Giants Win Against Falcons in Overtime

When the Giants look back on their week 11 game against the Falcons they’ll be happy it was a win. In their minds they’ll see an asterisk next to it knowing it could have ended badly. The win snapped the Giants’ four-game losing streak and keeps them in the heat of the NFC East race.

As the redundantly used sports cliche suggests, a win is a win, no matter how ugly it may be. It wasn’t all ugly for the Giants though. Their quarterback starred in the game. Eli Manning threw for a career high 384 yards with three touchdowns. Their tight end did well too. Kevin Boss caught two touchdown passes from Manning and had 76 yards receiving. The ugly part was the Giants defense in the second half. Early in the fourth quarter the Giants had a 31-17 lead. With a 14 point lead in the fourth quarter it looked like the Giants were going to roll through the Falcons. Matt Ryan had different plans. Ryan threw two touchdown in the fourth quarter, the second of which came with 28 second left to tie the game at 31-31. Big Blue eventually won the game with a Lawrence Tynes field goal in overtime and the defense wiped their forehead with the back of their hands.

The Giants’ defense hasn’t lived up to the hype this season. Injuries have been a big reason for it but they just may not be as good as everyone thought. The play of Eli Manning was the difference in this one. Without an All-Pro performance from their $100 million quarterback, the Giants may have lost their fifth straight game and would have been the first team in NFL history to lose five straight games following five straight wins to open a season.

Giants Lose to Chargers 21-20

A bad stretch of games just got worse for the Giants. The Giants moved to 5-4 on the season after a 21-20 loss to the Chargers in Week 9. Missed opportunities hurt the Giants in this one. Big Blue wanted something to build on heading into their bye week while trying to snap a three game losing streak. They didn’t get what they were looking for.

A field goal with 2:07 left in the game put the Giants up 20-14. Philip Rivers and the Chargers needed less time than that to get into the end zone. The Chargers put together an 80-yard drive ending with Rivers hitting Vincent Jackson for an 18-yard touchdown with 21 seconds left to give the Chargers a 21-20 lead and the win. That was the second time Rivers and Jackson connected for a touchdown in the game.

The Giants held the momentum late in the game and could have sealed the deal with a late touchdown. The Giants were setup with first and goal from the four yard line by a Terrell Thomas interception. Thomas picked off Rivers and ran the ball down to the Chargers’ four yard line with 3:14 to play. At first and goal from the four yard line, the Giants were set back by a holding penalty and eventually settled for a field goal. A possible 10 point lead was only six.

The Giants missed some opportunities to put points on the board and that made the difference in the game. There was some kind of mix-up on a field goal in the first quarter where Lawrence Tynes didn’t get the kick off. The Giants will look back at this one and shake their heads.

Th Giants take an abismal four game losing streak into their bye. Things won’t get easier for the Giants after their bye either. In their next four games they host Atlanta, travel to Denver, then play division rivals Dallas and Philadelphia back to back at home.

Giants Spoil Cowboys’ New Stadium Opener

It was everything we expected Sunday night when the Giants and Cowboys went to battle to open up Jerry Jones’ new stadium in Arlington; Tough, physical and exciting football. It was anything but pretty but the Giants’ Lawrence Tynes kicked a 37-yard field goal as time expired to propel the Giants over the Cowboys 33-31.

The hit on the Giants has been they don’t have a number one receiver on their roster but on Sunday night they had two players who put up number one receiver type numbers. Mario Manningham caught 10 balls for 150 yards and a touchdown and Steve Smith caught 10 balls for 134 yards and a touchdown.

Eli Manning put up big numbers (25/38 330 yards 2 TD’s) while Tony Romo looked like a mediocre quarterback (13/29 127 yards 1 TD 3 INT’s). The Cowboys had a better game on the ground but Romo’s ineffectiveness and turnovers proved costly in the end.