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Deep thoughts from Eli Manning on how Hakeem Nicks' injury hampered the Giants' offense: "I think having Hakeem ...

... kind of banged up all year was tough," Manning said today during a promotional appearance for Gatorade at the Super Bowl Media Center. "He wasn’t that same kind of dominant receiver, and that deep threat, get-down-the-field guy. It was tough on him. I loved his toughness. He wanted to be out there playing. He wanted to try to practice. But he couldn’t quite do it. It had an effect on our offense. "I think it was just kind of hard to judge (deep passes to Nicks), get kind of a good feel for where he was, what his top speed was. He couldn’t really practice. In practice he was going three-quarters speed. Some games he seemed to have that extra burst. Some games it didn’t happen. I think it was just based on how he was feeling. So I think it was hard to get a sense of where to put the ball where you’re not even thinking, you’re just throwing it and it’s coming out the right spot because you’ve been throwing it in practice all week, you’re throwing it that way all season. With Hakeem it was just hard to kind of throw it and know exactly where he was going to be." #NYG