The New York Giants took a business trip on a short week to Landover, Maryland. In doing so, the suddenly proficient West Coast offense of the Giants completely dismantled the Washington Football Team Who Shall Not Be Said Aloud in every facet. If you’re a Giants fan, you loved every minute of it. If you’re a Washington fan, well, you may want to pump the brakes on Kirk Cousins’ ascent. In the end, it took just a span of five days for the Big Blue to suddenly find themselves back at .500 at the quarter-pole after looking like they’d be in the running for the top pick in next year’s draft after the first two weeks. We’re seeing what offensive coordinator Ben McAdoo can really do as a playcaller, and everything is awesome at the moment.
Giants Gameday Aftermath: Manning, Donnell Shine in 45-14 Runover
Larry Donnell Introduced Himself to the League: It’s funny to imagine that Donnell was on the bubble to be one of the final roster cuts. All the undrafted product from Grambling has done since was make himself into Eli Manning’s security blanket on short-yardage, with the coaching staff quickly realizing that the lanky, 6’6″ man-child would end up being an absolute nightmare for opposing DBs to cover. With three first-half touchdowns catches, Donnell essentially won the game himself. In doing so, had his cemented his hold on a position that has been in a constant state of flux since Kevin Boss. He’s nowhere near close to being a finished project by any means, but the Giants have found something here. And you can bet that about eleventy billion folks will be putting in fantasy waiver claims for him.
Manning May Have Found His Perfect Offense: It took a little bit longer to figure it out, but Peyton’s Little Brother seems at ease in his new coach’s scheme. The Giants offense, with the exception of the opener against the Lions, really, has become startlingly fun to watch. After years of Kevin Gilbride’s old-school (and admittedly stagnated) approach of chucking the football deep almost on every pass play, McAdoo’s reliance on his receivers’ athleticism has brought the Giants into the more current age of football, whereby allowing Eli to pick and choose his spots of when to go deep. He accounted for five of the six Giants touchdowns, even showing off the ability to be, uh, plausibly fleet with a running score. For a guy who appeared to be potentially finding a new team next year, he’s putting all of the needed pressure on the Giants’ front office to decide to keep him around.
Kirk Cousins Was in a Giving Mood: While all of the offensive fireworks were fun and entertaining, the night was made much easier by Kirk Cousins’ meltdown. So much so, that the sudden notion that Cousins would be putting RG3 on the trading block seems kind of funny now. Cousins made the Giants’ night that much easier by looking like an over-matched rookie instead of the polished franchise quarterback-in-the-making. Accounting for five of Washington’s six turnovers, it’s no wonder that the Giants ran away and hid with relative ease. It’ll be interesting to hear what becomes of the Cousins in the coming weeks and whether or not other teams still hold him in high-regard.
Up Next: The Giants get a few extra days of rest on their mini-bye before Matt Ryan and the high-flying Falcons come to MetLife on Oct. 5.
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