The Giants kept their faint playoff hopes alive after fighting back from an early 14-0 deficit to a 24-17 win. Let’s take a look at how it went down.
Justin Tuck Provided the Spark: Most people believe that Justin Tuck is more than likely playing his last season as a Giant. If that’s the case, the potential Hall of Famer sent out quite an audition to his future employers. Credit Perry Fewell for taking out a page from former defensive defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo’s playbook. With Tuck fluctuating inside and outside the defensive line, Tuck mauled the Redskins offensive line with four sacks that added him to an illustrious list of Giants defenders that had at least that many in a game. The guy made himself a lot of money tonight, and the Giants assuredly hope he’ll take a discount to stay.
Will Beatty, However…:…appears to be a big misfire by the scouting department. In a scene that has become pretty regular, Brian Orakpo ate him for breakfast, lunch, dinner and every snack in between. With the Giants paying big money in the spring for him to be the long-term left tackle, and it hasn’t paid off by any calculation. As the season winds down, the chances of drafting a new left tackle grows more and more likely. Beatty is one of the main reasons why Eli Manning is having this horrendous season. If he refuses to even try to block, then your quarterback has no chance. Manning threw his 17th pick, but no points were surrendered.
The No-Huddle Works For Eli: Kevin Gilbride’s playcalling often grinds the offense to a halt, and it was clearly the case until the second quarter. When the Giants finally started to turn the playcalling to Manning, everything started to click. Brandon Myers, largely inconsequential all season, finally showed the kind of hands that he displayed in his breakout 2012 with the Raiders. Andre Brown and Peyton Hillis did just enough to keep the Redskins defenders honest, and it was a perfectly usual Giants game where winning ugly is the norm. And one week after having a crippling amount of penalties, the Giants committed just one for five yards. Cut the penalties and it makes life far more easier.
Up Next: The Giants fly out to San Diego where Manning faces the team he once spurned and a Chargers fanbase that is still in no mood to let bygones be bygones. The Giants defense will once again be tested by the reemergence of Phillip Rivers and a Chargers team who would love nothing better than to put any and all playoff hopes of the Big Blue to bed.
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