Easy Eli Always Rises to the Occasion

Growing up in New Orleans behind older brothers Cooper and Peyton, Eli Manning was probably going to hate sports, his parents thought. He was dragged along to their games but still managed to create his own brand of football competitiveness.

When the Giants reached for him in the 2004 draft, he initially sat behind Kurt Warner. Once he became the starter in Week 11, his 0-6 streak of games ended with a victory over Dallas in Week 17. On the last play of the game. On an audible. A run he called, a draw play to Tiki Barber with no Giants timeouts remaining.

Right then the Giants knew they had a quarterback with a degree of smarts and courage.

But he would be pricked and slashed for his hang-dog look, his ho-hum veneer that Giants fans once abhorred. Manning focused on being calm, on getting better. He has traveled to San Diego and met demons there in the city and franchise he spurned for the glitz of New York. He has stared down Tom Brady when Brady was 18-0 and when a championship for both was in reach.

And when the Giants, entering this season, jettisoned both of his starting receivers and gave him a fresh-faced crew of pass catchers to mold, challenging him to be everything the $106.9 million contract they awarded him should entail, this was his answer:

"You can count on me."

And Eli Manning counts on himself.

His poker style of football, of quarterbacking -- keep 'em away, keep 'em out, hang low, keep it simple, say as much as you can in a little and wait until game day and then there unleash it all -- has served him well.

He goes home to New Orleans on Sunday. It will be his first game in the Superdome. He is pitted against big-play Saints quarterback Drew Brees. He strolls into the belly of a swarming Saints defense.

ZZZZzzzzzzzzz.

Somebody wake up Eli Manning when kickoff arrives.

"Eli does not share much," his father, Archie, said. "And what he shares, he shares real briefly. But I can just tell. He's excited about coming home to play. We were at his game against Oakland in New York on last Sunday. We went over to his place after the game. He was excited to win. He was happy he overcame his foot injury. I know he is looking forward to playing here. It is a big deal for the Saints and all of the people here."

Archie Manning should know. The former Saints quarterback has lived in New Orleans for the last 38 years.

"This game is going to be kind of different," he said. "Peyton has played here with the Colts before. Cooper and Peyton played in high school all-star games in the Superdome. But Eli has never had the chance to get in there. It's his sixth year with the Giants. He's taken his lumps. He's gotten them into the playoffs every year he's been the starter for the full season. Eli is a pocket passer. I always feel if you are not a runner or scrambler, you need to be a good cerebral quarterback and have that approach to the game. To me, that's Peyton's greatest characteristic. He does not hold on to it. You got to know what's going on. It's a complex game. Eli loves his life and he loves New York. He loves playing football."

The Giants and their fans have learned to love him.

What is not to love about a 5-0 record and a perfect passer rating in his last game? About 10 touchdown passes compared with 2 interceptions this season? About a 64 percent completion percentage? About the toughness, the leadership, the snappy two-minute-drill tangos and his willingness to embrace a place that is so brash when he is so subdued?

This is what people are saying about Eli Manning's game:

He is putting the ball in the right spots. He sees the field. He is finding second, third and fourth options on routes. He is in a zone. He knows the system. He looks like he is playing everything in second-nature fashion. He is throwing the ball to the right places. He showed his teammates his toughness by starting against the Raiders despite his foot injury, by starting in a game his team likely would have won without him.

Giants opponents have infused their defense with eight- and nine-men fronts hoping to take away the Giants' stout run game and forcing Manning to make plays. You beat us, they are challenging him. And, so, he has.

The Saints will likely challenge him in similar ways.

The man who made Manning a Giant nearly six years ago expects Manning to have answers.

"I am sure this game is meaningful to him," said Ernie Accorsi, the Giants' former general manager. "I was at the Oakland game. He's come a long way. He is doing the things that pay off for a quarterback. The talent was always there early on but his head was spinning. Now he is in control of the game. I just watch his body movement. He is seeing receivers immediately and getting the ball there before the defense has a chance to react. You don't see this from most quarterbacks early in their careers and sometimes you never see it in some. Eli is seeing it, throwing it. I never saw a receiver open on Sunday that he did not throw to that he should have thrown to.

"He has handled all of the criticism well. In his first year or two we were both getting it. It was really bad. I felt bad for him. He handled it. He never flinched."

He is battle-tested.

He is not going to shiver about Brees, the Dome, going home.

Manning knows there are more scores to settle. He has games left against quarterbacks Warner and Phillip Rivers and Matt Ryan and Brett Favre and two each against Donovan McNabb and Tony Romo.

He has many more situations to manage, more games to control. More calm to provide.

He has given that calm to his young receivers through their drops and through their circus catches. He is not a screamer or a yeller, yet, he plays the game with the focus of an assassin.

He is not the NFL's best quarterback.

But he is the best at killing you softly.

So, here comes Brees and the Saints monster defense and a big show in his hometown.

Eli Manning has the stomach for it.