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Manning Refutes Sore Arm Rumors, Chats With Mike

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) - Eli Manning joined Mike Francesa on Monday afternoon to discuss Sunday's surprise 31-13 loss to the Bengals, his arm health and the Giants' mindset going forward.

The Giants have an ugly habit of going into a funk in the middle of their season and have lost consecutive games to the Steelers and Bengals.  They go into the bye week leading the NFC East with a 6-4 record.

Manning feels the week off will benefit the Giants.

"This bye is coming at good time where we can get healed up and get rested up, come back fresh refreshed," Manning explained.

"We know we gotta play better football," he said.  "There was some better things done yesterday than the previous weeks.  I thought there were some better things and some improvements.  If we can eliminate turnovers, we would have had better shot at staying in that game."

Francesa asked Manning if he had a sore arm.  NFL analysts around the nation suspected Manning's subpar performances in recent weeks was due to arm troubles.  Manning stated his arm is fine.

"No, I don't have a sore arm," he responded.  "The arm feels good.  In practice the ball is coming out well, deep throws are going where they need to be."

"There's no sore arm, there's no injuries," he stated.

As for Sunday's loss, Manning felt turnovers in the third quarter put the Giants in a difficult position to overcome.

"The turnovers is what cost us in the second half.  Especially, the three right there in the third quarter.  We put ourself way behind," Manning said.

Manning blamed his own performance and cited bad habits.

"(I was) trying to make something happen when there was nothing there to happen.  I can't get into bad habits.  It does us no good to throw the ball to the other team.  It's just gonna make things worse," he explained.

The Giants' star quarterback remains confident in New York's chances of making the playoffs and believes his team's character is a key.

"I feel very confident about this team.  I think we've got great character guys who have great passion for football.  They want to have a big year," he said.

Manning has thrown for 2,641 yards so far this season.  His completion percentage is 61.3% and has thrown 12 touchdowns and 11 interceptions.

Will Manning bounce back after the bye week?  Sound off below...

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