Well, it seems as though the New York Giants aren’t done for just yet.
After an 0-2 start and a sluggish debut of Ben McAdoo’s new offense, it looked like the G-Men were going to be a disaster in 2014. An impressive Week Three win over the Houston Texans quelled those concerns a bit, but now all doubters have been silenced.
Quite simply, the New York Giants looked like a legitimate contender, cruising to a 45-14 victory in Washington. Any questions about McAdoo’s scheme were answered in full last night, and apparently someone must have told Eli Manning that big brother Peyton was on bye and at least one of the Manning boys has to light up stat sheets per week.
Manning threw for 300 yards and four touchdowns to go al0ng with one interception (that actually would have been a fifth touchdown had it not been stripped from Reuben Randle in the end zone), and to ice the cake, he scored a rushing touchdown. Perhaps the most important takeaway of Manning’s performance is his completion percentage. During the off-season, the Giants stated that they wanted Manning to complete 70 per cent of his passes in 2014, a notion that the football world scoffed at.
That notion no longer seems unrealistic at all, as Manning has completed 75 and 71.8 per cent of his passes respectively through his last two starts. In turn, Manning’s weapons have been able to contribute significantly. Top receivers Victor Cruz and Randle combined for 197 yards and emerging tight end Larry Donnell had seven catches for 54 yards and three touchdowns.
As is always the case with a new offense, it takes time for players to master the nomenclature and nuances of the scheme, and through the first two weeks of the season, this was entirely apparent. Now however, it looks like everything is firing on all cylinders. Yes, a measure of the Giants’ success can be attributed to a currently struggling Washington defense, but it’s hard to argue the smoothness and efficiency with which McAdoo’s offense functioned last night.
On the flipside, the Giants defense made it’s share of big plays as well. After a potent Week three outing against the Eagles, many expected the Washington offense to have a big night, but those expectations were proven incorrect. The Giants held their rivals to a mere fourteen points and created a whopping six turnovers in the process. After surrendering a combined 60 points in Weeks one and two, the New York stop unit has allowed a mere 31 points in Weeks three and four.
In the early portion of the season, it still looks as though the defending NFC East Champion Philadelphia Eagles are the favorites to repeat in this division, but with the Cowboys improving on a weekly basis, and the Giants clearly back on track, it looks like it will be very a wild ride in 2014. The NFC East may not be the very best division in football, but when all is said and done, when the season concludes it may end up being one of the most closely contested. It should be very exciting to see what comes next.
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