Glauber: Turnover-prone Eli's failure to slide costly

PHILADELPHIA

As the turnovers continue to mount for Eli Manning, the answers are slow in coming.

There were four more Sunday night for the Giants' quarterback - three interceptions along with one extremely critical fumble as the Giants were desperately trying to catch up to the Eagles in the fourth quarter. In the end, the miscues were the deciding factors in the Giants' 27-17 loss to the Eagles at Lincoln Financial Field.

"If we want to go somewhere, we've got to fix it," Manning said. "I've got to stop the turnovers. The interceptions are adding up."

They're adding up to record numbers for Manning. If he keeps up his current pace, he'll end the season with a career-high 26 interceptions.

The most interceptions he has had in a single season is 20. Then again, if the end result of this season is the same as that one, the quarterback will take it; Manning's career high came during the team's 2007 Super Bowl run.

Manning also is on pace to throw a career-high 34 touchdown passes. His career high is 27 in 2009, but that's little consolation as far as the turnovers are concerned.

Oh, and that late fourth-quarter fumble that Manning committed after scrambling 16 yards to the Eagles' 40 for what would have been a first down as the Giants were trying to tie it up? That one hurt as badly as any of his three interceptions.

Maybe even worse.

On fourth-and-6 from the Giants' 44 with 3:13 left, Manning raced up the middle. But instead of sliding to end the play, Manning dived forward, fell hard to the ground and let the ball slip away. He was untouched by the Eagles, and the ball was recovered by Philadelphia's Darryl Tapp, effectively ending the Giants' comeback attempt. David Akers then kicked a 30-yard field goal with 22 seconds remaining to clinch it for the Eagles.

"I have to slide," Manning said. "I had the yardage, but you don't want to slow down. I had the first down, so I've got to slide. I've had times before this season where I've slid."

The play wiped out what had been a stirring second-half comeback. The Giants trailed 16-3 after the Eagles drove for a field goal on their first possession of the second half. But Manning drove the Giants 68 yards, throwing a 2-yard touchdown pass to Travis Beckum with 27 seconds left in the third quarter, and the Giants took their first lead of the game at 17-16 by converting Michael Vick's fumble on Justin Tuck's sack on Philly's next drive. Manning completed the two-play, 27-yard drive with a 5-yard touchdown pass to Derek Hagan.

But Manning committed three more turnovers in the fourth quarter. The first was a tipped pass that was picked off by Asante Samuel, who also had an earlier interception. Fortunately for the Giants, Samuel himself turned the ball over, fumbling after being hit by Ahmad Bradshaw. Manning's fumble was the real killer, and he finished his night with an interception on the Giants' final play.

What's most baffling to Manning is that he can't seem to pinpoint any particular reason for the slew of turnovers.

"I don't feel like I'm forcing it into crowds and making arrogant throws," he said. "On the first one, Asante jumped the route. Then there was a tipped ball [on Samuel's second interception]."

Whatever the case, Manning knows he needs to stop throwing to the other team. So does his coach.

"This callous disregard for the ball, which has been going on for probably a year and a half here, and no one seems to be able to do anything about it, again cost us the football game," said an angry Tom Coughlin. "We've got to take care of our situation. We've got to stop the turnovers."

Coughlin knows he can't make any wholesale lineup changes as a result of the turnovers. Is he going to bench Manning and Bradshaw, who combined for three fumbles and three interceptions? No, this has to come from within, and Coughlin knows it.

"This is our team, these are the guys that are going to play," he said. "This is our team, we've got to solve it, we've got to be smarter than we are and hopefully we can do that."

Manning hasn't lost hope either.

"There's still time," he said. "It's not the end of the world and there's a lot of football left. We've got a lot of divisional games, but we can't afford to turn the ball over. We can't afford to keep making mistakes."

And that starts with the quarterback.