Credit: Brian Spurlock-USA TODAY Sports
Sunday saw two yoing quarterbacks with Syracuse ties take abrupt turns in their brief careers. In Buffalo EJ Manuel seemed to regress after some optimism surrounding Doug Marrone and the Bills 2-0 start. In the rough loss to the Chargers the critics took aim. From the Buffalo News:
Manuel didn’t measure up. He was 23 for 39 for 238 yards. Exactly half his yardage (119) came during the fourth quarter, an unsightly stretch of garbage time when EJ hit some easy throws and misfired badly on several others.
It’s far too early in the season to know how Manuel’s campaign will end up, but with a chance to prove his worth against a playoff team from last year he came up small. Marrone went on the defensive to protect his QB from critique after the game. But the optimism has been doused a bit.
Meantime, in NYC there were already grumblings about the end of the Eli Manning era after an 0-2 start. The Giants offense had sputtered so badly in the preseason, the returns so similar to the 0-6 start from ’13, that fans began to wonder if we were seeing the brutal end of the Eli/Coughlin tandem. And if that was the case, was it time to start looking seriously at Ryan Nassib for the future?
Sunday’s smashing of the Texans put all that talk on hold. The offense was terrific for the Giants, mustering 30 points and it could’ve easily been 40 without self-inflicted wounds. Eli was in a rhythm, finding his targets, and running a smooth offense. For now the Nassib proponents have to eat a sock.
The future odds of the Bills and Giants winning the Super Bowl are not good as you might imagine. But surprisingly the young team that hasn’t been to the playoffs in 15 years have much better odds. The Bills are 60-1 in some places to win the title, while the Giants are just 150-1.¬†For more info on¬†NFL betting in 2015 check out Super Bowl Bets.
One thing we know: A lot can change week to week in this league.
