Eli Manning's injury unfortunate but fitting end to way NY Giants were battered in 2013

When Eli Manning first went down, nobody seemed to notice because it wasn’t unusual to see him lying on the ground. He had been knocked down a hundred or so times this season. He would get up, because he always gets up. He’s one of the most durable players in the league.

But there’s always been a nagging feeling that the way this season was going, an injury to the Giants’ quarterback was inevitable, that his terrible, porous, injury-plagued offensive line would find a way to get him hurt. It was really a miracle that he had been able to start all 16 games.

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It shouldn’t be surprising that he wasn’t able to finish the last one.

“I was disappointed I couldn’t finish the game,” Manning said after the Giants beat the Redskins, 20-6, without him. “I obviously wanted to. The doctor said it would not be a good decision. I agreed with him. I don’t think I could’ve been very effective playing after the injury.

“I knew I was hurt a little bit. I was hoping it wasn’t worse. I was very happy to hear it was just a sprain.”

Andrew Theodorakis/New York Daily News

Manning can only hang his head as he finishes a 7-9 season injured.

So were the Giants, but it was sobering, and somehow fitting, that Manning’s final act of 2013 was to hobble out of the stadium on crutches, with his left foot stuck in a protective boot. He suffered a high left ankle sprain late in the first half when he was sacked by defensive end Chris Baker. He stayed in for one more play, but threw his 27th interception of the year.

Then he limped off the field, into the locker room and the offseason, knowing he was lucky that the injury wasn’t worse.

After all, things haven’t exactly gone Manning’s way this season. He was just 10-of-24 for 152 yards and a touchdown in the rain on Sunday before he got hurt. He finished the season with his lowest completion percentage since 2007 (57.5) and fewer touchdowns (18) than interceptions (27) for the first time since he was a rookie.

Add in the 7-9 record, the Giants’ first losing season since Manning’s rookie year, and this season was nothing but bad until the initial news on his ankle was good. Manning has started 151 straight regular-season games and 162 overall, and will be able to add to that streak when the 2014 season begins. And unless some unexpected damage is discovered when he’s examined on Monday, it’s a good bet he’ll be ready for all the offseason workouts, too.

For now, Manning said the prognosis is for “rest” — “Obviously I have time now,” he added. He also said the injury “is serious, but we know it will heal and it has all offseason to do that. So I’m not worried about there being a lasting effect.”

Andrew Theodorakis/New York Daily News

Manning spends most of the 2013 season on the run.

What the Giants should be worried about, though, is making sure it doesn’t happen again. Manning was sacked a career-high 39 times this season and at times was treated like a piñata. The Giants started seven different line combinations in front of him, lost key players like Chris Snee and David Baas to injury. They were forced to use too many players, like James Brewer and Brandon Mosley, who simply weren’t ready.

And their franchise quarterback paid the price.

Blame Manning if you want — and even he knows he deserves some — but his season was sabotaged right from the start, when his first pass was intercepted, under pressure, by DeMarcus Ware on Sept. 8 in Dallas. Then his last pass of the season was picked off when he couldn’t shake off his ankle injury. He had to be helped off the ground, limped to the huddle, and hopped up and down on his right leg. He took the next snap, but he couldn’t drop back, couldn’t plant his left foot, and threw a weak-armed pass that tipped off the hands of tight end Brandon Myers into the arms of Redskins cornerback Josh Wilson.

“I would’ve liked to eliminate one interception from the year, (but) it didn’t work out,” Manning said. “I was hoping. Sometimes you kind of get an ankle or banged up and it goes away after a second. I stayed in, obviously.”

Maybe it was foolish for him to stay in. Maybe Coughlin should’ve pulled him. But mostly, maybe the Giants should have protected him better. Their line was the product of years of neglect in the draft, poor choices like the $37 million contract to left tackle Will Beatty (who ended his miserable season by breaking his leg in the third quarter), and holding on to too many older, banged-up players just a little bit too long.

When Coughlin was asked if he thought that Manning will be a better quarterback next season, coming off his worst season in the NFL, Coughlin said, “He’ll respond. And hopefully we’ll do a better job on the other end as well by protecting him.” Asked if fixing the offensive line would be an offseason priority, Coughlin said “It will be an objective, for sure.”

It should be the main objective because Manning is too valuable to be left so vulnerable, as he was so often this year. The sight of him hobbling away under the stadium, on crutches, in a boot, should be a warning for the Giants.

Now they need to spend this offseason doing whatever they can to make sure it never happens again.