Peter King: "Struggling" to understand good football

Peter King, the senior football scribe of SI.com, is at it again. Mr. Starbucks stuck yet another dagger into the side of Giants quarterback Eli Manning.

If you read King's legendary and prolific Monday Morning Quarterback, you know it's among the best reads in football journalism. King routinely culls quotes from key players while sitting in his 30 Rock "Sunday Night Football in America" pad and has first-hand word from them in MMQB. He also watches a ton of football, and has a very strong take on all things NFL.

Make that all things but one.

King has routinely peppered insults at the younger Manning, treating him different than big bro Peyton. Today came another. King said "you don't give a struggling quarterback like Eli Manning a 391-yard night" in Tuesday edition of MMQB.

Puke time.

I'll admit, overall King's Eli opinions are often justified. Brother Peyton may be the greatest QB ever. Eli probably ranks somewhere in the second half of the top 10 in today's NFL at the very best. There's no comparison, and Eli looks second-rate by comparison.

But just like the rest of the talking heads (Aikman, Moose, I'm looking at you "guys"), King still slays Eli like that centaur A-Rod does enemy horses, er...I mean, middling relievers. In 2009, this is lazy reporting from one of the hardest working men in sports journalism.

As a Giants fan, Manning bashing is the norm. No matter how well Eli plays over the course of a game, announcers and writers talk about one inaccurate pass or one wounded duck. A friend who will remain nameless (Buckner) believes Manning played poorly on the final drive of Super Bowl XVII. Buckner, like Bill Simmons, pointed to the dropped interception by Asante Samuel. Hello, guys? Do you not remember the "Tuck Game?" Without that call, Tom Brady is not Tom Brady. He's bagging B-level actresses, not Giselle. But these lucky plays happen. They change history. We choose to look at the body of work (i.e. the entire game-winning drive) and judge him on that. Bottom line: He rocked, the Giants won. Move on.

I will admit: Eli is NOT accurate. But even the most honed-in are not forever perfect. Brady has been downright awful at times this year. I'm still waiting for people to pick apart his game on a weekly basis. Tick, tick, tick...

While I wait, here's the difference with King: Most major media personalities are complete blowhards unable to admit a mistake; he's largely an open-minded man. Sure, King has his man-crushes on Brett Favre, Mike Tomlin, Tony Romo, etc., but he typically changes his opinion if so provoked, altering it if a player's performance proves worthy.

So these days I find it truly remarkable that SI's top football evaluator has missed the steady ascension of the QB on the biggest team in the league's No. 1 market. It is completely inexcusable.

Peyton Manning played through pain after a risky knee surgery last preseason. King praised his season, and chronicled Manning's recovery in detail in his book. Likewise, Eli has played much of this season with plantar fascia. The injury to his foot caused him to overcompensate, and led to a stress reaction that reportedly causes even more pain. Here's a story from the Star-Ledger's excellent reporter Mike Garafolo.

I imagine King has read these reports. I imagine he can put two and two together and realize Manning's injury coincided with a terrible three-game stretch. And I imagine he's a cagey football evaluator who realizes an offensive line that has declined faster than Tiger Woods' rep and a putrid D have hurt Manning over the Saints-Eagles-Cardinals fiasco-of-a-stretch.

I guess not. King wrote this week the Eagles' D had to generate more of a pass rush. They picked up three sacks and had a fourth before Manning shoveled a pass out of trouble. That's not a middling pass rush. Sorry, guy.

But I digress. ... If you throw those three stinkers out, Manning has posted a quarterback rating of 88.9 and above in all but one game. That's nine out of 10, and, to be fair, nine out of 13 for the year. Include them all and Eli has posted a career-high rating of 93. He's a cinch to finish with the best numbers of his career.

Some won't trust QB rating, which is fine. So let's compare these two seasons:

Season 1: 4,002 yards, 68.1 completion percentage, 7.2 yards/att., 27 TD, 12 INT

Season 2: 4,081 yards, 60.4 completion percentage, 7.95 yards/att., 28 TD, 14 INT

So which season is better? Can you even tell? Does King watch football?

OK, enough rips. Let's get to the facts: The first season is Peyton Manning, circa 2008, a year he won MVP. The second are the projected totals of a "struggling" Eli Manning in 2009, as he tries to lead the Giants, who can't run, block or play defense, to the playoffs.

In any final analysis, the younger Manning clearly is not struggling. Yes, "struggle" was just one little word on SI.com today, but enough is enough.

If you want to bash Eli, wait until the future. Another day, another year, will provide you and your boys enough fodder. But please watch the Giants this season before writing another word about them.

Bush is no longer president. The Sopranos is over. You live in Boston, not Jersey.

No, Pete, it's not 2006 anymore.

Rips from around the league

I got so caught up in the early games last week that I ripped a few people and then neglected to write this post in full. But, I'm back.


Philadelphia 45, NY Giants 38: What is there to say? The Giants have absolutely no defense. Eli Manning played a nearly flawless game and the G-men still didn't have enough.

New Orleans 26, Atlanta 23: Crazy, crazy fake FG by Sean Payton late in this game, but it doesn't come back to haunt his team as the Saints squeak by to stay unbeaten.

Green Bay 21, Chicago 14: Jay Cutler has now thrown more picks than any Bears QB since 1949, and there are still three games to go. Ouch.

Indianapolis 28, Denver 16: Peyton Manning actually let the Broncs back into this one with three picks in the second half. Then he remembered he was Peyton Manning, threw his fourth TD of the day and went home a winner.

Buffalo 16, Kansas City 10: Wow, what a completely uninteresting game.

Minnesota 30, Cincinnati 10: All my friends who are Favre fans are ripping me for rooting against him this year. No matter. I'm still waiting for that crushing interception he's bound to throw at some point in the playoffs.

New England 20, Carolina 10: A win for the Pats, but New England doesn't look good, especially Tom Brady.

NY Jets 26, Tampa Bay 3: Jets have made a nice recovery to put some meaning back in their season. Tampa Bay QB Josh Freeman put up a 12.1 passer rating on the strength of 93 yards and three picks. Right now the Bucs are the worst team in football.

Baltimore 48, Detroit 3: Did I just say the Bucs are the worst team in football? Let's give the Lions their due and call it a tie.

Washington 34, Oakland 13: An injury to Bruce Gradkowski forced JaMarcus Russell to enter the game. Expected results followed.

Miami 14, Jacksonville 10: Boring game, good win for the fins.

Houston 34, Seattle 7: Andre Johnson had almost 200 yards receiving and two TDs...in the first half. Nice job Seahawks.

Tennessee 47, St. Louis 7: At this point both the Giants and Steve Spagnuolo might be better off with Spags as Big Blue's defensive coordinator.

San Diego 20, Dallas 17: Does any team in sports have less guts than the Cowboys? That was rhetorical. The answer is no.

Giants fans = Ingrates

This rip goes after an unusual target for me: fans. Specifically, fans of the New York Giants.

Unappreciative and misguided Giants fans who like to boo the greatest offensive player in franchise history.

Tiki Barber returned to Giants Stadium on Sunday, honored along with fellow 2000 NFC champion teammates. He had his No. 21 jersey on -- a number that should be retired -- and should have received a standing ovation. A long one.

Instead, he was booed, like he always is when his (many) highlights are played at Giants Stadium.

Let's quickly go through Tiki's "crimes."

1: He attacked Tom Coughlin, saying he was outcoached in a 23-0 playoff loss to Carolina. (He also said the Giants didn't run the ball enough in a loss to Jacksonville during the 2006 season.)
2: During the middle of the 2006 season, he didn't deny that he was planning to retire at season's end when asked about it by the New York Times.
3. He said Eli Manning's leadership was comical when asked about it in an NBC broadcast in August, 2007.

Of the three, the only one that fans should even be remotely annoyed about is the third one. If fans want to make a case that Barber shouldn't have blasted a former Giant, fine. To some extent, I can understand that. Fans want to feel like they are supporting Manning, and some likely feel that they are backing Manning by booing Barber.

Of course, then he wouldn't be giving any real honest or inside insight as a member of the media. Calling Manning's leadership "comical" was a harsh choice of words, no question, but it shouldn't erase all the amazing things he did in his career. It's time to let it go.

As for the first two things on the list, it's incredible that those are actually considered grievances. But make no mistake, they are considered just that.

The Giants' performance against Carolina in the 2005 playoffs was one of the most pathetic displays ever given in football history. It's a pretty safe bet that every fan thought Coughlin was grossly outcoached by John Fox. So in a fit of frustration -- in a season-ending loss no less -- Barber didn't hold back. If players laugh after losses, fans go crazy, and make hilariously stupid claims that they care more about winning and losing than the players do. If a player criticizes a coach after loss, then he's being disloyal. The players can't win.

And the fact that Barber didn't keep his pending retirement to himself? This became a big story because WFAN's Mike Francesa and Chris Russo made it into one, and talked about it endlessly. It started a myth that Barber was all about putting himself ahead of the team, that he wasn't giving his all, etc. Of course, he put forth another incredible season, and had the greatest game of his career in leading the Giants to the playoffs in the final game of the regular season, rushing for 234 yards and three touchdowns on 23 carries against the Washington Redskins to lead the Giants to the playoffs.

(Oh by the way, he saved Coughlin's job in the process.)

Here's what really is going on. Barber wasn't on the Giants' Super Bowl championship team and there is this belief in the minds of many Giants fans that the team improved because he left.

Wrong. Very wrong.

The Giants won the Super Bowl in 2007 for a variety of reasons, and those reasons have nothing to do with the team's best player retiring. Tiki Barber's departure didn't allow David Tyree to make an amazing catch, didn't help the Giants' defensive line manhandle the Cowboys (which led to this) and Patriots, didn't give Tom Coughlin the idea of firing Tim Lewis and hiring Steve Spagnuolo, didn't help Eli Manning and Plaxico Burress to play masterfully in the NFC Championship, etc. etc, etc. etc, etc.

Those, along with many other factors, were the reasons why the Giants won Super Bowl 42.

It's understandable for Giants fans to love their Super Bowl winning team. And I'm not suggesting that Barber should be as beloved as Michael Strahan, Manning, or any of the other key players that led the team to a championship.

But he should still be applauded for a fantastic career.

Feelings hurt?

Eli Manning acknowledged that he indeed signed his name in the visiting locker room at the Cowboys' new stadium in the Giants' visit there earlier this season.

Now the Cowboys are upset. Awww. Poor wittle babies.

Get out.

A team that has consistently harbored the biggest jerks, phonies and idiots (this side of Oakland and Cincinnati, anyway) shouldn't throw stones in its new glass palace.

Wade Phillips didn't approve of Eli's John Hancock.

"Things tend to come around in this league," the consistently over-matched coach said.

What things would those be, Wade? Maybe he was referring to the dirty leg-whip that snake Flozell Adams put on Justin Tuck in Week 2. Or maybe he was referring to the fact that his mediocre coaching usually "comes around" to dagger the Cowboys in December and January.

I'm a Yankee-hater, but when baseball season ends the Cowboys do a nice job of filling in as the object of my antipathy.

Bad Joke?

I'm not sure I could be more furious. Watching the Giants is making me physically ill. Defensive coordinator Bill Sheridan can't seem to fix whatever is wrong with the Giants' defense, and Eli Manning looks like the old, "you can never win a championship with this guy" Eli.

The Giants new defensive scheme seems to be let receivers run unbelievably wide open in the secondary and hope for drops. So far it's not working. Maybe the Saints exposed some weaknesses in the Giants' defense, but in the NFL you have to be able to adjust from week to week and all of a sudden the Giants seem totally unable to do that.

Incredibly, after a 5-0 start the season looks to be in real jeopardy.