Rebounding

I don't generally listen to Cleveland sports radio, I like Rizzo, and I like Bull and Fox, but most of the hosts or people that call in are so negative and so out of touch that I just generally avoid it.  I listened to a little bit this week and heard people just blast Brandon Weeden.  I get it.  He had a horrible game.  It doesn't mean he's going to be a horrible quarterback.  It doesn't mean he was a horrible draft pick.  It was one game against a really good defense, and while it's easy to lose perspective, the reality is that he's a rookie quarterback.  How he responds will define Brandon Weeden, next Sunday against the Bengals and beyond.

As I listened to people bash Weeden, I was reminded of a MMQB that Peter King wrote following the Giants Super Bowl win.  The link to the article is here, but here are the portions that reminded me of how I hope Brandon Weeden will react to his poor performance.

Scene 2: Dec. 12, 2004, Baltimore. The one thing Eli Manning always has had is poise. That's what makes this horror show at the Ravens so weird, and so troubling.

When quarterbacks go to the line of scrimmage, they most often point to the foe they're using as the middle linebacker, in order for the offensive line to know which man they're going to block. The first man to the right of the "mike'' linebacker, for instance, will be blocked by the right guard, etc. And so when Manning would see Ray Lewis, number 52 on the Ravens, across the line and bark out, "52's the mike,'' Lewis would scurry to the outside of the formation and yell, "I'm the mike!'' And Ed Reed or another defender would slip into Lewis' spot and yell, "I'm the mike!'' They were taunting Manning, and it shook him up.

Says Manning now: "A nightmare. A disaster. They saw me sweating it, and they took advantage of me, to say the least.''

In the fourth start of his Giants' career, Manning was the definition of pathetic, four of 18 for 27 yards, with no touchdowns and two interceptions ... for a 0.0 passer rating. In the press box, one veteran Giants scribe took to calling Eli "Billy Ripken'' over and over again. As in, "The brother of a great player who'll just never make it.''


"I redshirted my freshman year at Ole Miss,'' Manning told me, "and when I was put in there, I was ready to play. My rookie year here, at first, it was an opportunity to watch an MVP play. Kurt was great to me. I would ask him tips about picking up the blitz. And when coach Coughlin went to me, I knew it hurt Kurt. I felt for him. But he was still a professional, helping me. He could have been a lot of things, but I can tell you he was a help to me.''
Warner likes Manning, and vice versa. This was a tough situation, because Warner thought the Giants were throwing away the season -- maybe to justify the trade and the selection of Manning. And Warner looked right for the first month. Manning put up only 23 points in losses to Atlanta, Philly and Washington, and then there was the 37-14 debacle at Baltimore, the day Warner had to come in to rescue Manning in relief. "He was overwhelmed by the situation,'' Warner told me on my podcast last week. "It was some of the worst quarterbacking I'd seen at the NFL level.''

The Ravens, Gilbride said, "did everything they could to humiliate Eli.''

Manning didn't fold. He had a huge week coming up, and a short week. The Giants took the train back to New Jersey after the Sunday game in Baltimore. Coming the following Saturday: a nationally televised game against Pittsburgh, at home, with Roethlisberger, who looked like a big star in the making for the Steelers, coming to the Meadowlands to show everyone in football that Accorsi and the Giants made a big mistake in picking Manning and not him.

On the two-hour ride to Newark, Manning spoke with Gilbride and then-offensive coordinator John Hufnagel. Rather than sulk about the disastrous game he'd played, he told them his eight favorite plays. He told them, "If you could put these in the game plan next week, it'd give me eight plays I'd be comfortable with -- rhythm plays, plays I know I'd have an open receiver even if it was just a short gain.''

Notable that Manning could think about the next game 90 minutes after the most embarrassing game of his life. "I was down, really down,'' he said. "But I knew if we could put some plays in the plan for the next week that I liked, I'd feel better about it -- and the offense would see in practice we'd be able to move the ball.''

That week, he met with Coughlin. "I'm better than this coach,'' Manning told him. And Coughlin said he knew that, and don't look over your shoulder; just play. But around the team, this was a big week, and a tense week. Roethlisberger and the Steelers were 12-1. In the New York Daily News, Gary Myers wrote, "So far, it's shocking how inept Manning has looked. The field looks 200 yards long.'' Accorsi told Myers that week: "I don't want to talk about Roethlisberger. This thing will be written over a long time, not, in Eli's case, four weeks."

Now, Manning says: "I didn't read the paper in high school, and I never got the paper in college. I could kind of tell what was being said about me by the questions the reporters would ask. So I didn't read about me. Same thing when I got to the Giants. But I could tell that week was a big week. The media was like a bunch of hungry dogs. They were coming for me. And I hadn't played well, so that's the way it goes.''

Strange game. Willie Ponder of the Giants returned the opening kick 91 yards for a touchdown. Roethlisberger threw a pick on his first drive. The Steelers scored on an Antwaan Randle El shovel pass. Manning followed with a 55-yard touchdown drive ending in a two-yard touchdown pass to Jeremy Shockey. The crowd was getting into it.

Back and forth they went, the Giants taking a 24-23 lead at the end of the third quarter on Manning's second touchdown pass of the day, the Steelers coming back to take the lead on a Jeff Reed field goal, Manning driving the Giants 52 yards for another TD (a Tiki Barber TD run) to put the Giants up 30-26 midway through the fourth quarter, and Jerome Bettis burrowing behind right tackle with five minutes left to make it 33-30, Steelers.

Driving to tie or win it, Manning threw a pick at the Steelers 18 with three minutes to play. Ballgame. "You don't like to say losing a game was a big mental boost for us,'' Manning said, "but it was. That was the day I thought I showed our team I could play at a high level.''

Manning that day: 16-of-23 (.696), 182 yards, two TDs, one interception, 103.9 rating.

Roethlisberger: 18-of-28 (.643), 316, one TD, two interceptions, 84.8 rating.

That's the day Manning took the heat off himself. He's never really felt it since.



King also talked about Ernie Accorsi, the Giants then GM, and what he saw in Manning at Ole Miss. One of the great lines delivered, and one that's applicable to all great quarterbacks, was this gem:

One last thing from that Accorsi scouting report. Something about guts. Manning may not look the part, but someone who plays the way he does late in games has something that Accorsi saw that day in Mississippi, something he'd also seen in his Colts days with Johnny Unitas, something Colts teammate Bobby Boyd saw too. Wrote Accorsi: "BOYD TOLD ME ONCE ABOUT UNITAS, 'TWO THINGS SET HIM APART: HIS LEFT TESTICLE AND HIS RIGHT TESTICLE.'

I'm not saying that Brandon Weeden is Eli Manning.  I'm not going to compare a rookie quarterback to a two-time Super Bowl winning one.  What I believe people have lost perspective this week is that all quarterbacks have had bad games.  It's the most important position in sports, and it is the most difficult to master.  All rookie quarterbacks will experience growing pains, even 28 year old ones.  And yes, even RG3.  It's how they respond that separates the great ones from the washouts, the Manning's from the Carr's, the Aikman's from the Walsh's, the Favre's from the Majkowski's.

I don't have access to the Browns practices.  After the game Weeden said he'd be the first one at the facility in the morning.  I hope that's true.  I hope that he has the special quality that Eli Manning had, the ability to come back after a lousy performance, to put it behind him and work his tail off to get better.  To show his teammates that he has the ability to be their leader.  To show that he has the testicles required for the position.  There are going to be bumps in the road, we can be sure of that, but Weeden's response will be the key indicator of whether or not he is the quarterback of the future or just another guy in a long line of failures at the position for the Browns.  And we should be able to tell fairly quickly if this team is his and he's got what it takes.  That's the reality of the NFL today.

Some additional perspective on some other quarterbacks in their first seasons.

Troy Aikman went 0-11 in the games he started his rookie season for the Cowboys.
John Elway went 4-6 and had 7 tds and 14 interceptions
Peyton Manning threw 28 interceptions and went 3-13
Terry Bradshaw threw 6 tds and 24 interceptions

All the great ones were rookies at some point, and they all struggled.  It's how they responded that made them great.  And they all, like Unitas, had the testicles to play the position.  Let's hope that Weeden does also, and can stuff it down the throat of the people in this town who have already written him off.  We'll find out, starting Sunday.