QB Eli Manning
Postgame vs. Carolina, December 20, 2015
Q: Talk about coming back from 35-7 down.
A: Proud of the way the guys fought back and it wasn’t easy out there, but we’ve just got to say hey, we’ve got to get one score and we’ll see what happens. We were able to put some good drives together, had a couple nice plays. Got it to 35-14 and the defense got some stops. [We had] another big drive and Rashad breaks a long one and so all of a sudden now we’ve got a little bit of momentum with some time and were back in the game.
Q: You got a lot out of the running attack against Miami and again today, what does that do to help the offense?
A: Helps us big time. You can run the ball and hit some real long ones. Rashad breaks a long one. Shane had a couple nice ones when we had a second and real long and first and real long and he broke one for about 15 yards on our second scoring drive to get 14. It was a nice play after a penalty. Gets the safeties to come down a little more and it slows down that pass rush and gets us into a good rhythm.
Q: When you see players show so much emotion out there, how much does it hurt, how much does it help a team?
A: Well, guys want to play well, guys want to win, it’s important to them. So there’s going to be some emotion and that’s fine. You’ve just got to be able to make sure it’s being done the correct way, and make sure it’s helping the team, and not doing anything to harm the team.
Q: On the interception, what did you see out there?
A: Ball got tipped, I was throwing it away. The ball got tipped a little bit out of the hand. My elbow got hit, so it just got fluttered up there and they got a cheap one.
Q: I know you always look forward to the next game and you’re still in the playoff run, but do you ever look back and you’ve now had four losses in the last couple seconds of games?
A: Yeah. There’s no doubt we’ve lost some close ones and had opportunities. We’ve had several that were very similar to this one. It comes down to the final minutes and seconds of the game and our last second field goal. We just weren’t able to hold them off and didn’t make enough plays earlier in the game to give us a lead and keep it closer. They’re a good team and they did a good job and got the win. But definitely got some tight losses this year that could’ve gone different ways.
Q: On the fourth down, were you thinking about going to him [Beckham Jr.] right away?
A: No, just went through my progression. I had Odell moving out there, they were playing man, which they didn’t play much all day. So I finally got him one on one and we got him a little double-move and we were able to get the touchdown.
Q: Did you say anything to Odell?
A: Yeah. Just told him, “Let’s get back to playing football. Play football and play the game. Don’t get caught up in this.” I think he was able to dial back in and make some big plays for us.
