Credit: BOBBY O’HARA/ PureSportsNY
The New York Giants beat the New York Jets 35-24 in the annual preseason MetLife Bowl Friday night in the Meadowlands. The Giants have been facing many questions about the offensive production throughout the preseason and were hoping to get something going early against an injured Jets secondary. That didn’t exactly happen out of the gate though.
Eli Manning started off the game a little rough. On only the second play of the game Eli had a wide open Rueben Randle down the field but missed his target by an under thrown ball. It dropped for an incomplete pass. On the following play he would try to force a pass to Jernigan, but that would also fall incomplete. The Giants offense would have to punt the ball.
Later on in the first, Geno Smith led the Jets to a field goal. Eric Decker dropped what would have been a touchdown early on, but wasn’t able to hold on as he was trying to battle off Rodgers-Cromartie in the back of the end zone. They settled for a field goal. Then early in the second Geno, with the help of some big runs by running back Chris Johnson, found an open Jace Amaro for the 1YD pass.
Manning faced a great amount of pass rush and didn’t handle the pressure well for most of the night. He fumbled twice and almost threw the ball away a few times, but they were luckily dropped by Jets defensive backs. In fact the Giants looked like they weren’t going to score the entire first half, but finally on the last drive of the half they got things rolling.
Eli threw what looked like a pick, but it was called incomplete. Then Manning turned in a promising drive. He connected on two passes to Victor Cruz and finished the drive by finally connecting on a pass to Rueben Randle. The Giants went into the half down 7-10.
The Giants defense stepped up big in the opening plays of the second half. Or I should say Damontre Moore stepped up? Moore sacked Vick for a one yard loss and then recovered a Vick fumble on the following play on the Jets 16. That would set up Ryan Nassib to get the Gmen on top. He threw striking a 3 yd pass to FB Henry Hynoski to put the Giants up 14-10. But it wouldn’t be long before Michael Vick would strike back for the Jets. He would lead them down the field on a five minute drive and end it with a 2yd touchdown pass to Eric Decker. Jets lead 17-14.
However Ryan Nassib was not done with 2:49 seconds left he would throw a a perfect 39 yard pass over the top to Preston Parker. The Giants backups were once again taking the reigns. The GMen took the lead 21-17.
The Giants offensive production from the backups continued in the fourth with a touchdown by Andre Williams and breakout star Corey Washington. The Jets couldn’t keep up with the sudden scoring flood by they hometown rival as the Giants won the MetLife Bowl 35-24. Tom Coughlin accepted the bronze trophy featuring MetLife’s mascot Snoopy as well as $30,000 to the team’s charity of choice. The Jets received $20,000 to their team’s charity as well.
The Giants won the game again as they continue unbeaten in the pre-season, but there were still some struggles in the early stages of the first half. As for that final drive before the half Coughlin could finally smile.
“The last drive of the first half was very welcomed, obviously,” coach Tom Coughlin said. “We could finally move the ball. Eli made some great plays. I thought we ran the ball well early in the game, but didn’t have anything to show for it.”
The running game did excel once again. Rashad Jennings was 13 for 67 and Andre Williams went 11 for 49 and a touchdown. The best part was for Andre Williams who was able to enjoy the victory as he started a war of words between the teams by calling the Gmen “The Real New York Team”.
As for the other end of that feud, Rex Ryan was pleased with his quarterbacks and believes highly in both of them.
“I wanted to come out of this knowing we had two really good quarterbacks that we can win games with, and I know, in my heart, that we have two we can win with.”
The Jets will go on the road for their final preseason game to take on the Eagles and the Giants stay at home to face off with their always welcomed New England Patriots.
Bobby O’Hara:PureSportsNY