In my previous article we took a look at Eli Manning’s 31 Touchdowns during the 2014 season. In this article we will take a look at Manning’s interceptions and what caused them. Looking at Manning’s play, it was interesting how efficient he was with the ball throughout the season up until his Week 11 match-up versus the San Francisco 49ers. In this game alone Manning threw five interceptions, where he only threw six interceptions during the previous ten weeks. What’s interesting to me is that Tony Romo actually threw three of his nine interceptions versus the same 49ers defense.
Stats
Regular Season - 379/601 (63.1%), 4,410 yards, 7.3 y/a, 30 TDs, 14 INTs, and 1 rushing TD
First let’s take a look at the intended targets of Manning’s 14 interceptions during the 2014 season:
Receiver Breakdown
| Rueben Randle | 5 |
| Larry Donnell | 3 |
| Odell Beckham | 2 |
| Preston Parker | 2 |
| Victor Cruz | 2 |
Here’s a quarter and down breakdown of his interceptions:
Quarter Breakdown
| 1st Quarter | 0 |
| 2nd Quarter | 3 |
| 3rd Quarter | 7 |
| 4th Quarter | 4 |
Down Breakdown
| 1st Down | 4 |
| 2nd Down | 4 |
| 3rd Down | 5 |
| 4th Down | 1 |
While here is a breakdown of Manning’s interceptions by distance and location:
Distance Breakdown
| Fewer than 6 Yards | 6 |
| Between 6 and 15 yards | 3 |
| More than 15 yards | 5 |
Location Breakdown
| Deep Left | Deep Middle | Deep Right |
| 3 | 1 | 1 |
| Intermediate Left | Intermediate Middle | Intermediate Right |
| 1 | 1 | 1 |
| Short Left | Short Middle | Short Right |
| 1 | 4 | 1 |
Finally, here is a route breakdown on the intercepted passes:
Route Breakdown
| Slant/Drag/Drive | 4 |
| Vertical - Go/Stop-n-Go | 2 |
| Hitch | 2 |
| Seam | 2 |
| Spot | 1 |
| Flat | 1 |
| Banana | 1 |
| Out | 1 |
Let’s take a look at some of his interceptions:
Play 1
Situation: 1st and 10 at NYG 16
Description: Q3 - (5:46) E.Manning pass deep left intended for V.Cruz INTERCEPTED by G.Quin at NYG 37. G.Quin to NYG 19 for 18 yards (R.Randle).
Opponent: 1. DET
Offensive Formation: Singleback Slot Right
Offensive Personnel: 11
Defensive Formation: Cover 2
Manning from singleback runs play-action to his runningback. DT98 Fairley rushes through the B-gap from the 1-tech position after the left guard pulls across the formation to sell the play-action fake.
Manning sees Fairley and escapes to the left side of the pocket. He releases the ball on Cruz’s drive route across the field thinking he’s open. Instead FS27 Quin reads the pass perfectly and intercepts it.
This interecption is on Manning. First, Manning does a great job of escaping the pocket and getting away from Fairley. The problem occurs because the throw is behind Cruz who has to slow down all the way in an attempt to catch the ball. The ball is also lobbed into the air with no real velocity since Manning is shifting to the outside. Manning simply overcompensates while trying to square his shoulders and release the ball quickly. The decision here is perfectly fine to throw it to Cruz. The problem is simply the throw, which it needs to be placed 3-5 yards closer to the sideline.
Play 2
Situation: 3rd and 8 at ARI 30
Description: Q1 - (6:46) (No Huddle, Shotgun) E.Manning pass short middle intended for V.Cruz INTERCEPTED by S.Acho (T.Kelly) at ARZ 26. S.Acho to ARZ 29 for 3 yards (J.Jerry).
Opponent: 2. ARI
Offensive Formation: Shotgun Right Slot Far
Offensive Personnel: 11
Defensive Formation: Cover 2 Fire-Zone Blitz
The Cardinals bring seven to the line of scrimmage pre-snap on 3rd and 8 showing an all-out blitz, but only rush five men while dropping two into zone coverage across the middle. This is a classic fire zone blitz run by the Cardinals. The outside defenders fake going upfield to try to cause confusion among the offensive lineman so they cover the wrong men while allowing free blitzers into the backfield.
RB23 Jennings tries to block the A-gap blitzer but fails while the slot defender blitzes in freely from the edge. Manning identifies his hot route receiver WR80 Cruz and attempts to pass it to him over the middle of the field on the drag route. Cruz trips, but Manning’s pass is off his backfoot as he feels the pressure and the ball hits RG77 John Jerry’s helmet for an easy pop-up interception. If Cruz didn’t slip, this might not have been an interception as Manning probably would have led his receiver more over the middle of the field away from his own lineman.
Play 3
Situation: 1st and 10 at SEA 39
Description: Q3 - (:57) (Shotgun) E.Manning pass deep right intended for O.Beckham INTERCEPTED by E.Thomas at SEA -5. E.Thomas to SEA 42 for 47 yards (J.Pugh).
Opponent: 10. SEA
Offensive Formation: Shotgun Slot Left Near
Offensive Personnel: 11
Defensive Formation: Cover 3
Manning from shotgun runs play-action to his runningback. Manning watches his tight end on the out-route who is covered then attempts to lob the ball deep into the endzone for WR13 Beckham. The ball is horribly underthrown and turns into a jump ball situation between Beckham and CB25 Sherman on the goalline. The ball bounces off of them right into the hands of FS29 Earl Thomas.
This interception is on Manning. He needs to place this ball deeper into the endzone and more on the sideline. Sherman has Beckham covered pretty well but if this ball is 5-6 yards deeper and in the backright corner of the endzone I think Beckham actually has a shot of taking it down as Sherman is turned to the ball the majority of the route.
Play 4
Situation: 3rd and 7 at SF 17
Description: Q2 - (4:42) (No Huddle, Shotgun) E.Manning pass short right intended for R.Randle INTERCEPTED by M.Wilhoite at SF 14. M.Wilhoite to SF 15 for 1 yard (J.Jerry). Penalty on NYG-C.Brown, Illegal Formation, declined.
Opponent: 11. SF
Offensive Formation: Shotgun Twins Right Slot Left -> Shotgun Slot Left Far
Offensive Personnel: 11
Defensive Formation: Cover 2
Manning threw five interceptions versus the 49ers. In this play, Manning is in shotgun twins right - slot Left and motions RB23 Jennings into the backfield with him. This is to pull the slot right defender into the center of the field to open up WR82 Randle’s out route. Manning thinks it works, but the 49ers are actually in five linebacker zones across the intermediate part of the field, so LB57 Wilhoite drops right back into his zone after moving inside.
This is a case where Manning identifies is pre-snap read (Randle) and then sticks to it post-snap without hesitation. Terrible decision. This is very similar to fellow NFC East quarterback Kirk Cousins who struggled with tihs problem in 2014 as well. Manning needs to read the slot defender post-snap as well and then move on to another read instead.
Play 5
Situation: 3rd and 9 at NYG 47
Description: Q3 - (7:08) (No Huddle, Shotgun) E.Manning pass deep left intended for R.Randle INTERCEPTED by E.Reid [D.Johnson] at SF 25. E.Reid to NYG 24 for 51 yards (O.Beckham). PENALTY on SF-Ald.Smith, Illegal Block Above the Waist, 10 yards, enforced at SF 42. Officially, a return for 17 yards.
Opponent: 11. SF
Offensive Formation: Shotgun Twins Bunch Right Far
Offensive Personnel: 11
Defensive Formation: Cover 2
The 49ers bring five pass rushers with two on a delayed blitz from the inside linebacker spot which causes Manning to disrupt his progressions and step up into the pocket to avoid the pressure.
Once Manning steps up he sees WR82 Randle on the left outside running a banana route to the outside. The ball is a wobbly-duck overthrow right into the hands of FS35 Reid who was playing deep Cover 2 from the start of the play. This pick is on Manning. Randle is clearly covered and Manning attempts to force the ball to him not even seeing the deep safety. Just an awful decision, and a terrible pass on 3rd down.
The interesting part about the five interceptions is that the Giants only lost the game by 6 points (10-16) and at worst were only down by 9 points. Going back through the game film it’s no wonder why the Giants have spent a number of high round draft picks on offensive lineman. Both RG77 John Jerry and RT71 Charles Brown were horrendous in this game scoring -8.6 and -6.4, respectively, in ProFootballFocus’ ratings. These low scores were among the lowest single game scores all season by any NFL player.
Play 6
Situation: 3rd and 9 at NYG 19
Description: Q3 - (8:46) (Shotgun) E.Manning pass short left intended for L.Donnell INTERCEPTED by M.Huff at NYG 23. M.Huff for 23 yards, TOUCHDOWN. R.Succop extra point is GOOD, Center-B.Brinkley, Holder-B.Kern.
Opponent: 14. TEN
Offensive Formation: Shotgun Twins Bunch Left Far
Offensive Personnel: 11
Defensive Formation: Cover 1
This is Manning’s worst interception of all season by far.
The Titans bring four pass rushees throught he B- and C-gaps allowing Manning to step up clean through the pocket. Without looking Manning throws the pass to his checkdown receiver TE84 Donnell in the left flat. Manning clearly misses FS28 Huff who rushes from his zone to cover Donnell’s route giving him the easiest interception of his life. This is just awful and it’s completely on Manning.
Overall, I counted eleven interceptions completely to be Manning’s fault out of his fourteen total interceptions. The common trend was a poor decision combined with a bad throw where Manning tried to force the pass to the receiver. Outside of his interceptions you can tell Manning has the skill-set and qualities to be a top 10 quarterback year in and year out and is basically limited by the number of “Eli” moments he has throughout the season. Ben McAdoo’s system is a very interesting mix of quick concepts and long ball strikes with WR13 Beckham. I don’t truthfully foresee Manning’s touchdown to interception ratio getting better than this season, but I also don’t see it getting much worse as McAdoo’s system actually fits Manning’s strengths well IF the Giants can get some new offensive lineman and WR80 Victor Cruz stays healthy. Click here for Eli Manning’s 31 Touchdowns during the 2014 season.
