Giants’ Defense Makes a Statement in 19-3 Drubbing of the Redskins: After looking porous for the first three games of the season, the Giants’ defense dominated the Redskins in a key NFC East battle in the Meadowlands as New York defeated Washington 19-3. The Giants are now 2-2 on the season and 2-0 in the NFC East.
How good was the defense? Washington was held to 164 total yards (86 net yards passing and 78 net yards rushing). The Redskins only ran 45 offensive plays and converted only three third-down attempts. Redskins’ QB Mark Brunell was sacked three times. Meanwhile, the Giants piled up 411 yards of offense (256 net yards passing and 155 net yards rushing). QB Eli Manning was not sacked once.
The Redskins scored the game’s first points with a 39-yard field goal near the end of the first quarter. But those were the only points the Redskins would score on the day. On the Giants’ ensuing possession, a 44-yard pass from Manning to WR Amani Toomer gave the Giants a 1st-and-10 at the Redskins’ 10-yard line. It looked like the Giants took the lead a few plays later as Manning hit Toomer for a touchdown, but an offensive pass interference penalty on TE Jeremy Shockey erased the score and New York was forced to settle for a game-tying 24-yard field goal by PK Jay Feely.
After a three-and-out by the Redskins, the Giants added another field goal as Feely was good from 34 yards. This score was set up by a 46-yard pass from Manning to WR Plaxico Burress. The Skins were able to drive into Giants’ territory on their final possession of the first half, but were forced to punt. Starting from their own 2-yard line with 4:28 left in the half, the Giants moved the ball to the Washington 14-yard line in 14 plays. With only seconds left on the clock, New York was forced to settle for another field goal this one from 32 yards out as the Giants took a 9-3 lead at the intermission.
New York received the ball to start the third quarter and put together a 15-play, 69-yard marathon of drive that took over eight minutes off the clock and culminated with a 2-yard touchdown pass from Manning to Burress to give the Giants a 16-3 lead. Washington was able to move the ball on their first possession of the second half, driving from their own 21-yard line to the Giants’ 24-yard line, but the drive stalled there and Redskins’ PK John Hall missed his 42-yard field goal effort.
The Giants and Redskins then exchanged punts on the next two possessions by each team. The Giants tacked on their final field goal late in the fourth quarter as the Giants were able to move from their own 46-yard line to the Redskins’ 22-yard line and Feely hit his fourth field goal of the day this one from 40 yards out with less than three minutes to play. The Redskins failed to pick up a first down on their final possession of the game.
It was an all-around good day for the Giants. Manning completed 23-of-33 passes for 256 yards, 1 touchdown, and no interceptions. HB Tiki Barber rushed for 123 yards on 23 carries. Burress caught seven passes for 69 yards and a touchdown. Toomer caught four passes for 81 yards and WR Tim Carter chipped in with four catches for 44 yards. DE Michael Strahan, DE Osi Umenyiora, and DT Fred Robbins all picked up sacks. Redskins’ WR Santana Moss was held to three catches and 39 yards. The other Skins’ wide receivers had a combined three catches for 14 yards as Brunell only completed 12 passes.
“This week we took a different approach,” said CB Corey Webster. “We weren’t going to worry about them we were going to concentrate on what we do well. We really can’t control what they are going to do, but we can control what we do. We did a good job with that. It was a big game, a division game, and even though it is early in the season, it was a very important game. Today was a good game for us to get us back on the right track. You want to play a good team and you want to play well against that good team. This is going to really build our confidence.”
“When you have Eli throwing the ball like he was throwing the ball today it makes it a lot easier for us to make plays,” said Toomer. “I know Plaxico is pretty happy. I know I am pretty happy, I know Coach is pretty happy about the contributions we were able to make today. So hopefully we can keep that going. I just think this was a good game for us. It is just what the whole team needed. A game where we were ahead from the beginning we controlled the tempo, we controlled the time of possession and played New York Giants football.”
Head Coach Tom Coughlin’s Post-Game Press Conference: The following is the transcript to Head Coach Tom Coughlin’s post-game press conference.
Q: Talk about your satisfaction with this win, especially defensively.
A: It’s nice to see our defense play well. They rose up and did a nice job against the run. I think the Redskins tried to use their the way they always play and rush the football and control the game that way, and in the first half they did have time of possession. But we did a nice job and we had, in the second half, the long drive, I think, put us over in terms of time of possession. It was a well-played game. There weren’t any turnovers in the game. (There were) some penalties, but I was very pleased with the way our defense responded to our two weeks of work.
Q: Can you talk about the drive at the end of the first half, when you were pinned deep and were able to move it out and get three?
A: We wanted to move the ball out and see exactly where we were and under what circumstances we might open it up and use the two-minute offense. It happened for us, and we had the big play to (Tim) Carter, which set us up. We used our last time out, took a shot at the end zone, thought we had a shot at it, and then ended up kicking the field goal. So points there were real important, seeing as how we came off the two-yard line.
Q: Considering all of the turmoil that came out of the locker room in Seattle, does a game like this quiet things down?
A: You know what? There never was anything that had to be quieted down. You take one statement and run with it which you all did, and enjoyed it, for two weeks. There wasn’t any problem in the locker room, OK?
Q: What does this win do for the team’s confidence?
A: We won a game in the division, and we won a game where we defensively played well. That’s what it does. That’s what it does.
Q: Can you talk about the defensive pressure from Osi Umenyiora?
A: Yes, from (Michael) Strahan, from Umenyiora, from Fred Robbins. We got good pressure playing with the four-man rush, basically, and even in situations where they were going to throw the ball, we got on the edge and made some good things happen.
RE: The touchdown drive at the beginning of the third quarter.
A: That was big, being able to take the time off the clock to drive and score, when we had been frustrated by not getting in the end zone with touchdowns. We had it in once, had a penalty, took it back out, so we were at field goals at that point. But driving the ball and scoring because, really, when you come back out of the locker room with that kind of lead, just field goals to field goals, it’s not much of a lead. So we welcomed that.
Q: As hot as Mark Brunell has been for the past couple of weeks, can you talk about what you saw today from your secondary and pass coverage?
A: We were very sound today, I thought. We played well. They took their shots down the field on occasion, and we were in position (with) a lot tighter and a lot better coverage than we have been. We reacted to the ball better. Our alignment assignment execution was much better than we have been. The players responded and they felt they practiced well. They felt they answered some questions, and they played like it.
Q: In the latter stages of the game, Jeremy Shockey came out. Did he re-aggravate his ankle injury?
A: I’m not sure exactly what it is, whether it’s the ankle or whether it’s a foot, but we’ll see.
RE: The defensive and offensive lines.
A: I didn’t see much of the numbers, but I know we did have some rushing yards, which was good. We played Giants football. (The game) had a nice balance, a nice mix. The offensive line obviously did a good job against a good defensive football team.
Q: Can you talk about the grit that Amani Toomer brings?
A: The play on the sideline was huge. You talk about getting in that situation and being able to read the two-on-one ball, to get the ball outside, it rarely happens in our league. There, it happened. He went up and made a heck of a catch, got knocked out of bounds. That gave us a big first down after we overcame some distance there with the intentional grounding penalty. He made a big play, and he’s done that throughout the entire year.
Q: He also made a big play at the end of that first half.
A: He sure did. He made the big play on the post on the middle. Plaxico (Burress) made a big play on a post, so we got some plays down the field.
Q: Talk about the thinking on some of the long passes.
A: We had it wired up to where, if we got the coverage, we had a chance. They were playing combinations of double coverage, which they do a lot against us, and we were able to see it and react to it.
RE: LaVar Arrington and how he handled the week and today.
A: I thought he handled the week very well. I thought he was very poised and professional about the week. He wanted to play well, and he was physical, he was involved. You have to be happy for he and (Antonio) Pierce and those other guys who came over.
RE: Eli Manning’s ability to manage the game.
A: He did a good job with that. He’s done a good job with that consistently all year long. When he’s had the protection, he’s made plays, and when he hasn’t had protection, when people were in his face, he still made some plays.
Post-Game Notes and Quotes: LB Brandon Short started at linebacker for the injured Carlos Emmons.
Inactive for the Giants were LB Carlos Emmons (pectoral injury), WR Sinorice Moss (quad), S James Butler (knee), HB Derrick Ward (foot), OT Guy Whimper, OT Na’Shan Goddard, DT Jonas Seawright, and QB Tim Hasselbeck (third quarterback).
Redskins’ Head Coach Joe Gibbs on QB Eli Manning: “He has everything that it takes and he played extremely well today. I would say they (the Giants) have a premier guy.”