National Football League

E. Manning tops Tebow in winning drives

Published Dec. 13, 2011 12:00 a.m. ET

foxsports

As talk of Denver Broncos quarterback Tim Tebow and his divine fourth-quarter comebacks takes hold on barstools and editorial pages, it is actually the Giants' Eli Manning who leads the NFL in game-winning drives this year.

Of course, Manning does not have the trend-spawning signature celebration move of the Broncos' signal-caller, the prayerful "Tebowing." And if Manning did have a move, well, it would probably be a casual shrug, accompanied by a "Golly gee" expression.

This is Manning: understated, not particularly emotive and totally not showy. As a first-round draft pick in 2004, he engineered a trade to the league's biggest market, where he drives a Toyota, revels in bland and is still carrying the now NFC East-leading Giants.

Down 12 with 5:41 to play against the Cowboys on Sunday, Manning engineered two touchdown drives, giving him his NFL-high sixth fourth-quarter game-winning drive — and his NFL record-tying 14th fourth-quarter touchdown of the year.

He has also pulled the Giants from the brink on the road in Philadelphia, Arizona and New England this year.

His fourth quarter passer rating (117.0) is 6.0 points higher than Tebow's, and 4.4 points higher than that of likely MVP Aaron Rodgers. And, like Tebow, he does seem to turn it up some in the clutch. Manning's completion percentage this year is 59.8 in quarters one through three, and 66.7 percent (102-of-153) in the final quarter.

Giants offensive coordinator Kevin Gilbride said it was last year that Manning really took the leap in his game, in his accuracy, in his reading of defenses, in all that goes into being an elite quarterback. The difference between last year and this, coach Tom Coughlin said, is an implicit trust that Manning will not do what netted his cringe-worthy 30 turnovers in 2010.

"One of the things you saw [Sunday] was he can move around and create some things for himself, but when he finds that that still hasn't solved all of his issues, he throws the ball away," Coughlin said. "That is a real, real positive step for a quarterback to be able to recognize that you've pushed a bunch of buttons and nothing seems to answer anything for you and before you get yourself into trouble and lose yardage, throw the ball away."