Beckham milestone but Giants slide to defeat

ODELL Beckham Jr. passed a receiving milestone but it was not enough to stop the New York Giants sliding to their sixth defeat of the season against the Atlanta Falcons on Monday.

Beckham became the fastest player to amass 5,000 career receiving yards in the Super Bowl era after connecting with quarterback Eli Manning for a 51-yard gain during the third quarter of the Giants’ 23-20 defeat.

The wide receiver achieved the 5,000 mark in his 54th game, breaking Falcons receiver Julio Jones previous record. Jones had reached 5,000 yards in 56 games.

But Beckham’s record was the only bright spot on an otherwise disappointing outing for the Giants, who are anchored to the bottom of the NFC East division with only one victory from seven games.

Manning made 27 of 38 completions for 399 yards but endured an unhappy night at Atlanta’s Mercedes-Benz Stadium, suffering four sacks as the Giants offense struggled to find consistency.

The Falcons, meanwhile, started slowly but finally opened the scoring in the second quarter when Matt Ryan found Marvin Hall with a 47-yard reception for the touchdown.

Aldrick Rosas reduced the deficit for New York with a field goal, but Italian- born kicker Giorgio Tavecchio restored Atlanta’s seven-point advantage on the stroke of half-time with a three-pointer of his own.

Rosas brought the Giants back to within four points at 10-6 in the third quarter.

Atlanta stretched away in the fourth quarter though when Tavecchio’s second field goal of the night made it 13-6 before running back Tevin Coleman weaved over from 30 yards for a touchdown to increase the lead to 20-6.

New York’s rookie running back star Saquon Barkley barrelled over from two yards out to give the visitors hope but Manning and Beckham failed to con- nect on the attempted two-point conversion to leave the score at 20-12.

With just over two minutes remaining, Tavecchio nailed a 56-yard field goal to extend the Falcons lead and make the game safe at 23-12.

There was still time for the Giants to grab a touchdown through Beckham in the dying seconds, with Barkley rushing over for the two points to make it 23-20.

But poor clock management from Manning had left the Giants with no realistic opportunity to recover possession and Atlanta gathered the kickoff comfortably to complete a win which improves them to 3-4.