Vacchiano: Manning finding himself at right time

In a role reversal that is stunning, especially given the arcs of their careers the last few years, it will be Peyton Manning who sits at home this weekend watching his brother on the national stage. While Peyton’s Colts, the defending Super Bowl champions, were eliminated from the playoffs last weekend, Eli’s Giants shocked the league by advancing to the NFC championship game.

The rise of the Giants came out of nowhere, after an 0-2 start and an up-and-down season. But that’s nothing compared to the surprising rise of the youngest Manning brother. He’s been an erratic, embattled quarterback for most of his four-year career.

But in the last three games he’s been nothing short of brilliant, and now he’s the toast of what is often a very fickle town.

“The way that he has played, the way that he has led, the way that he has performed, the poise … the times when the game was literally on the line and he has had to make plays and he has,” said Giants coach Tom Coughlin. “These are all very, very good things (and) as I have said before, very timely.”

Timely is an understatement. The arrival of the 27-year-old former No. 1 pick coincided with the three biggest games of this season. He began his brilliant stretch in the Giants’ season finale, where they nearly upset the undefeated New England Patriots. Then he continued it in Tampa Bay, when he won the first playoff game of his career.

Then, last Sunday in Dallas, when the Giants beat the Cowboys 21-17 in the divisional playoffs, Manning was 12 for 18 for 163 yards with two touchdowns and no interceptions. His passer rating was a career-high 132.4.

That gave him three straight games with a rating over 100 for the first time in his career. In those games, he completed 70.1 percent of his passes (54 of 77) for 599 yards with eight touchdowns and just one interception — none in his two postseason games. That’s a passer rating of 122.1 for a quarterback who has hovered in the 70s for most of his time in the NFL.

“It looks like Eli, finally, to me,” said Duke coach David Cutcliffe, who was Manning’s college coach at Ole Miss. “And I’m just tickled to death. I was watching the game (on Sunday) and I was just smiling from ear to ear. It just looked exactly like Eli looks. And I hadn’t seen that in a while.”

What has happened to Manning is either a bit of a miracle, a product of hard work, or just the natural progression of a maturing quarterback. It depends on whom you ask. The most notable difference the last few weeks has been a scaled-back game plan that features short passes and a controlled game plan. As one ex-Giant player said, “All we used to do was throw down the field. They don’t seem to do that anymore.”

The result has been a more accurate Manning, who seems comfortable in a high-percentage passing game. It allows his receivers to do the heavy lifting, as evidenced by a 52-yard touchdown pass to Amani Toomer in Dallas, who took a 10-yard pass and shook off two defenders before running the rest of the way.

“I’m very aware of all the criticism (he took) about technique and throwing off your back foot and getting on your heels,” Cutcliffe said. “That will happen to a guy when you’re not sure what’s going on and what your people are doing. Now, I think it looks to me kind of like the Giants have kind of come of age. Not just Eli, but the Giants have. It looks to me like with (Steve) Smith and (Plaxico) Burress and (Amani) Toomer, their all just on the same page. Their timing looks good. And when that happens …”

Well, you see what happens when that happens. Eli Manning looks like … well, he’s starting to look a little like Peyton. He’s not putting up Peyton-like numbers, but he’s playing efficient, mistake-free football. And he’s rising to the occasion when he has to, like during a brilliant, 46-second touchdown drive that tied the game against the Cowboys just before the half.

“I tell you what, that drive at the end of the second quarter and that drive in the second half, I mean that was all the quarterback,” said Giants co-owner John Mara. “He’s had big games before where he’s made great throws and great decisions, and he’s had some inconsistencies. But thing that always gave us hope is you saw him make plays, you saw there was talent. The question was getting it out of him with a little bit more consistency.”

That’s the question that’s been asked, re-asked and over analyzed ad nauseum in New York since the moment Manning arrived amid all the hype and hoopla in 2004. There was so much promise that day. He was going to be New York’s next great quarterback, a more than worthy heir to Giants legend Phil Simms.

But the more he was up and down, the more the general opinion of him wavered too. At times the criticism went beyond what most other quarterbacks experience. Very often his teammates and coaches felt it was unfair.

“It wasn’t easy,” Coughlin said. “But watching him handle it? That was very reassuring. He’s a guy who stays away from valleys and the peaks as well. I’m sure on the inside he was churning. But on the outside he stayed away from it.”

Now, after what he’s done the last three weeks, he doesn’t have to worry about that criticism anymore.