Giants Game 4

On Monday night it was Eli Manning against what has become his nemesis, the Minnesota Vikings. For some reason Manning struggles in this game the most as compared to any other opponent. Just like his other meetings, this game was no different. In some cases early on in this game it seemed as if Manning was playing scared. He was throwing the ball into the ground the second a defender started running toward him. Despite how bad the Giants played the score didn't show it. At the end of the first quarter the Giants were only down 7-0 and going into half time they were down 14-3.
The major problem that started in the last game and all of a sudden the Giants are plagued with is penalties. In this game they raked up eight for a total of 69 yards. It was like they were shooting themselves in the foot. These penalties shouldn't be happening and most of them came at crucial times negating any chance of getting a score. The one penalty everyone seems to be talking about is the Personal Foul against Odell Beckham Jr. In all fairness that penalty came after Xavier Rhodes hit him late. Everyone is complaining about OBJ's "Outbursts" but what I see is his passion for the game and for wanting to win. He reacts like that because he knows what he is capable of and how much he can do if he can get the ball. He gets frustrated which is understandable. OBJ is getting singled out but there are many great wide receivers that have had outbursts just like this ... Dez Bryant, Chad Johnson, Randy Moss and Michael Irving to name a few. So this is not a new reaction this is being a passionate wide receiver. I personally like seeing his passion for the Giants, yes the 15 yard penalties hurt the Giants but he was hit out of bounds twice and all he got was a penalty for it. Everyone is making this a big deal when it isn't. The media and everyone talking about it is the distraction not OBJ.
Back to the game. In the second half the Giants were able to score a touchdown on a running score by Orleans Darkwa. The touchdown was made possible on the best play the Giants offense had all game. Rookie Paul Perkins caught a short pass and was able to run for a total 67 yards setting up the touchdown. There wasn't much else in the way of offense. Beckham was held to 23 yards, Cruz had 50 yards and Sterling Shepard had 30 yards.
On the other hand the defense kept the Giants in the game until they didn't. The defense wasn't able to get to Sam Bradford until the second half of the game and the zone let up some huge plays. Yes they were depleted in the secondary but that isn't an excuse. The Giants ended up loosing 24-10. Manning went 25/45 for 261 yards, NO touchdowns and an interception. There isn't much time to dwell on this game only a week to improve and fix their mistakes before they meet with the Green Bay Packers. All I know is that with all the money spent on that defense they better start getting to quarterbacks and creating turnovers. Both sides of the ball need to play better and Manning absolutely needs to air the ball out and let our three offense threats take over the game. There is no defense that can guard our three wide receivers and we should be dominating on offense. We have all the pieces to be a dominate team, they just need to stop thinking about all the distractions and focus on what they are good at. The Giants are sitting at 2-2 tied at the bottom of the NFC East with Washington. Once they come together and everything starts to click there should be no more problems. Eliminate the penalties, rely on their strengths and  this team will be back on top in no time.