Shaun O’Hara knows all about the problems the Giants offense had a week ago, from the three delay of game penalties in the second half as they were trying to come from behind to their failing to score a touchdown after halftime for the second straight game.
And he knows most of the criticism of offense is being directed at Eli Manning.
“What else is new?” the center said. “That’s the microscope of the position. We all know it’s not all on Eli and we all have to do our part.”
But it’s the quarterback who has to get the ball snapped in time, something Manning and Tom Coughlin have discussed since Sunday’s loss to the Cowboys.
“I have talked to Eli and I have talked to the team about it,” Coughlin said. “We will do basically what we have done in the past, which is put the 40-second clock out there at practice. And we will work on that all week long, as long as we have to.”
But Coughlin said he isn’t worried about Manning suffering any loss of confidence.
“He is very resilient,” Coughlin said. “He never bats an eye about saying what his experiences are, or whether he performed well or not. He always takes responsibility for that.”
Which is something Manning tried to do again yesterday, as he and his coach insisted the Giants would not let last week’s defeat make them less sure of themselves as they head into Sunday’s game in Detroit.
When asked if he thought his team would play with confidence despite last week, Coughlin responded, “Absolutely. Why wouldn’t we?”
Manning also sounded certain they would avoid a tailspin.
“I don’t see that happening,” Manning said. “We started 0-2 with a lot of doubts and we bounced back from that and were able to win six games in a row. I don’t think it will be any factor for us.”
His teammates weren’t worried about him, either.
” ‘E’ is such an easy-going guy, it doesn’t affect him,” Brandon Jacobs said. “He doesn’t pay attention to it. He handles all of it well. None of this is really bothering him.”
It seems Manning goes through something like this each season after a bad outing or two, especially when the offense stalls as completely as it did late in the game against Dallas.
“Everyone surrounding him knows the deal,” Jacobs said. “Any time anything goes wrong, it goes on the quarterback. He’s been around this for four years; it rolls off his back.”
That’s fine, so long as the Giants don’t find themselves in a simi lar predicament as last week with the play clock.
“We worked on that some today,” Manning said. “We have been good over the past few weeks. We just had a little bit of a problem. I don’t think it’s going to be a problem. I don’t think it’s going to last. It is my responsibility to get the ball snapped and get everybody on the same page.”
Everyone claims they are, and that Manning’s problems won’t linger.
“I don’t think he worries about it,” Plaxico Burress said. “He knows he has a job to do, and for us to win, he has to play well. The criticism is just part of the game. It comes with the territory.”
Territory that Manning doesn’t want to become familiar.