So Giants offensive coordinator Kevin Gilbride put Manning in the shotgun with an empty backfield, piling the fate of the drive onto his quarterback's slim shoulders. At that moment, though, with 13 attempts between them, the duo had exactly 42 yards.
Leading 20-10 early in the fourth quarter, New York was desperately trying to hold onto its momentum and faced a third-and-1 at the Packers 46-yard line - a situation that begged for a power back like Brandon Jacobs or Ahmad Bradshaw to plow a route somewhere between the tackles. With these Giants, that means most of the time. "He's just making the right reads and really hitting people when the time is right." He understands what we can see on every single down and every single coverage," receiver Victor Cruz said. Seven of those catches and two TDs were claimed by receiver Hakeem Nicks - including his stunning, jump-ball grab of a rainbow in the end zone to close out the first half - but Manning spread the wealth around to seven different receivers. It wasn't nearly as simple as he made it sound, though. "They gave me time to sit back there and wait for guys to get open." You could almost see him reviewing a roster of his teammates to make sure he didn't leave anyone out. We had time to get the ball off," Manning said. By the end, Manning had rolled up 330 yards on 21-of-33 passing for three touchdowns and a nifty 114.5 QB rating. This time around, though, he took control from the opening drive, almost single-handedly managing the Giants' transition from a run-first offense to a multi-faceted passing attack - a necessity in the new, points-a-plenty version of the NFL. Back then, Manning's pre-game instructions could have been summed up this way: "Just don't screw things up." Three years ago, when the Giants came to town on another improbable playoff run, they paved the way with a bruising rushing attack and a fierce, opportunistic defense. And what better place than Lambeau Field?
Mocked before the season began for putting himself in the same elite class as New England's Tom Brady, then skewered when New York stumbled through the middle of its schedule, the youngest member of the Manning quarterbacking clan played the position Sunday night as if it were his birthright instead of a burden. On the road, facing the defending Super Bowl champs, and limited for three quarters by a running game that couldn't get out of its own way, Eli Manning vaulted himself back into the conversation about the best quarterbacks in the league by engineering a 37-20 win over the Green Bay Packers.
– It doesn't get much more "elite" than that.