Staple: Eli's playing better than one might think

With 7:50 left in yesterday's Giants-Titans game, Eli Manning was having the most accurate game of his career.

Too bad all anyone will remember of Manning from the latest Giants meltdown, a 29-10 mess of retaliatory penalties and missed opportunities, is his very ill-advised lefthanded flip from the Titans' 2 that tipped into the hands of Tennessee's Jason McCourty in the end zone midway through the first quarter. It was just one of a number of mistakes by the offense in a game every Giant felt was theirs to win.

"Eli did a great job of leading us today," Steve Smith said, "but we didn't hold up our end."

That may be the hardest part for the Giants to swallow. Manning, who had completed 24 of 29 passes (82.7 percent) at the point that the Titans went up 22-10 with 7:50 to go - which forced him into hurry-up, four-down passing mode - is not nearly as bad as his season stats show through three games.

In the two winnable games the Giants have had this season - the opening victory over the Panthers and yesterday's loss - Manning is 54-for-78 (69.2 percent) with three touchdown passes and six interceptions. Of the league-leading six picks (tied with Brett Favre), only two are on Manning.

That's a change from seasons gone by, when he was excused as a young quarterback trying to make something happen. Now he's maturing into a more accurate passer; at 34-for-48 yesterday, he was over 70 percent for the fifth time in the last eight games. But the Giants are 2-3 in those games.

Before Sunday, Manning and the offense simply were playing catch-up too often. But Sunday revealed that the Giants' offense might be too immature and too inconsistent to keep up with their quarterback, who can make throws like his 43-yard sideline completion to Mario Manningham on a third-and-10 from his own 1, only to have it turn into a safety for the Titans on a needless chop block by Ahmad Bradshaw.

"He's playing with as much confidence as I've ever seen," tackle David Diehl said.

That confidence is spread around to his young receivers. Whereas Manning once relied so heavily on Plaxico Burress that the Giants had to deal with disgruntled veterans (Amani Toomer, Jeremy Shockey), he had completions to eight receivers Sunday and utilized Kevin Boss' ability to run free behind linebackers on two perfectly placed seam-route throws, one for 54 yards in the first quarter.

"We had a great game plan and we put it to good use," Boss said. "There was nothing wrong with that."

Manning has been known to try to do too much, especially when the Giants fall behind - witness his heave into triple-coverage last weekend in Indianapolis, when the game already was threatening to be a blowout. As Tom Coughlin said of Manning's bad decision near the goal line Sunday: "I know he's trying to make a play."

Manning's explanation was simple: "I'm not very good at throwing the ball lefthanded."

But the Giants could have overcome that missed chance in the opening quarter, trailing by only three then. Manning had two of his first seven passes intercepted; he was 12-for-13 the rest of the half, with the only incompletion a drop by Hakeem Nicks that was right into the receiver's gut.

There have been stretches - at the end of 2006, even at times in 2008 after Burress' nightclub arrest - when Manning would force throws and force Coughlin to make excuses. Now it's Manning covering up for his teammates' mistakes.

"You can look back on the day when we watch the film tomorrow and we'll see a lot of plays, 'Hey, that is a great job,' but it is the bad plays that are killing us," he said. "We are just having too many negative plays. We have the playmakers to do good things, but if you are going to make mistakes, if you are going to screw up so many things, it gets canceled out."