The Giants have the “winning ugly” thing down to a science. But the bottom line is that the Giants have a two straight wins to take into the second half of the season. Here’s how the 15-7 win went down.
Wins are ALWAYS Pretty: When you begin a season 0-6, you’re in no mood to to differentiate what is a “quality win” due to the weakness of the opponent. There are no style points needed in the NFL, and there is no better example of that than what the Giants have shown over the last six days. You take the wins in any form you can get them.
Add in the miracle win by the Lions over the Cowboys, and a little help from Big Brother Manning against the ‘Skins, the Giants could again find themselves back in the race for the sad-sack NFC (L)East title. It’s probably futile, sure, but you never know.
The Beason Effect: He only had four tackles on the day, but he has been a perfect tonic for a defense that has essentially pitched two shutouts in a row. As the new “quarterback” of the defense, he’s absorbed Perry Fewell’s scheme seemingly instantaneously, and the Giants defense has clearly stepped it up in the three games in which he’s started. Facing both a hobbled Michael Vick (who left the game in the second quarter due to his balky hamstring) and an inexperienced Matt Barkley, the defense feasted on the quarterbacks and run game. Fewell’s troops cashed in on four sacks, got two interceptions, a fumble and two turnovers-on-downs. Again, the haplessness of their last two opponents need to be considered, but the effort turned in for the last two games is impressive regardless of the opponent.
And remember how I said last week that the Giants need to think really hard about re-signing Jon Beason? It sounds like he’s thinking the same thing.
Special Teams Giveth, Taketh Away: The Giants looked a lot like the Giants of real old today: Don’t mess up offensively, keep the clock running with a steady run game, play sound defense and come out a winner in sixty minutes. For a team that is now built on offensive explosion, Eli and company turned back the clock to January of 1990, which was the famous Jeff Hostetler start in San Francisco where kicker Matt Bahr would account for all fifteen Giants points in the NFC Championship game that sent them to face the Bills in Super Bowl XXV. Fast forward to today as history repeated itself. Josh Brown went five-for-five as the Giants hung on.
But the Giants special-teams has been mostly awful, as a sky-high snap over the head of Steve Weatherford from Zak DeOssie lead directly to the lone Eagles points as Weatherford whiffed on trying to concede a safety. Defensive lineman Najee Goode got credit for the fifth return touchdown given up by the Giants. Special-teams coach Tom Quinn has probably had the roughest go of all on the coaching staff this season.
Otherwise, Weatherford was excellent today, twice pinning the Eagles back inside their five twice and effectively neutralizing the dangerous DeSean Jackson.
Up Next: The Giants are off until November 10, as they host Terrelle Pryor and the improved Raiders.
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