The poor communication that added to Eli Manning’s awful afternoon on the field continued into the Giants’ locker room yesterday.
Though Manning’s primary receivers in a 41-17 loss to the Vikings refused to pin his four-interception nightmare entirely on the quarterback, none stepped up to take any individual blame for the debacle, either.
Three of Manning’s four interceptions were returned for touchdowns, all on throws intended for tight end Jeremy Shockey. But Shockey sidestepped discussion of the three costly picks or Manning’s 21-for-49 line afterward, basically saying any detailed explanation would be too complicated for the average fan to understand.
“There was a lot [of miscommunication], but I’m going to leave that inside the locker room,” said Shockey, who had an otherwise quiet afternoon with four catches for 44 yards. “If I explained it, you wouldn’t know what I was talking about.”
Wideout Plaxico Burress, the intended target on Manning’s lone interception that wasn’t returned for a touchdown, also was vague when discussing any lack of communication between passer and receiver.
To be fair to Burress, that particular interception in the second quarter didn’t appear his fault. Burress ran a short slant on the left side that Vikings free safety Dwight Smith – squatting the middle in a zone defense – simply stepped in front of and returned to the Giants’ 8.
But Burress, who finished with seven catches for 93 yards and a late, meaningless touchdown, certainly wasn’t pointing any fingers at himself for the Giants’ pathetic passing display.
“It was a combination of everything,” he said. “You know, one guy here, one guy there. It just seemed like we were kind of a step behind them. You have to give them credit, but at the same time, we didn’t help ourselves.”
One thing appeared certain: It wasn’t a case of exotic coverage schemes by the Vikings causing confusion between Manning and his receivers. The Vikings, in fact, went into the game ranked dead last in the NFL in pass defense and with just nine interceptions in 10 games.
Giants wideout Amani Toomer said the Vikings played a simple two-deep zone defense, much like the Lions did against New York the week before.
“It wasn’t that different than what we were used to,” Toomer said.
So, aside from constant up-the-middle pressure from the Vikings, what happened?
“I don’t know what the cause of most of that stuff was,” Toomer said of the Giants’ communication woes on offense. “They played a great game. They kept us off-balance pretty much the whole game and capitalized on our mistakes.”