Gamble sees Giants past the Bengals
INSTEAD of cheers, a nervous ripple coursed through the crowd at MetLife Stadium. The kicker had not left the sideline. Yes, the New York Giants were going for it – from the three-yard line.
It was a brazen gamble, the Giants facing fourth down, trailing the Cincinnati Bengals by six early in the fourth quarter, with momentum having slipped away in the third. But coach Ben McAdoo elected to trust Eli Manning with the ball, and he delivered – finding Sterling Shepard with enough space on a shallow crossing route to score.
The Giants have gotten awfully good at playing in tight games. And with a fourth consecutive win by one score or less, they have placed themselves firmly in playoff contention with a 6-3 record.
A sack by Olivier Vernon, the team’s second in a row, late in the fourth, effectively sealed the Giants’ 21-20 victory on Monday night.
“Coach has a lot of confidence in the offence,” Shepard said of the fourth-down call. “He trusted us to execute, and we did.”
At the outset, a higher-scoring game seemed inevitable. The Giants’ opening drive was sublime – eight plays covering 80 yards in a little less than four minutes, featuring six completions by Manning (in six attempts) and ending with a 10-yard touchdown catch by Jerell Adams.
But whatever message the Giants were trying to send was quickly volleyed back by the Bengals. Cincinnati answered with a touchdown in just three plays, highlighted by a 71-yard catch-and-run by tight end Tyler Eifert.
Both teams, though, eventually settled into a pattern of offensive malaise. The Giants, as has often been the case, struggled to establish anything with their running game. The Bengals failed to convert their first four thirddown opportunities.
But Cincinnati seemed to find a spark towards the end of the second quarter. After a punt pinned the Giants back near their own goal line, Manning managed to bring the offence out from the shadow of its end zone. But on second down from the 19, his pass for Roger Lewis Jr was intercepted at the 28-yard-line by Dre Kirkpatrick, who scrambled his way to the seven.
Offence finds rhythm
With their best opportunity to score since the opening drive, the Bengals tried three times to pass into the end zone. The Giants executed stout defence on all three. Cincinnati came away with a field goal and the lead at 10-7.
“We have guys on this defence that can do special things,” Vernon said. “It was a great performance.”
Invigorated by the defensive stand, the Giants’ offence found its rhythm again. Manning connected with Odell Beckham Jr for 18 yards to move to midfield, and Paul Perkins finally picked up a chunk of yardage on the ground.
In one of the game’s more stunning developments, Manning even used his legs for positive yardage, scrambling away from pressure to gain six yards.
But the highlight of the drive was executed, as usual, by the electrifying Beckham. On second down from the 10yard line, Beckham ran about four yards and paused.
It was a short pause, but long enough to stop the legs of his defender, Adam Jones. Then Beckham spun to his right, gathering the separation for Manning to find him wide open in the end zone.
The score, with one minute, 24 seconds left, gave the Giants a 14-10 half-time lead.
They indeed were looking like playof f contenders, pushing around a stout Bengals team despite hav ing a badly banged-up of fensive line and no Victor Cruz, who missed the game with a sprained ankle.
The Giants looked lethargic in the second half. They dropped passes and botched routes.
They failed to convert on third-and-4 from the Bengals’ 45. They punted on all three third-quarter possessions. Cincinnati scored 10 unanswered points.
With the Giants trailing 2014, however, McAdoo was not satisfied with three points.
He wanted the Giants to finish their drive, finish the game, and they did just that.