Nam Y. Huh/Associated Press
Corey Wootton (98) and Lance Briggs sacking Manning. With the loss, the Giants fell to 0-6.
CHICAGO — In the Giants' season-opening game, Eli Manning threw an interception on the first play from scrimmage. Demonstrating improvement in the sixth game of the season Thursday night, Manning did not throw an interception until the third play of the game.
Manning also threw an interception on the 12th play of the game, against the Chicago Bears, that was run back for a touchdown. And there was a third interception in the game's final minutes, with the Giants in Chicago territory and driving for what would have been a go-ahead touchdown.
Certain themes to the Giants' season have remained constant, starting with this one: the Giants have yet to win a game. With their 27-21 loss Thursday, the Giants dropped to 0-6 for the first time since 1976.
And Manning, usually so unruffled under pressure, continues to falter in the game's biggest moments. For the first time, Manning, a 10-year veteran and two-time Super Bowl champion, is also showing the emotional effects of the losses.
Meeting with reporters after the game, he seemed shaken and spoke with a voice that occasionally cracked.
"Guys are doing their part to get a win and I'm not doing mine," said Manning, who has thrown 15 interceptions this season, or the same number that he had during the 16 games of the 2012 season. "I feel bad for my teammates and coaches. They're fighting every day and I'm fighting, too, but it's tough when you don't feel like you're playing your best.
"They've been supportive. I told them I'm going to get better and I'm going to start making the plays that I need to make. Obviously, I need to start doing that."
It would be inaccurate to say that everything went downhill for the Giants after the two early interceptions. The Giants rallied twice to tie the game in the first half and looked as if they might take a late lead in the waning minutes.
The crushing interception late in the game came with Chicago leading, 27-21. On a second-and-9 at the Bears' 35-yard line, Manning threw high to tight end Brandon Myers, who was open in the middle of the field. The ball grazed Myers's hands, and Tim Jennings, who was stationed several yards behind Myers, picked off the overthrown pass with 1 minute 54 seconds remaining.
Of the final interception, Manning said: "I felt like that pass came out like I wanted it to, but it was just a little too high. I made a mistake. You throw a ball six inches too high and that's the difference between possibly winning and losing again."
Throughout the Giants' locker room, players said they felt as if the final Giants drive was finally going to be the breakthrough the team needed to end the losing streak.
"We've seen Eli do it so many times before," guard Kevin Boothe said. "We just kind of put it in his hands, and that's a comfortable feeling."
But Manning is far from his usual self this season.
"He's in a rut right now," defensive end Justin Tuck said. "So is this team. I know Eli wants to be the Eli of old, and I believe he will be. He'll get out of this rut."
For most of the second half, Manning was the best quarterback on the field.
With the Giants trailing by 13 points early in the third quarter, Manning single-handedly led the team to a touchdown. A 91-yard, 9-play drive ended with a 1-yard touchdown run by Brandon Jacobs that trimmed the Bears' lead to 6.
Neither team would score again, but the Giants had several chances. One Giants possession ended controversially. Flushed from the pocket in the fourth quarter, Manning threw toward Hakeem Nicks, who was grabbed and flung out of bounds by Jennings as the pass was sailing over his head. The officials threw a flag and indicated pass interference. Then, after a brief consultation, the officials said there was no foul because the ball was uncatchable.
But by flagrantly throwing Nicks out of bounds, Jennings could have been whistled for unsportsmanlike conduct or holding.
The last Giants drive began at their 11-yard line and included good runs by Jacobs, who rushed for 106 yards on 22 carries, and two short but effective passes by Manning, who completed 14 of 26 passes for 239 yards.
But in the end, Myers, who missed most of the week of practice with an ankle injury, could not leap high enough to corral the pass that became Manning's third interception.
Giants Coach Tom Coughlin did not blame Myers, although he said of him, "It did touch his hands."
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