PHILADELPHIA — It took Eli Manning 4 years to win his first playoff game, and it has taken Daniel Jones 4 years to even get the possibility to win his first playoff game.
The Giants didn’t draft Josh Allen to be Manning’s successor. They drafted Daniel Jones to be Manning’s successor.
And so now, because the sixth-seed Giants set their wild-card sights on the Vikings in Minneapolis, here is the mandate for Daniel Jones:
Go be Eli Manning.
Bring on the Vikings and go lift your Giants the way in which you might have lifted all of them season. Go lift them the way in which you probably did (30-for-42, 334 yards, one touchdown, one interception and 34 rushing yards) on Christmas Eve in that 27-24 walk-off 61-yard field goal defeat.
Go lift your 2022 Giants the way in which Eli Manning lifted his 2007 and 2011 Giants.
Jones was correctly rested on Sunday against the top-seeded Eagles, 22-16 survivors over the Substitute Giants, together with Saquon Barkley and virtually every other starter on a day when Davis Webb began and balled out, and so Jones goes into the playoffs armed with confidence and self-belief.
Nobody thought Manning could win three playoff games on the road and upset Brett Favre within the NFC Championship game at arctic Lambeau Field to get to Super Bowl XLII.
That is where legends are born and legacies could be created.
“We’re a confident group,” Jones said. “I believe we’re playing good football without delay.”
The Giants who did play fought like hell to scare Jalen Hurts and the Giants who didn’t play imagine they’d have beaten the Vikings last month if not for a rash of self-inflicted wounds. Asked if he likes the matchup, Dexter Lawrence said: “I like us over anybody furreal.”
Manning lost his first playoff game in his second season, was rattled (10-for-18 for 113 yards, 3 INTs, 1 fumble) by the Panthers in a 23-0 loss at Giants Stadium. “I didn’t play well, and I made too many mistakes for us to win today,” he said. “It was not the way in which I wanted to return out and play. I look ahead to coming back and improving.”
He got plenty higher (six touchdowns, one interception) during that 2007 playoff run that ended with him beating Tom Brady and the Perfect Patriots and winning Super Bowl XLII MVP.
I asked Jones if he had one favorite Manning playoff memory.
“Not one necessarily that stands proud besides the plain ones,” he said. “I believe the clutch throw to [Mario] Manningham down the sideline [Super Bowl XLVI], the clutch throw to [David] Tyree obviously [Super Bowl XLII], and just how big he was in those games at the largest moments when the team needed him probably the most and he delivered and made plays.”
Jones was 10 years old when Manning first shocked the world. He was 14, when Manning defeated Brady the second time. He’s 25 and all grown up now with a head coach in Brian Daboll who abruptly halted the cycle of the franchise doing all the things possible to screw its franchise quarterback up.
Center Jon Feliciano was a Bill from 2019-21. I asked him if the assumption in Jones is comparable to what it was in Allen.
“Hundred percent, yeah,” Feliciano said. “They’re different quarterbacks. Obviously Josh might be a bit more athletic running the ball. Daniel I believe is certainly a bit more accurate. I do know people at all times want to match them just ‘cause Daboll coaches each of them, but they’re different quarterbacks. … Josh has been killing it the previous couple of years. I actually have little doubt that Daniel could do this.”
Do what?
“Be up there with the top-name quarterbacks,” Feliciano said.
So you think that he could be this team’s Josh Allen?
“Yeah. Or whoever you ought to say,” Feliciano said. “I believe he could be our team’s Daniel Jones. I believe he is usually a top-five quarterback within the league.”
Jones has shown he’s every bit as unflappable under the Latest York microscope as Easy Eli was daily for 16 years. His breakthrough this season is a testament to his physical and mental toughness. Through all of the adversity, he never flinched. First one within the constructing, last one to go away. Same guy daily.
He resembles a more athletic Manning, who never summoned his legs as a weapon. But now it’s his time for him to channel his inner Manning: the larger the sport, the larger he might be asked to play.
I asked him if he thought the Giants would see the Vikings again. “Yeah, we thought so,” Jones said.
He had five game-winning drives this season. Manning had five postseason playoff drives.
“I actually have a ton of belief in our team, in our guys, and what we are able to do, what we are able to accomplish,” Jones said. “I believe it’s vital that we imagine in each other.”
His media-scrum persona is Manningesque. And like Manning, a raging competitive fire burns on the within.
“I believe ever since he was a walk-on at Duke he’ll light that fireplace in himself to get going and it never stops,” Nick Gates told The Post. “He at all times has something to prove.”
He’s proved that he’s earned his recent contract from the Giants. But that’s for tomorrow. “It’s a one-game season now,” Barkley said.
Be Eli Manning today.
PHILADELPHIA — It took Eli Manning 4 years to win his first playoff game, and it has taken Daniel Jones 4 years to even get the possibility to win his first playoff game.
The Giants didn’t draft Josh Allen to be Manning’s successor. They drafted Daniel Jones to be Manning’s successor.
And so now, because the sixth-seed Giants set their wild-card sights on the Vikings in Minneapolis, here is the mandate for Daniel Jones:
Go be Eli Manning.
Bring on the Vikings and go lift your Giants the way in which you might have lifted all of them season. Go lift them the way in which you probably did (30-for-42, 334 yards, one touchdown, one interception and 34 rushing yards) on Christmas Eve in that 27-24 walk-off 61-yard field goal defeat.
Go lift your 2022 Giants the way in which Eli Manning lifted his 2007 and 2011 Giants.
Jones was correctly rested on Sunday against the top-seeded Eagles, 22-16 survivors over the Substitute Giants, together with Saquon Barkley and virtually every other starter on a day when Davis Webb began and balled out, and so Jones goes into the playoffs armed with confidence and self-belief.
Nobody thought Manning could win three playoff games on the road and upset Brett Favre within the NFC Championship game at arctic Lambeau Field to get to Super Bowl XLII.
That is where legends are born and legacies could be created.
“We’re a confident group,” Jones said. “I believe we’re playing good football without delay.”
The Giants who did play fought like hell to scare Jalen Hurts and the Giants who didn’t play imagine they’d have beaten the Vikings last month if not for a rash of self-inflicted wounds. Asked if he likes the matchup, Dexter Lawrence said: “I like us over anybody furreal.”
Manning lost his first playoff game in his second season, was rattled (10-for-18 for 113 yards, 3 INTs, 1 fumble) by the Panthers in a 23-0 loss at Giants Stadium. “I didn’t play well, and I made too many mistakes for us to win today,” he said. “It was not the way in which I wanted to return out and play. I look ahead to coming back and improving.”
He got plenty higher (six touchdowns, one interception) during that 2007 playoff run that ended with him beating Tom Brady and the Perfect Patriots and winning Super Bowl XLII MVP.
I asked Jones if he had one favorite Manning playoff memory.
“Not one necessarily that stands proud besides the plain ones,” he said. “I believe the clutch throw to [Mario] Manningham down the sideline [Super Bowl XLVI], the clutch throw to [David] Tyree obviously [Super Bowl XLII], and just how big he was in those games at the largest moments when the team needed him probably the most and he delivered and made plays.”
Jones was 10 years old when Manning first shocked the world. He was 14, when Manning defeated Brady the second time. He’s 25 and all grown up now with a head coach in Brian Daboll who abruptly halted the cycle of the franchise doing all the things possible to screw its franchise quarterback up.
Center Jon Feliciano was a Bill from 2019-21. I asked him if the assumption in Jones is comparable to what it was in Allen.
“Hundred percent, yeah,” Feliciano said. “They’re different quarterbacks. Obviously Josh might be a bit more athletic running the ball. Daniel I believe is certainly a bit more accurate. I do know people at all times want to match them just ‘cause Daboll coaches each of them, but they’re different quarterbacks. … Josh has been killing it the previous couple of years. I actually have little doubt that Daniel could do this.”
Do what?
“Be up there with the top-name quarterbacks,” Feliciano said.
So you think that he could be this team’s Josh Allen?
“Yeah. Or whoever you ought to say,” Feliciano said. “I believe he could be our team’s Daniel Jones. I believe he is usually a top-five quarterback within the league.”
Jones has shown he’s every bit as unflappable under the Latest York microscope as Easy Eli was daily for 16 years. His breakthrough this season is a testament to his physical and mental toughness. Through all of the adversity, he never flinched. First one within the constructing, last one to go away. Same guy daily.
He resembles a more athletic Manning, who never summoned his legs as a weapon. But now it’s his time for him to channel his inner Manning: the larger the sport, the larger he might be asked to play.
I asked him if he thought the Giants would see the Vikings again. “Yeah, we thought so,” Jones said.
He had five game-winning drives this season. Manning had five postseason playoff drives.
“I actually have a ton of belief in our team, in our guys, and what we are able to do, what we are able to accomplish,” Jones said. “I believe it’s vital that we imagine in each other.”
His media-scrum persona is Manningesque. And like Manning, a raging competitive fire burns on the within.
“I believe ever since he was a walk-on at Duke he’ll light that fireplace in himself to get going and it never stops,” Nick Gates told The Post. “He at all times has something to prove.”
He’s proved that he’s earned his recent contract from the Giants. But that’s for tomorrow. “It’s a one-game season now,” Barkley said.
Be Eli Manning today.
