Loading ...In the New York Giants wildest game of the season, quarterback Eli Manning out dueled Washington Redskins quarterback Robert Griffin III, lofting a 77-yard touchdown to Victor Cruz with less than a minute and a half to go and the Giants trailing by three.
Eli's late-game heroics were necessary after Griffin capped a near-brilliant day with a brilliant touchdown drive to take the lead in the waning minutes. The drive featured an incredible escape-and-throw deep in his own territory on 4th down and finished off with a beautiful touchdown lob to Santana Moss.
The Giants had a few chances to put the 'Skins away, but interceptions by Manning in the red zone and then deep in his own territory kept the Skins alive. If not for the game-saving pass to Cruz, Manning's picks are probably the story of the week.
What we think we saw…
- Mixed bag for the defense today. The Giants simply could not stop the Redskins in the first half, with Alfred Morris running wild (he finished with 120 yards on 22 carries) and Griffin having a really good, mistake-free half. Don't let a few stalled drives in the first half and a few second half turnovers mask what was a really excellent performance by Griffin: 20/28 for 258 yards with another 89 yards coming on nine brutal carries.
- The defense did start to figure it out in the second half, slowing down Morris more than they had in the first half and getting some pressure on Griffin with a few sacks and the forced fumble. Before Griffin's brilliant touchdown drive in the 4th, we were getting ready to write about how the defense turned it around.
- Manning was far from perfect today, with both of his picks (and an early missed touchdown to a wide open Cruz) looking more like Rookie Eli than Two-Time Super Bowl MVP Eli. However, by Tuesday all anyone will remember is the game-winning touchdown, which was an absolutely beautifully thrown ball.
- Good news: the Giants pass rush showed up for the second time in two weeks, although our initial impression is that Perry Fewell blitzed more than usual today. Jason Pierre-Paul was active, Justin Tuck had his best game of the year and Osi Umenyiora might be getting going.
- We were holding our breath there for a while and this game was certainly a better contest than most presumed it would be. But it was a huge win for the Giants, with another divisional foe waiting next week. Tony Romo and the Dallas Cowboys just squeaked by the Panthers, but the Giants can really get a leg up in the division race if they pick up another game on Dallas by beating them, and nullifying the tiebreaker Dallas earned in Week 1.
- Game ball: this one's not easy because there were no obvious standout performances, so we're going to go with Victor Cruz for getting behind the defense when it mattered most.
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1.5 game division lead. Win next week, erase the tiebreaker from Dallas and go up 2.5 on them.
Only Atlanta has a better record in the NFC.
Driver’s seat.
Poor Domenik Hixon got bit by the West-facing slant in the first quarter – ball hit him in stride right in the hands.
So Fewell doesn’t ever blitz until conventional wisdom calls for prevent to nurse your lead? Against a running quarterback? Had flashbacks of Week 15 in 2010. Single high safety on the late Moss TD was brilliant too.
Weird how Bradshaw gets 2-3 yards when he’s got a blocking convoy on a screen but Brown takes it for 20.
Another divisional game, another exploitation of the defense’s left side in the run game. Stats to follow.
Ugly, ugly game. Not the type that gets you all warm and fuzzy inside but it was 100% necessary so we’ll take it. Some things were really concerning, Eli has played poorly for 6 straight quarters now, our clock management and late game playcalling was mind-boggling to say the least (an unfortunate trend it seems), and we struggled early with the run/mobile QBs again.
The good news is JPP is back to playing like the best defender in football, our defense is forcing a lot of turnovers and were able to adjust to the run in the 2nd half, and Eli was able to put his terrible game behind him to hit the big play we needed.
There will be some ugly ones throughout a season and this was certainly one of them. Have to wake up next week for a huge game in Dallas. We usually play well there so let’s hope that continues.
Seriously … anyone who’s been a fan of this team for any length of time had to know this was coming. I said this game worried me more than the Whiners … and it took last second heroics to pull off a win. My heart will never be the same.
By and large there weren’t many accolades today … Cruz obviously … JPP too … but I think Chase also had a solid game.
This is a good omen for this season- winning ugly is much better than losing ugly. I feel now sort of how I felt last year when Cruz or Bradshaw were at that NYC nightclub that had a shooting- and had left a good two hours before that event! RGIII is going to be a thorn in the side of this division for many years to come, at least until he gets battered much more than we battered him today. But I’ll worry about that down the road… Now time to beat the Boys.
ding, ding, ding, ding………….so many times games like this the Giants lose.
The fact that they (Eli/offense) kept playing shows they are champs. They did not quit when the deadskins scored, they hit them right back in the mouth.
I wont speak for anyone else, but that’s my type of ball club.
I think the Giant D-line did very well. Because they had to play without being able to sell out on rushing the passer. RG3 is simply awesome running the ball.
And the threat he poses is what made the game so difficult for the Giant defensive front. Halting the run and being mindful that RG can and will run at any time is a daunting task.
I cant see Romo posing as much a problem with his running as RG caused.
When the Giant front four had the green light against RG, they got the job done by either getting a sack, causing a fumble or incompletion.
The next real problem game for blue may well be the next meeting with the skins and Bob.
RG3 is a college QB running a college offense salvaging broken plays with his feet. This trick works for a while … but not forever. Tebow took it about as far as you can go last season, and actually won a playoff game.
I’m not putting the hate on him. But from what we’ve seen this year you simply can’t tell how he’s going to turn out once the gimmicks wear off. While Andrew Luck is mastering the nuances of the pro game RG3 is being stunted by Shanahan’s ‘win now’ strategy.
The number of option offenses that played in the Superbowl … zero.
Well put. Shanahan is not developing this kid in the proper manner.
The shame of it is, the kid could handle the traditional method.
But Shanahan and his staff want to keep their jobs. They don’t have the commitment in their ownership to allow them the time to build a solid foundation for Bob. Still after facing RG, Romo will look like a Pop Warner kid
What I saw today was minimal on the option but huge on the play action. I suspect Shanahan is putting enough QB runs on tape so you have to respect that possibility, but the real threat is a potent run game in general so that play action, with an accurate QB, is brutal. I see nothing to fault Shanahan on, except maybe an over-reliance on 4th down attempts. RG3 is so much better than Tebow its scarey. From what I’ve seen of RG3 and Cam, RG3 is being developed much more effectively. (Granted I don’t watch alot of Carolina games)
This just in………..MARK SANCHEZ SUCKS. And in so many ways. I thought he might be a good QB. But he is rubbish OMG.
Look, the Skins’ secondary is garbage. The game plan today was always going to be Eli bombs away. Eli spit the bit today. His worst game in a long, long time. It wasn’t Gilbride’s fault. Our strength vs. their weakness, it was the correct plan. You have to trust your Hall of Fame QB to get it done, and Eli had a bad, bad day.
Luckily, he’s still Easy E and when the skins left 90 seconds on the clock, there was still a chance, regardless of how bad he’d been the rest of the day.
Oh yeah, and Black Unicorn is back in the passing game!
Well put. This is exactly why Gilbride didn’t call as many run plays he normally would.
Next week will be different. That’s for sure.
What a wild one indeed. My thoughts on the game today:
- Eli was definitely shaky. However, that first interception was NOT his fault. Bennett, for some inexplicable reason, stopped his route. It really wasn’t an awful throw. The SECOND throw, however, was just 2005-ish Eli. That being said, never, ever, EVER doubt Eli when the game is on the line. He proved that yet again today. The dude is unreal.
- Going back to Eli’s second pick, why in the WORLD were we throwing the ball there? We just force a TO with about five minutes to go, and we’re throwing? Same thing happened on the next drive. The D held WAS to a FG, and with a four-point lead with about three-and-a-half minutes to go, Eli drops back to pass again and gets sacked for a big loss. Stupid, stupid playcalling.
- No love for Linval Joseph from anyone? Really? The guy was in on two of the biggest plays of the game, forcing the first fumble on Morris and then recovering another one later. I was holding my breath when he went down with what looked like a rather serious injury early, but he thankfully returned and was big-time today.
- Gotta love Ahmad Bradshaw getting fired up out there today. I have NEVER seen him that emotional. He was furious with Bennett after the second interception, and was also furious with the coaching staff for not getting him the football. Say what you want about Bradshaw, but the guy is a warrior and a true leader.
- What a gutsy effort by Nicks today. He was clearly not 100 percent, but he made some incredible catches.
- Save for that one mental mistake, Bennett was outstanding today. He is undoubtedly the Giants’ best TE since Shockey, possibly even better.
- I love Blackburn, but he was just brutal out there in coverage. He made a couple of nice tackles, but how many times was the middle of the field wide open for the Redskins today?
- Didn’t really see all that much of Canty, as expected. I’m not sure how many snaps he played, but it couldn’t have been many.
- Cruz is Cruz. Nothing new there.
- The pass rush is back. Even if they weren’t sacking Griffin, they were getting into the backfield and putting pressure on him.
- The tackling out there today was simply pathetic. I feel like more than half of Morris’ yards came AFTER he took a hit. How many times did it look like they had him stuffed only to see him drag the pile for a few extra yards?
- Once again, Stevie Brown is a PLAYER. The kid has a nose for the ball, and how about that lick he put on Morris late in the game? I love him.
All in all, this was a very sloppy game, but fortunately, the Giants were able to force turnovers. It’s not like the Redskins were just coughing the ball up; their TOs were a direct result of great D by Big Blue, a D that settled down considerably in the second half.
This game really didn’t surprise me, either. I thought the Giants would win by 10 or more, but it’s a divisional matchup against a unique QB who the G-Men had never seen before. My money is on the Giants playing much better the next time around now that they have a more extensive scouting report on Griffin.
Big game against Dallas next week. Win that, and the Giants will be well on their way to securing a second straight NFC East title. It’s going to be a dogfight, though. The Cowboys will be fighting for their lives.