If the Giants wanted to make a statement on Sunday about what kind of football team they’re becoming, a couple of six-yard passes might seem like an odd way to do it. But quarterback Eli Manning’s first two passes in Big Blue’s 19–3 victory over the Washington Redskins were six-yard completions to wide receiver Plaxico Burress, and those two passes signaled a major shift in the Giants’ approach to the passing game.

Last year, the Giants’ passing attack revolved around the deep ball. That played to Burress’s strengths, but it hindered the development of Manning, who struggled to throw long passes accurately, completing a dismal 52.8% of his passes on the season. This year the Giants have asked Manning to throw shorter passes, and he has responded by becoming one of the most accurate passers in the NFL. Manning opened Sunday’s game with those two passes to Burress, and he kept throwing short all afternoon. Of his 23 completions against Washington, 16 went for 10 or fewer yards. It’s those short, accurate passes that have Manning at third in the league with a 67.1% completion rate, something that would have been unthinkable last year.

Manning’s 23-of-33 day was his third straight game completing at least two-thirds of his passes. How big an improvement is that? Last year Manning started every game of the season and failed to complete two-thirds of his passes in any one of them. In fact, in Manning’s least accurate game this season — the opener against the Indianapolis Colts, when he completed 58.8% of his passes — he was still more accurate than he was in 15 of his 17 starts (counting the playoffs) last year.

The main reason for the change in Manning’s completion rate is that offensive coordinator John Hufnagel is calling different plays. It’s a lot easier for Manning to throw accurately to Burress, Amani Toomer, Jeremy Shockey, and his other targets when they’re five yards downfield instead of 25 yards downfield. As part of Hufnagel’s revised approach to the passing game, he is calling more plays in which Manning takes three-step drops, and Manning is also making his decisions much more quickly this year — rather than holding the ball, waiting for a receiver to go deep, and heaving it down the field, as he so often did last year.

In his first two seasons, Manning had a tendency to throw the ball away and settle for an incompletion if he couldn’t find anything open downfield. Now he more often shows the patience to progress through his reads, and when his first option isn’t open, he throws shorter passes to pick up a few yards. Last year, with Manning’s focus downfield, his primary receiver was Burress, the deep threat.This year Manning is taking a more cautious approach, which is why both Toomer and running back Tiki Barber, who run shorter routes, have caught more than Burress has.

Still, the deep pass hasn’t completely disappeared from the Giants’ playbook. Manning hit Burress for a 46-yard gain on a long pass over the middle on Sunday, and he threw a 44-yard pass to Toomer. But most of his passes were like those two six-yard gains to Burress that opened the game. Overall, on Sunday, Manning threw eight passes to Burress, and Burress caught seven of them for 69 yards. It was the first time since 2003 that Burress averaged less than 10 yards a catch for a game.

Manning still has work to do to become an elite NFL quarterback, especially when it comes to ball security. He has thrown five interceptions and fumbled three times, and if he keeps up this pace he would finish this season with 20 interceptions and 12 fumbles, both career highs. Manning also needs to work on how he reads blitzes. Although he did an excellent job of avoiding the pass rush on Sunday and made it through the game without getting sacked, he struggled in that capacity last month against the Philadelphia Eagles. Philadelphia’s defensive system revolves around blitzing linebackers and defensive backs and requires opposing quarterbacks to see the blitzers coming and react quickly. Manning couldn’t do that, and Philadelphia sacked him eight times. But that Philadelphia game was also the best piece of evidence that Manning is making progress. With the Giants trailing 24–7, Manning completed 20 of 25 passes in the fourth quarter and overtime to lead them to a come-from-behind win.

As Manning continues to make progress, he will often be compared to his brother. But setting the bar that high is setting Eli Manning up for failure. Peyton Manning was more highly recruited than Eli coming out of high school, more highly rated than Eli coming out of college, and now is a two-time league MVP who could rewrite the passing record book on his way to the Hall of Fame. It’s not realistic to think Eli will be as good a player as his older brother. But so far this season, he’s more accurate than his brother — and that might be the biggest upset of the year.

Mr. Smith is a writer for FootballOutsiders.com