Sunday was a sad day for the sports community with the loss of a legend, Arnold Palmer and tragic loss of an incredible baseball player Jose Fernandez. Despite that it was also Football Sunday and in the 1pm slot was a divisional matchup between the Giants and the Redskins. This game was built up because of the Odell Beckham Jr/Josh Norman match up.
The Giants entered 2-0 while the Redskins entered 0-2. In the first half, the Giants were rolling scoring two touchdowns in the first quarter and another in the second quarter. The defense held the redskins to two field goals in the first quarter and a field goal and touchdown in the second quarter taking a 21-16 lead going into the half. The Giants dominated both sides of the ball in the first half.
Unfortunately the second half was a different story. In the third quarter, the Giants couldn't find the end zone only scoring a field goal while allowing a redskins touchdown. Entering the fourth quarter the Giants held on to a 24-23 lead but then things fell apart. Eli Manning threw an interception in the redone, his first of the game. The defense held strong forcing the Redskins to punt. On the punt the Giants were able to block it which would've given the Giants excellent field position but there were penalties on both teams nullifying the play forcing the Redskins to punt again. There was a personal foul on the Giants which was so incredibly unnecessary and ended up being the turning point of this game. The Giants were only able to put up a field goal in the fourth and despite not allowing the Redskins to score another touchdown, they allowed them to score two field goals losing their first game of the season. Manning threw a second interception at the end of the game when the Giants just needed to get into field goal range to win the game.
I've noticed that once they are down that is when Manning goes into panic mode and throws the ball in the wrong spot or tries to force it in the middle of defenders. This loss wasn't just on the play of Manning but also on the 11 penalties that the Giants occurred. The defense also gave up some huge receiving plays like the Jamison Crowder 55 yard touchdown. Yes they are 2-1 and sit in the second spot of the NFC East but they need to fix these mistakes real quick if they plan on having a good year.
OBJ won the match up against Josh Norman. Norman couldn't keep up with OBJ and got burned quit a few times in the second half. OBJ did loose his cool getting a penalty and hitting the kicking net on the sideline but that was because Manning missed him wide open a couple of times. OBJ finished with seven receptions for 121 yards. Another highlight was Orleans Darkwa, who was filling in for Rashad Jennings. Jennings sat out this game with an injury. Darkwa ran hard and with conviction finding quit a few holes gaining huge yards. Victor Cruz also made some key catches to keep drives going and continuing to shine was Sterling Shepard. Shepard had five receptions for 73 yards and a touchdown.
The Giants have all the components needed to be a good team this year but they definitely need to clean up the mistakes that they made in this game. Manning can't panic when the Giants get behind and needs to continue to play the way he did to start the game. The Giants definitely need to clean up the penalties because you can't win games giving away yards. They need to fix these mistakes quickly because up next is the Minnesota Vikings who are currently undefeated. Despite the outcome this was a good game. The first half was great hopefully they can continue that first half play going forward.
