It was official as of 3:45 Sunday afternoon: Eli Manning was now a bonafide NFL quarterback, anointed the “Giants’ quarterback for the next five years!” by a breathless FOX postgame crew.

 

Yes, Eli had a very solid game Sunday in the Giants’ 24-14 upset of Tampa. You could even call it brilliant, in that game-manager type of way. He didn’t make mistakes, he got the Giants into the end zone and he won a playoff game.

 

Congrats.

 

But the Cold, Hard Football Facts are still clear – Manning has a long, long, long way to go before he’s even in the second tier of NFL quarterbacks.

 

First, let’s address the man’s regular season passer rating: 73.9. For those of you who like a little actual evidence to counter your ballwashing, that was 25th in the NFL this year. There is no defense for that number – it is terrible, terrible, terrible.

 

Rather than list all 24 QBs with better numbers, we’ll list the four QBs above him on the list:

All four of those guys lost their jobs, and they were all playing behind terrible offensive lines – including the two worst offensive lines in the league in Chicago (where Griese outperformed Manning) and KC (where Huard outperformed Manning).

 

Meanwhile, Manning was playing behind the league’s No. 6 Offensive Hogs, and still put up a rating that gets you benched in most cities.

 

Now, let’s address his consistency. Let’s call any start where you finish with an 80.0 passer rating or better a “Quality Start,” like a baseball pitcher going six innings or more and allowing three runs or less. 6 IP + 3 ER = the bare minimum, and 80.0 is the NFL equivalent for QBs, just about average for a passer in the 21st century.

 

Manning had only SIX Quality Starts in 2007, seven now with his excellent performance against Tampa. Kurt Warner, who was unceremoniously dumped by the Giants in favor of Manning in 2004, had EIGHT Quality Starts in 10 completed starts this year for Arizona. He produced an 89.8 passer rating this year, beat Manning in almost every single objective measure and has outperformed Manning every year since he's moved on to Arizona  – and Warner will be begging for a starting job next year.

 

Manning didn’t put three Quality Starts in order once all season, although he can if he plays well in Dallas.

 

That’s just unacceptable – it shows you just how good the Giants’ offensive and defensive lines are that they could overcome terrible QB play and still make it to the playoffs. New York's Defensive Hogs, for example, were No. 1 in the NFL this year and gave a command performance in Sunday's victory over Tampa.

 

In the past three seasons, Manning has had a Pro Bowl tight end, a legitimate No. 1 receiver and a good offensive line – oh! and great running games and solid defenses. Manning was coddled by Tiki Barber, one of the most productive backs in history, in his first three years in the league. This year, his leading backfield mate was 5.0-YPA bowling ball Brandon Jacobs.

 

And Eli's done nothing with it. Or at least he did nothing until the win over the Bucs.

 

Was he good against Tampa? He certainly executed the game plan, avoided turnovers and converted in the red zone en route to a 117.1 passer rating and a 10-point road victory that was well-deserved. And he was also excellent against the Patriots in Week 17.

 

But we’re sorry, two consecutive standout games are not enough to offset four year's worth of garbage – especially when you haven’t strung together three good games since September of 2006.

 

Eli Manning, you just played two great games in a row! What are you going to do now? You heading to Disney World?

 

“Nah, I’m most likely going to play like total crap next time out!”

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