QB Eli Manning
October 21, 2015
Q: In light of the pressure you felt the last couple weeks, seven quarterback hits in the last two games, how concerning is Dallas’ defensive pressure? They seem to be ramping it up and getting guys back.
A: Yeah, they’re getting healthy. They’ve got a good defensive front, so we’ve got to do a good job mixing up our protections, getting the ball out quick, some play action, run the ball well. I think we’ll be in good shape. If we’re moving the ball and getting first downs, getting completions, you get hit sometimes playing this game.
Q: With the way that Odell Beckham’s been double-teamed, how do you guys moving forward try to remedy that or conquer that?
A: I think that’s going to happen. Teams are going to have plays during the game when they’re going to double-team him and try to take him away and that’s fine. You’ve got to move him around, don’t make it easy for them. But other guys have to make plays. You’ve got to find the guys that have the single coverage and those guys have got to win for us. So it’s not a situation where you try to get a receiver to beat double-coverage all the time. It’s playing your reads and going to where the defense is telling you to go.
Q: Because he’s such a dynamic playmaker, do you have to at times force the ball to him even if he is double-covered just because he might make a play with the ball?
A: I don’t think that’s a smart decision, so no. We’ve got other guys who have to win and just read the coverages and make good decisions and go where the defense is telling you to go with the ball.
Q: It’s October, but being 1-2 in the division and facing another division rival, how crucial is this game?
A: I think all the division games are crucial. All of them are important, all of them are big, so every game counts in this league, everyone is important. But the fact it is Dallas and we’ve played them already, it’s a chance for us to get back to a winning record. It’s a big one and we’ve got to go out there and play well.
Q: It’s only one game, the Patriots game before their bye, but with the defensive personnel—Rolando McClain back, Greg Hardy—is it much different than what you saw Week One?
A: Well, I don’t know if it was because they played the Patriots, but they played the Patriots differently. They had a lot of different personnel, completely different game plan for the Patriots, so it’s hard to tell, based off that, if that’s what they’ll go back and do or kind of go back to what they were doing before. So we’ve got to see whatever happens on Sunday. Whatever style they want to come out and play, we’ll have a game plan for it.
Q: Did you get hit as much last week as you did all year?
A: Obviously had the most sacks, took some hits. That’s part of football. Sometimes you just have those games. Hopefully you can still get the ball out, you can still get completions, you can still run your offense and overcome them. But you just understand that’s part of playing the quarterback position. There’s some weeks where things aren’t open down the field as fast as you want them to be. You’ve got to try and move around, buy some time, and take some hits. That’s alright.
Q: The last couple years you’ve had a couple long losing streaks. How do you go about preventing one bad game from turning into an extended losing streak?
A: Don’t know, go out and play the next game. It’s the last thing on our mind, we’re not thinking about that. We’ve lost games this season, we’ve bounced back, so we’ve just got to bounce back and get ready for this Dallas game.
Q: Do you feel that teams coming out of halftime put more attention on Odell? I think only 31 percent of his targets this year are after halftime. It seems most of his work is being done in the first half.
A: I haven’t noticed. I don’t think it’s the theme of our offense, “Hey, how many times can we get ball to Odell?” It’s about finding completions and going where the defense is telling us and moving the ball. So whether he has a catch—if we’re moving the ball and scoring points and getting touchdowns. There are some things we want to try and get him the ball. We might put him in a spot where we think he might get the ball, but if it’s not there or they’re playing a different coverage or stuff happens, I’m going through my progressions and we’ve got a lot of guys who can make plays for us.
Eli can't win, if he throws into double coverage and it's an INT people will kill him for throwing into double coverage. If he goes to the open guy, he gets killed for not forcing it to a double covered Odell.
That needs to change.