EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. -- The New York Giants are all-in on Eli Manning as their quarterback. Have been since they moved up to get him at the top of the 2004 draft. Reaffirmed it a couple of weeks ago with a four-year, $84 million contract extension. If Manning can't get it done, the Giants are done, pure and simple. Their chances rely completely on his ability to be healthy and reliable. And while he definitely appears to be the former, through two weeks of this season he has been anything but the latter.

"He'll get better. He'll improve," Tom Coughlin, the only NFL head coach Manning has ever had, said after Sunday's 24-20 fourth-quarter meltdown loss to Atlanta. "There are times when it's tremendous, and other times when it's not. I'm frustrated like you are in terms of, at that point in time, all the engines have to be going full-speed and not the other way around."

"That point in time" is the latter part of the game, especially when the Giants have the lead and the ball as they have in the final minutes of both of their games this season. Manning committed a crucial fumble late in the third quarter with a 10-point lead Sunday when he held on to the ball too long and didn't see the rush coming. Then he committed a crushing delay-of-game penalty (coming off a timeout) in the fourth quarter, turning a third-and-7 into a third-and-12 that he couldn't convert.

"That's on me," Manning said. "Can't afford a penalty there. We had deep coverage, trying to get a better play in those circumstances. Same thing on the next play, just checked it late to a different play trying to get a first down."

It's nice that Manning takes responsibility for the mistakes that are costing the Giants games. That accountability and leadership are part of the reason they pay him like one of the top quarterbacks in the league.

But the main reason they pay him like one of the top quarterbacks in the league is that, in the most critical parts of games, they expect him to play like one of the top quarterbacks in the league. And in their two crushing losses, he has done just the opposite. Week 1 in Dallas, he told Rashad Jennings not to score on two straight goal-line carries, then threw the ball out of the end zone on third down to stop the clock at a time when they had to keep it running. Week 2 against Atlanta, fumble and fourth-quarter penalty. Manning was 22-for-29 with two touchdown passes in the first three quarters Sunday, then 5-for-11 in the fourth. The Giants had three fourth-quarter possessions, and the only third down they converted on any of them was on a Manning fumble that Larry Donnell recovered beyond the first-down marker.

"I've got to make better throws," Manning said. "Everybody's got to play better, everybody's got to do their part, and it starts with me."

Starts with Manning, or else the Giants, their ragtag defense, their young offensive line and their Odell-or-nothing wide receiver corps have no chance. Starts and ends with Manning. And so far this year, he has messed up the ending twice in two tries.