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Transcript: Postgame QB Eli Manning

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SEPTEMBER 21, 2008

Can you just generally sum up your thoughts on the win?

"That was a fun one. That's a game that wasn't pretty at all times, we didn't play our best football, but that's just kind of how it goes sometimes. Everything's not going to go perfectly and you'll have some ups and downs, so we kept fighting, we never gave up and when we needed to make plays I think guys stepped up and made plays. We've always kind of had that ability and had that about us, and it's good that we haven't lost that. It's something you can't really coach, you can't teach. For some reason when it's clutch time and we need to make some plays, we tend to find a way to make plays."

What about at the end of regulation, the 3rd-and-10 pass to Steve Smith?

"Yeah, it was a 3rd-and-10 pass, they showed blitz, I went to a check and Steve just did a great job of finding a lane. It wasn't really the perfect call, he just kind of played above the X's and O's. He found a lane. It wasn't really the perfect route that he ran but he's just kind of a football player and saw something, saw a hole. He got the catch for a huge first down."

And the Kevin Boss touchdown?

"We originally had a different play, went to the sideline when they called time out and (offensive coordinator Kevin Gilbride) said, 'Which play do you like better?' We went with this one. They were showing blitz. They brought a lot blitz zero. It was all-out blitz all day. They were kind of showing that and we did a dummy cadence, then we had a good play on their blitz. We were trying to throw something to Plaxico (Burress) and then for some reason the linebacker checked out and they went to Cover-2, then we had a perfect play to the front side. (Amani) Toomer ran a good route. He held the Mike-backer - the Mike-backer ran with Toomer. Kevin Boss came across the end zone and made a tough catch, gets hit, and that's just kind of how that play works. You're going to get hit on that, so he did a great job." 

Coach Coughlin said they were trying to take away Plaxico Burress and gang up on your running game. Do you think you were able to spread it around?

"Yeah, they had a good plan. They tried to gang up on him and do some blitzes and roll it to both sides. It made it tough at times. When teams are doing a lot of blitzing like that, you're going to get them with a few plays and they're going to get you with some plays also. That's kind of the way it goes. We hit enough big plays and good plays to get the win, so that was a great job by our guys just hanging in there tough, never getting frustrated and keep playing."

Coach Coughlin said you had a number of run calls in overtime but opted out. What is that like with the ball in your hands and what did you see that made you opt out?

"We do a lot of stuff like that. We call two plays - either two runs or two passes or a run and a pass, a pass and a run - and you just kind of look at the defense and see if there's too many guys up there, if they're coming with the blitz, then you have to check to the pass. And sometimes neither of those plays will work and you have to change the play to a whole different play. We were mixing it up a pretty good bit. They were mixing their coverages, their blitzes, what they were doing, so we'd try to get there as fast as we could, identify what they were doing and try to get it to the best play possible. It's easier said than done sometimes. A lot of guys are communicating, you're changing things up so it was a great job by our players not getting confused, knowing exactly what we were getting to and running, doing the right things and making the plays."

In overtime, why the pump-fake to Burress?

"That's what we called. They were coming with the blitz. We'd been running a lot of slants, hit a few. I hadn't hit one to Plaxico, but he'd been running a lot of slants (and I) just had better looks to the other side. He ran a little fake-slant, pumped it, the corner sat just enough and got over the top of him. (It was a) good route by him and a good job going to get the ball right there."

But you felt that was the perfect time for it, obviously?

"Yeah. We'd been running a lot of slants. We ran a little slant-and-go. They were in a good coverage. They came with a little pressure there, but they were in good coverage for it and he did a good job getting open."

And the pass to Amani Toomer?

"Amani, the play - We've run it in the past. We hadn't run it all game, but he and Plaxico had just kind of run it. They got a little crisscross action and Amani saw the guy was guarding him pretty him good, but he was kind of fighting with him and he ran by him and got squatted. Like, Amani might sit outside and he ran by him and made the great catch down the sideline like he always does." 

Did you see it? You had a guy right in your face.

"I saw him getting over and I saw the guy squat kind of at the last second. I thought I had a shot to get him the ball and give him a shot to make a play and he did a good job."

But you had a guy in your face as you threw it.

"Yeah, but I could still see."

What about the relief of going into the bye week at 3-0?

"That's good. That's obviously your goal. You want to get off to a fast start and to start 3-0, to win this game today the way we did, to fight, it's a good feeling. We're going to enjoy this week off. We'll look at some things, kind of look at the last three games, especially look at this game and see some things we need to improve on. We'll have two good days of practice and just kind of review some of those things and then come back. We know we have a long stretch, a lot of games to play, so we know we have to get better and we have a lot of football to play."

You mentioned that fourth quarter drives aren't new for this team. Any idea why you're so good at that?

"I don't know and I don't know if I want to know. It's just kind of a deal where we have a fight in us that when things are tough we play our best, the best comes out of us. You'd like to play at that level all the time, but sometimes it just doesn't happen. You're not in that pressure situation when everything gets - You know, people get all nervous when it gets tight at the end. Our guys seem to really relax and just do a great job making plays."

When Toomer made that catch, how much urgency was there to get the play off?

"Yeah, that was what we wanted to do. I think he was in. He's usually pretty good at keeping his feet in on those types of plays. We wanted to get up there and get a play run, so great job by our guys getting up to the line of scrimmage, receivers getting set, getting a play run and also getting us get to the middle of the field and make it an easier field goal to win it."

On the play of the Bengals.

"The Bengals are a good team. They've had a rough first two weeks. Their defense has been on the field a lot and their defense has played well. Their offense, they had to win the game last week, they played a tough game against Baltimore, so they're very talented on offense, obviously, and have been for the last few years and have a lot of good players. We knew it was going to be a close game. We knew coming in they were going to fight for a win and give it their all being 0-2 and we had to have that same philosophy. We had to want it more. We had to want it more going 3-0 rather than going 0-3, making them go 0-3."

With regard to yourself in late game situations, do you relish them?

"Yeah, I mean, you don't always like to be in them, but it's good that when we go into those situations we can make plays. We kind of get into running a lot of our base plays and plays everybody feels comfortable with, protections guys know, routes everybody feels good... Guys are reacting, they're playing fast. You're not thinking much, you're just reacting because you're seeing everything clearly. We're doing a good job of doing that and hopefully we keep that up."