A frustrating game for Manning

SAN FRANCISCO -- It was the kind of play Eli Manning said you "hate yourself for" as a quarterback when watching game video.

Just under three minutes remained in Sunday's game against the 49ers, and the Giants had rallied to within seven points of San Francisco when Manning, from the 49ers' 42, threw a long, high pass aimed for Mario Manningham.

The receiver nearly caught up to the ball around the 5-yard line, but it bounced off his fingertips as he lunged for it. The Giants later got as far as the 49ers' 10 but turned the ball over on downs and lost, 27-20.

"He was so open," Manning said. "You see it on film and it's going to look like he's wide open and you are going to say, 'I could have just laid it out there for him and let him walk under it.' But you always try to hit the guy right in stride."

Said Manningham: "Should have come down with it. I should have laid out."

It was that sort of day for Manning, who followed up his tour de force against the Patriots with an up-and-down outing that illustrated all that has been both good and bad about his career.

There were two awful interceptions, and on the Giants' final play, Manning's fourth-and-2 pass aimed at Victor Cruz was knocked down at the line by Justin Smith.

There also were the customary fourth-quarter heroics, during which Manning easily moved the Giants up and down the field and nearly erased a 14-point deficit.

It was the sort of performance that makes Manning a continuing source of fascination and debate among people who are paid to analyze NFL quarterbacks.

Just Sunday, the NFL Network's Kurt Warner -- the only quarterback ever to start an NFL game over Manning -- said this when asked if Manning will be able to maintain consistent success: "I want to say yes, but I have to say no.

"The thing is, when I think of Tom Brady, when I think of Drew Brees and Aaron Rodgers, I don't ever wait for a bad game. I expect them to play well every time they step on the football field. With Eli, he's not there yet for me.

"When I think of Eli, I still go, 'OK, when is it coming?' Over the last two years, he hasn't gone through games without multiple turnovers at any point in time."

Sure enough, Manning had a multiple-turnover game, throwing those two interceptions and narrowly missing a third when the 49ers' Dashon Goldson landed out of bounds.

On the first, Manning badly underthrew Cruz, and Carlos Rogers grabbed the ball. Later, Rogers picked off Manning again, this time with no Giant near him. Manningham had cut outside when Manning expected him to go inside. The gaffe set up the touchdown that put the 49ers ahead by 14.

"He had an in-cut," Manning said. "He thought I was scrambling. He was going to try to bang it back out and get open. I thought he was going to stay in the move.''

Despite all that, Manning still had the Giants in position to tie the score in the final minute on that fourth-and-2 from the 10.

He thought he had Cruz open, but the ball never got there. Manning said the spacing on the play was disrupted when the 49ers' Patrick Willis appeared to hold Jake Ballard. But no matter. Smith jumped and batted the ball.

The incompletion left Manning, who completed his first 10 passes of the game, 26-for-40 for 311 yards, two touchdowns and two interceptions.

Not bad. But not good enough.