NY Giants clobber hapless Washington Redskins, 45-12, on Monday Night Football
One of the most befuddling bunches of Giants in the franchise’s 85-year history continued their slow, winding march toward, well, something last night.
And to confuse everyone even more, they did it in a commanding fashion they haven’t shown since early October.
One week after an embarrassing defensive performance against the Eagles, the Giants clamped down on the Redskins early while scoring on their first four drives to spark a 45-12 victory over their division rivals that kept their playoff hopes very much alive.
The Giants (8-6) are now one game behind the fifth-seeded Packers and sixth-seeded Cowboys (both 9-5) in the race for the Wild Card spots. And since they hold the tie-breakers over both teams by virtue of their sweep of Dallas and their better record in common games than Green Bay, all they have to do is make up a game on either team and they’re headed to the postseason.
What will they do once they get there? How can anyone really know with this team?
They’ve done it all this year: blowout victories, blowout losses, high-scoring wins, high-scoring losses, late defensive meltdowns to lose games late in the fourth quarter and defensive stands to maintain the lead in the final minutes.
At the very least, we know they have a pretty good offense that has helped them eclipse the 30-point mark four times in the last five games. Eli Manning led the charge last night by completing 19 of 26 passes for 268 yards and three touchdowns, giving him a career-high 26 touchdowns in this, his sixth NFL season.
Ahmad Bradshaw, who lately appears to be getting over injuries to his foot and both ankles, contributed with two touchdowns on the team’s first two drives. And even special-teams contributor Derek Hagan found the end zone with a touchdown catch in the second half.
As for the beleaguered defense, they finally rediscovered their pass rush and got excellent run support and coverage from a banged-up secondary. Can it be considered vindication when they dominate a Redskins offense that, much as it was playing well in recent weeks, nonetheless entered the game ranked 22nd in the league and is missing three starters on its offensive line? Or is it just another aberration against a team that’s headed nowhere and will likely soon have a new head coach?
At this point, maybe it doesn’t matter. The Giants had to take care of business against a pesky team and they did – right from the start of the game.
http://www.nj.com/giants/index.ssf/2009/12/ny_giants_clobber_hapless_wash.html
I thought this was a pretty good read so I posted it.
