Giants vs Patriots: Super Bowl Will Be Decided by Quarterbacks on Third Downs

Third-and-long. It's the crucial situation in which every elite NFL quarterback, from Aaron Rodgers to Drew Brees, makes his mark.

Strangely enough, Super Bowl XLVI will actually feature two signal-callers—Eli Manning of the New York Giants and Tom Brady of the New England Patriots—who ranked among the worst of the "best" on 3rd-and-long.

According to The Deep Dig, Manning converted just 22 percent of the Giants' 3rd-and-longs (defined as third down and seven or more yards to go). To Eli's credit, though, he piled up a hefty 855 yards under those circumstances, with four touchdowns and two interceptions, and was sacked just four times for 92 yards.

Brady's numbers on 3rd-and-long paint a far less nuanced picture. He turned just 27 percent of those situations into first downs for the Pats, throwing for 540 yards with a yards-per-attempt average of 6.84. What's worse, Brady was sacked 12 times on 3rd-and-long this season, among the most of any quarterback in the NFL, top-flight or no.

That doesn't exactly bode well for Brady against a Giants pass-rush that ranked third in the NFL in sacks this season with 48 and has been playing with its collective hair on fire in the playoffs.

Eli, on the other hand, should find life against the Pats defense relatively comfortable behind an offensive line that relinquished just 28 quarterback takedowns this season—none of which came during New York's 24-20 win in New England in Week 9.

That's not to say that the Super Bowl will necessarily be decided solely on 3rd-and-long. However, with both teams sporting sub-par rushing attacks, Sunday's scrimmage may well boil down to which quarterback can keep his team out of 3rd-and-long situations and, when that doesn't work, who does the better job of managing the game under those circumstances.

In other words, advantage Eli.

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