Different year, same Eli Manning. The Giants quarterback threw for a career-best 510 yards and three touchdowns to rally the Giants (1-1) to another fourth-quarter comeback to defeat Tampa Bay (1-1) 41–34 Sunday afternoon at MetLife Stadium.
“Second half I thought our guys fought, we were confident we could get going—we were very much still in the game; just had to go down and score a couple touchdowns,” said a modest Manning, according to a report on the team’s website.
Manning, who put himself on the map with a string of clutch performances starting with the Super Bowl run in 2007 and continuing to last season’s encore championship performance, engineered three fourth-quarter touchdown drives Sunday after the Giants trailed 27–16 entering the final quarter. Two of those drives were punctuated with long touchdown throws by the two-time Pro Bowl selection including an 80-yarder to Victor Cruz followed by a 33-yarder to Martellus Bennett that put the Giants up 34–27.
Cruz, who had three drops in last week’s uneven loss to the Cowboys, atoned for his previous performance with 11 catches for 179 yards and that score.
