NY Giants: It was as unusual day for the NY Giants out at Met Life stadium in East Rutherford, NJ. Eli looked out of sync in the first half, as he threw 3 interceptions. The Buccaneers would take advantage of those miscues and take an early 11-point lead at the half.
If you know anything about Eli, he never has two bad halves in a game. So we expected to see a different Eli in the second half and that’s what we got. Trailing 27-13 early in the second half, the Giants scored 14 straight points.
Manning threw touchdowns of 23-yards to Hakeem Nicks, 80 to Victor Cruz and 33 to Martellus Bennett with 3:59 to play, giving New York a 34-27 lead. Andre Brown scored on a 2-point conversion run to tie the game after Cruz scored. Finally the Giants were starting to look like the defending Superbowl champs.
Manning finished 31 of 51 in helping the Giants gain 604 yards in total offense. Cruz, who attended his grandmother’s funeral on Friday, and Hicks, who has battled foot injuries all season and had a foot stomped on in the Giants’ 25-point fourth quarter, both had career games.
There was an incident between Giants coach Tom Coughlin and former Rutgers and current Bucs coach Greg Schiano at the end of the game. Coughlin yelled at Schiano about a scrum when Manning took a knee after Michael Boley intercepted Freeman’s pass in the closing seconds.
The Giants would go on to win 41 to 34 after an amazing performance by their offense.
Vernon McKenzie:PureSportsNY