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The New York Giants found themselves down by two touchdowns to the Cleveland Browns before most fans were comfortable on their couches, but the taste of Ahmad Bradshaw's early fumble and Brandon Weeden's long touchdown bomb didn't last long as Big Blue went on to seal a 41-27 victory behind 200 yards of Ahmad Bradshaw running and three touchdowns from Eli Manning to Victor Cruz.
The Giants defense looked all sorts of disorganized and, honestly, seemed to be lacking energy early, although opening the game defending deep in their own territory thanks to a Bradshaw fumble didn't exactly help. But they stiffened and giving up only two field goals the rest of the way before a garbage time touchdown. Timely interceptions from Stevie gave and Chase Blackburn shut down any hope for the Browns offense, as the Giants own offense had quite a field day, umm, on the field.
What went right…
The Giants seem to have found their running game. While much of the credit should go to an offensive line unit that opened up some holes, Ahmad Bradshaw's state line tells the story: 200 yards even on 30 (yes, 30!!!) carries. Rookie David Wilson took one forty yards late in the game to put a cherry on top of Bradshaw's sundae. Bradshaw showed that he can still be a productive workhorse back if he gets some blocking and Wilson got a chance to show the explosiveness he might get to use if Andre Brown is out for a while the head injury.
Eli Manning and co. sure did their part too. Victor Cruz had three touchdowns, Domenik Hixon had a workmanlike day that netted 55 yards on five catches (some tough ones, among them), and Reuben Randle had a coming out party. Six catches for 82 yards for the rookie, who looked like Eli's go-to guy for a moment there. Eli hitting the open guy no matter who's in there. Same old story.
There were a lot of new faces on the defense, and after settling down they didn't look so bad. Rookie Markus Kuhn started at defensive tackle and we didn't notice much of a drop off in play at the position. Safety Stevie Brown had the big pick and fellow backup safety Will Hill had a few physical plays of his own, including a forced fumble on a kickoff return. With players like Jayron Hosley, Keith Rivers, Chris Canty and Kenny Phillips hopefully returning to action soon, this defense needs to build on today's second half performance and show us less of what they did in the first half.
What went wrong…
Gumble and the guys in the CBS booth seemed to be really surprised the Giants pass rush wasn't getting home, but for us Giants fans it's all too familiar. To their credit the Giants batted down a handful of balls, and Blackburn's beeline caused the Brown interception, but overall the pass rush is still lacking. The defensive line hasn't been getting home and hasn't been containing the running game (at all). Fewell and co. need to figure it out.
Of course, the injuries. Martellus Bennet left with a knee injury and although he returned to finish the game, he wasn't moving well and clearly wasn't totally right. Hopefully nothing serious, since he was able to return. Andre Brown, whose seat on the bench was made more comfortable by Bradshaw's big day anyway, banged his head on the turf on a kickoff return and didn't return. Not a terrible toll, all in all (if that's all it is of course).
Why the Giants won…
We'd like to give the credit to the defense for holding the Browns in check after being down 14-0 in the blink of an eye, but the offense did put up 41 points. Ahmad Bradshaw ran for 200 and Eli had three touchdowns, and that's a pretty good recipe for a 41-27 victory.
What's on deck…
Perhaps the toughest matchup we'll have all year: The San Francisco 49ers. In San Francisco. Hopefully the Giants don't get too hyped on the victory over the 0-5 Browns and put their big boy pants on to face the hard hitting '9ers.
Oh, and the Philadelphia Eagles and Washington Redskins both lost. Not a bad Sunday afternoon.
Also…
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- Check out the latest line of GMEN shirts, including the new pink version which supports the fight against Breast Cancer
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“How to Take the Wind Out of Your Team’s Sails and Shift Momentum the Other Way”:
Step 1: When you’re ahead and the other team can’t tackle your star running back, Trent Richardson, and you face a third-and-one……take him off the field.
Thank God we played the Browns today.
Cruuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuzzzzzz!
Indy beats GB. Man if GB, NO, and Philly somehow all miss the playoffs, good news for us. Although San Fran will unfortunately be there.
We need to get healthy. Brown will be out next week most likely with a concussion. We need Nicks back against the very good Niner secondary. We need Bennett to be ok as we are going to have to play underneath early.
We absolutely need to get Rivers and Holesly on the field.
But that’s next week. Right now, we did a nice job of coming back after stubbing our toe early. Nice win.
Big win vs a really bad team. A win is always good but there are some lingering issues that are a bit unsettling.
As long as Eli stays healthy, the offense will be OK. He’ll always give us a chance even if it isn’t pretty. The defense is concerning though. Our defensive line has yet to have a good game. We got like, what, two pressures on Weeden? Joe Thomas is a beast but there was another rookie RT that neither Tuck nor JPP could do anything against. I’m really not expecting much from Tuck anymore but I keep waiting for JPP to have his breakout game but he just hasn’t made much noise this season. That’s disappointing.
There are other things but I’ll leave it at that. I’m sure I’ll be crucified for talking about negatives after a win but we’re going to start playing some good football teams real quick here.
The D is obviously a concern. Neither Osi or Tuck is doing much of anything. At least JPP knocks down passes when he is blocked. Most disturbing of all is we have no outside contain and we don’t cover the screen. Except for that one bomb, all Cleveland completed all day were screens, swing passes and slants. How do you not simply put a spy on Richardson? I k ow we are seriously banged up but geez!!
Will Hill and Stevie Brown get kudos though.
Yeah, there was a first and twenty where they just dumped it off to Richardson for 20 yards. And I could not for the life of me figure out how Richardson goes uncovered in that situation at all, much less when you’re only rushing 4 and dropping 8!!
I’ll go ahead and say that which many folks still seem afraid to acknowledge.
JPP has been nothing more than average DE so far this year. Last week, he failed to beat either Bell or Herremanns when matched up against them individually. This week he could not beat the rookie, Mitchell Schwartz, when he was switched over to his side.
Dude has 1.5 sacks through five games and it’s time to stop making excuses for his appalling lack of production. He is NOT getting doubled or chipped on every snap at this point. Coaches seem more and more willing to let average to below-average tackles take him on one on one and JPP has simply failed to take advantage.
If JPP does not pick up his level of play, this is going to be a looooooooong year for this defense.
Why are you picking on JPP?
What about Tuck and Umenyiora? Tuck has been absolutely invisible and Umenyiora hasn’t been getting to the quarterback and has repeatedly failed to seal off his edge. Nobody is getting home, but at least JPP’s gotten his mitts on a few balls and blown up a few runs to his side.
The other guys? Maybe it’s time to see what Ojomo can do…
Not picking on him; just holding him to a higher standard.
Tuck and Osi are who they are at this point – players who are now limited by age and nagging injuries. JPP is supposed to be in the conversation for most dominant player in the NFL.
Not only has he hardly lived up to that billing, but he’s not been a whole lot better than either the much maligned Tuck or Osi until now. Better, yes, but not by much.
Because everyone has already talked ad nauseum about how poor Tuck and Osi have played. Neither of them are considered to be top 3 defensive players in the NFL either. Different set of standards and expectations.
Linval and JPP are the only two players doing anything productive on the line lol
“Afraid to acknowledge” it? No, it’s just that nobody’s smoked enough weed to even think it.
Of all the things this team has got to get right you focus on JPP?
You’re supposed to put water in the bong, not grain alcohol.
Dude is on pace to finish the year with a total of 5 sacks. This from one of the so-called best pass rushers in the NFL.
If you don’t think the team needs more production that that from its best defensive player; if you don’t think that is an area of significance that has “got to get right” going forward, then I’ll keep my grain alcohol filled bong and I’ll leave you to your Cymbalta or whatever your happy pill of choice happens to be.
Looking at the box score, I see JPP had two tackles this week; two last week. And, of course, no sacks.
4 tackles and zero sacks total in two weeks. Dude was routinely getting more than that before the end of the first half in most games last year.
By way of comparison, Justin “I suck” Tuck tallied six tackles this week and four last week (and also no sacks)
But, yeah, let’s keep pushing the myth that JPP is the only Giants DE who is doing anything out there.
and a numerous amount of tipped balls, an extremely underrate stat. not to mention, he was going up against an all pro LT in Thomas.
err underrated*
Tips are nice. Sacks, pressures, QB hits, and run stuffs are better though.
Hey, if you are happy with his level of play don’t let me pee in your Cheerios.
I’m not; I think he’s capable of much, much better. For a guy who is supposed to be one of the best defensive players in the NFL, he sure has been a non-factor for large stretches of games this year. If this is what we can expect from him going forward, then this D is fooked.
Norm, you can urinate in my breakfast cereal anytime, hombre.
What’s really unnerving about this game is the complete lack of pressure. It’s almost eerie to see this team getting NO pressure on a rookie quarterback. Yes, we won, but the Browns are the worst team in the NFL. We can get away with having no pressure against teams of this caliber (we did it against the Panthers too), but when we start to play better teams, it will hurt us immensely. Something has to be fixed.
Nosh expert analysis
- Nice to see us beat the cr@.p out of a team we’re supposed to beat the cr@.p out of. Even if the first 5 minutes was atrocious.
- David Bass looks so much better this year.
- Randle>Barden. Hopefully we’re done seeing #13. Also a Jernigan sighting!
- I laughed when Wilsons first touch was that goofy counter pitch that we never run. And what do you know, when we run a plain old handoff up the middle that the entire offense is clearly more familiar with, he runs untouched for 40 yards. Also nice breakaway speed.
- These gimmick plays they like to run with Wilson are unnecessary. Sure when you have a bad QB like Alex Smith or Sanchez, these gimmick plays may be necessary, but not with Eli and our offensive personnel.
- I’m ready for the “Great White Hope”. especially after seeing him run down Josh Cribbs. Blackburn may have the smarts but he’s better as depth, not a starter.
- Tuck grabs Richardson in the backfield. No other blue jersey there for 3 seconds. Jpp made the same play and the calvary was late again. I remember a time when this defense flew to the ball, what is going on?
- I realize I may overate TT as a coverage corner, but he was great on a corner blitz. That’s a wrinkle I haven’t seen from us this year.
- I don’t know what to say about the 3 DE’s, but I do know other than Landfill we don’t really have a starting caliber DT. Kuhn and Austin may be something in the future, but not much right now.
- Vote for Kiwi @ DE in 2013.
- Thought the backers sucked today. Did Jaqaun Williams play?
- Nice job by Will Hill on specials. Forced fumble and the onside kick.
- By the 2nd half of 2010 Fewell looked like a great DC. Very creative. Slowed down a very potent Eagles offense. Had our D as top 3 in the NFL for a moment there. Other than the stretch run last year, the D has been below average.
- Plenty of defenses don’t generate consistent pressure with their front 4 and still play at a high level. Not getting pressure with our front 4 is not an excuse to play mediocre defense.
- Bradshaw. Still has something in the tank.
Wow! Chris Snee is playing through a partial tear in the labrum portion of his hip.
Somebody please tell me again about how bad our OLine sucks and how we should have picked OL vs Wilson and Randle this year..