G-Men hold off Tampa to get 1st home win
EAST RUTHERFORD >> Pat Shurmur has not had many reasons to smile on the sidelines, but the first-year head coach allowed himself to grin ear to ear as he high-fived players and patted Eli Manning on the helmet following the Giants’ fifth touchdown Sunday at MetLife Stadium.
This is the offense that New York’s fan base envisioned when Shurmur arrived in January. The script has not gone as planned, yet after 11 weeks, there is still hope for the Giants this season.
With a 38-35 win against the Buccaneers, the Giants (3-7) produced their highest scoring output at home since 2012 and are riding their first two-game winning streak in 700 days.
A date with the Eagles next Sunday in Philadelphia now looms meaningful in the wide-open NFC East — even if the odds of making the playoffs are still against the Giants in the grand scheme.
“I challenged the guys to start faster than we did last week … and I think the game flows better when you’re up two scores,” Shurmur said. “When guys are making plays and we’re making plays running the ball, it’s easier to call play actions and it’s easier to protect the quarterback, too, against a pretty good rush.”
Running back Saquon Barkley rushed for a career-high 142 yards and two touchdowns on 27 carries. His second score came with 3:52 remaining to effectively clinch the outcome by extending the Giants’ lead to 38-28.
Barkley has now topped 100 yards from scrimmage in nine of 10 games, but only twice did he previously reach the century mark in rushing. The offensive line has improved and the Giants have shown more commitment to the run game recently. Barkley averaged only 13.9 carries in the first eight games.
“I thought today was the best he ran,” Manning said. “He had a better tempo. He was hitting the holes fast and was running hard. He was close to breaking a couple of long ones but he was just efficient.”
Tampa Bay (3-7) flirted with a comeback when Jameis Winston replaced Ryan Fitzpatrick at quarterback after Fitzpatrick threw his third interception with 9:58 left in the third quarter to safety Curtis Riley.
The former No. 1 overall pick led the Bucs on four straight touchdown drives including a 41-yard pass to Mike Evans with 2:22 left. Tampa got the ball back with 23 seconds left down three points, but cornerback B.W. Webb intercepted Winston’s ensuing desperation heave downfield as the crowd erupted.
“We know we could win games. It was just a matter of time,” linebacker Alec Ogletree said. “Of course we didn’t start the season how we wanted to start, but our focus after the bye week was to play these last eight games to the best of our abilities and lets see what happens at the end. We’re taking it one game at a time, one day at a time.”
Manning built on his renaissance last Monday in San Francisco by throwing two touchdowns and completing 17-of-18 pass attempts for a career-high 94 percent completion rate. He averaged a season-high 12.83 yards per attempt, and his 155.8 passer rating was his highest since 2009 against Oakland.
On their first two drives, the Giants drove 158 yards on 18 plays for two touchdowns by Barkley. The rookie rushed for a 5-yard score to put New York up 14-0 with 13:37 remaining in the first quarter, and before that hauled in a 6-yard touchdown catch on a play-action rollout by Manning.
Manning connected with nine different receivers on the afternoon. Odell Beckham Jr. had four catches for 74 yards and a fourth-quarter touchdown.
“Early in the game we took the long shot to Odell (41 yards) that got us down the field. That was a really good throw,” Shurmur said. “So I thought Eli for the second week in a row especially since the bye here, that was a winning performance by all accounts.”
What worked so effectively for the Giants was playing with higher tempo and using heavy personnel. They deployed fullback Eli Penny and Rhett Ellison/ Scott Simonson in two-tight end sets. That fueled a fast start for the running game and got Manning moving in the pocket with play action.
“Just finding the rhythm, kind of our identity,” Manning said. “The offensive line has been playing really well the last couple of weeks … protection has been good down the field. I think those combinations. We can run the football and play action.”
The Bucs pulled within 7-14 with 5:02 left in the first half when Fitzpatrick rushed for a touchdown on a fourth-andgoal broken play. After ditching his first read of a screen pass, he tucked the ball and stutter-stepped inside before cutting outside and leaping toward the end zone.
The Giants averted what could’ve been a catastrophic sequence late in the first half. On third-and-2 from the Bucs’ 37-yard line, Barkley couldn’t haul in a pass that sailed behind him on a wheel route — Manning’s lone incompletion.
Then after the Giants punted, defensive end Olivier Vernon committed three penalties in a row: roughing the passer on third down followed by two neutral zone infractions.
Down seven with 34 seconds left in the half, the Bucs had the ball at the Giants’ 30 with two timeouts left, and they were set to receive the second-half kickoff.
But safety Michael Thomas mitigated the situation with an interception over the middle. And then two plays into the third quarter, Ogletree scored a pick-six off a pass that cornerback Janoris Jenkins deflected to extend the Giants’ lead to 21-7.
“I’m proud of the guys and the way we played today,” Ogletree said. “I thought we fought really well. When you have turnovers, it brings a lot of energy to the team and it helps keep everybody motivated and playing well.”