Palladino: Manning, Fitzpatrick Driving Giants, Jets With Leadership
By Ernie Palladino
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No one in their right minds would call Eli Manning or Ryan Fitzpatrick the perfect quarterback.
Gritty? Sure. Gamers? Oh, yes.
But perfect? Not based on Fitzpatrick's much-traveled career or some of the senseless decisions past and present that Manning has made with the football.
But their performances in Week 14 showed exactly why Manning and Fitzpatrick are so vital to the future of the Giants and Jets, respectively. They show why Tom Coughlin continues to revere Manning and their 12-year partnership. They show why Todd Bowles has shifted his original opinion on Fitzpatrick as Geno Smith's backup to one of permanence past this season.
Quite simply, they lead.
And if either team expects to play the second week of January, they will need the two old pros to continue leading, continue convincing their teammates that the playoffs are not merely a concept to be flirted with, but one to be grabbed hold of.
It is because of them that the Jets and Giants continued moving in that direction. Nothing is guaranteed yet, not even as the 8-5 Jets sit in that sixth playoff spot, a tiebreaker's breath from the Steelers, or as the 6-7 Giants keep pace with the Redskins and Eagles in the dreadful NFC East. But without those two, especially this past weekend, both teams might have been staring yet another idle New Year in the face this week.
Instead, they raised their teams. Not heroically. That's not always what strong leadership is all about. But their steady hands allowed their teams to beat Titans and Dolphins squads that might otherwise have set back those playoff hopes.
In another year, with another quarterback who now stands with clipboard in hand, the Jets might well have fallen into Tennessee's trap. Instead, Fitzpatrick and his gang mauled the Titans. He found Brandon Marshall down the sideline. He found Eric Decker in the end zone. He even hit Bilal Powell for his second receiving touchdown in two games. And if that surgically-repaired left thumb bothered him at all, he didn't show it.
Manning did much the same thing Monday in Miami. After a week where Damontre Moore turned himself into an ex-Giant, and external doubts about whether the veteran signal-caller's X-rayed ankle would allow him to operate at full strength, Manning made the clutch throws in a close game.
It went further than that, though. It was Manning who just hours before game time told Odell Beckham Jr. that a double move might work if Miami falls into the right defense. So Beckham spent some time watching film.
The Dolphins played that defense in the fourth quarter. Beckham recognized it, slanted across and up, and Manning hit the wide-open receiver for a deciding 84-yard touchdown.
One cannot downplay either quarterback's raw statistics. Neither threw an interception. Manning tossed four touchdown passes, Fitzpatrick three.
Manning's 27-of-31 passing produced a near-perfect 151.5 rating. Fitzpatrick wasn't too shabby himself at 108.9.
They led, their offenses followed, and Coughlin and Bowles still have a season.
The sage veterans tend to do that.
It's why Coughlin loves his quarterback.
It's why Bowles wants to keep his old guy around.
Follow Ernie on Twitter at @ErniePalladino
