point, so why tell Jennings not to score?
I believe Eli will come out playing sharper this week
What ever happened to integrity and the game and to play and leave what you have on the field and the results? Its called sportsmanship. Truly pathetic and likely why Jennings called it out. (Eli) is getting paid a great deal of money and we get this kind of asinine unsportsman like crap?
Hopefully the team (Eli and TC) learned a valuable lesson about being a f'ing coward with those actions last night.
A: Well, I mean on the first down it was already done. On the second down I thought we were on the same page; obviously, I think that’s where I—they called the play, time to go. That was my fault in informing Rashad on that second down play and first down.
Q: Are you talking about…
A: They did not inform me to do that and I thought I had bad communication with them for that second down and that was not the case. I thought we were on the same page for the second down play. First down was a 100 percent on me, it shouldn’t have been done. Second down shouldn’t have been done also, but I was wrong in doing it there as well.
Nobody at all? Hell, even the water guys? If I'm Mara or Reese that would concern me.
4:20 the tweet from Graziano comes out saying Jennings was told in the huddle not to score and it came from the sideline (Raanan story is out on nj.com as well)
4:30 TC scheduled teleconference with media is delayed because of "meetings"
5:05 Eli to go on with Francesa
(Eli scheduled to phone in with media after Coughlin which means he was at the training facility)
4:50 Coughlin's presser starts and he throws Eli under the bus
5:05 Francesa's first question to Eli was if it was his fault
What do you think that "meeting" was about? Damage control.
Also maybe just maybe could be that he was exasperated by the way they blew it and also was disgusted by the way the defense forgot they were on the field and allowed the Cowboys to score two tds in 4 minutes of offense at the very end of the game rather than playing with balls and helping the team win despite their incredible errors