New York Giants Overcome Early Game Issues to Top Washington, 24-13

The New York Giants didn’t quite get a complete 60-minute game from all three phases of the ball, but they will certainly take the outcome, a 24-13 win over Washington, which guarantees the Giants a third-place finish in the division for the second year in a row.

In a tale of two halves, the Giants couldn’t do much of anything in the first half. Offensively, the Giants managed 95 yards—three yards shy of what Washington had in the rushing department alone.

New York also converted 29 percent of their third-down attempts and was unable to muster up much of anything on the ground, rushing 10 times for 16 yards.

There were a couple of highlights worth mentioning in the first half, namely the special teams play, which was as solid as it’s been all season.

More importantly, the continued excellence of rookie receiver Odell Beckham Jr. once again stood out with a performance for the ages.

Beckham, who caught the first of his three touchdown passes, a 10-yarder from quarterback Eli Manning, gave his team a 7-3 lead after the first quarter.

“The young man is having outstanding success,” head coach Tom Coughlin said of the team’s first-round pick from this year.

“When we are getting the ball to him, he’s doing very well with it. He is a very good football player. He can run the football; he can throw the football, so we’ve tried to create a lot of situations. He does have the talent to exploit the defense in a lot of different ways.”

The Giants defense? The first half wasn’t exactly one of its better showings, as Washington quarterbacks Colt McCoy and Robert Griffin III combined for 13-of-22 for 179 yards and one touchdown, though, they were sacked twice.

With Griffin at the helm after McCoy left following the opening drive due to a neck injury, Washington converted 43 percent of their third-down attempts, a factor that helped them dominate the first-half time-of-possession battle, 18 minutes, nine seconds to 11:51.

In the second half, the tide turned in the Giants’ favor in nearly every aspect except the running game, which finished with 49 yards on 22 carries.

Aided by 30 penalty yards on the opening kickoff, this due to the unsportsmanlike penalty called against Washington receiver Santana Moss after he vehemently protested a call that wiped a touchdown run by Griffin off the board.

The Giants, who were given the penalty yards on the opening kickoff of the second half, executed a successful onside kick from Washington’s 35-yard line, recovered by reserve cornerback Chandler Fenner.

Four plays later, the Giants tied the score, 10-10, on Josh Brown’s 32-yard field goal.

Julio Cortez/Associated Press

The star of the second half, of course, was Beckham, who added nine receptions, 111 yards and two touchdowns in the second half.

Beckham might have even had more were it not for a couple of passes that he exhibited a rare lack of field awareness and a touchdown reception that was wiped off the board thanks to a holding penalty called against offensive lineman Justin Pugh.    

“There were plays—I think it was a third down earlier in the game, and I didn’t get both feet in bounds. The throw in the corner of the end zone I feel that I should have caught,” Beckham said after the game.

“There was another one I feel that I should have caught. It doesn’t matter what it is. Whenever I get a chance to make a play, I feel that it should be made.”

New York’s defense even stepped up, adding five sacks of Griffin and allowing Washington to complete just one more third-down attempt all game.

They also limited Washington to 46 yards of rushing on 11 carries.

The defense’s second-half performance wasn’t perfect—the Giants had some major breakdowns defensively in the third quarter, among them a blown coverage by the secondary on a 61-yard pass completion from Griffin to receiver Andre Roberts on a 3rd-and-6 from their 11-yard line.

Alex Goodlett/Getty Images

On the play, it looked as though safety Antrel Rolle, who on Washington’s final drive in the first half dropped an interception, let the receiver get behind him. However, Rolle told reporters after the game that he did exactly what he was supposed to do.

“With the receiver down, we were playing tango coverage. I did exactly what I was supposed to do, drive the aiming point,” he explained.

“There was supposed to be someone on top of me, but there was no one there. Things like that are going to happen depending on the route that they run. They ran an angled route that kind of draws the corner's eyes to the back field to the angle. As a safety, I’m supposed to drop the dig route. He stopped on the dig route. There’s supposed to be a corner on top of me.”

No matter, as the defense managed to hold Washington to a 38-yard field goal by kicker Kai Forbath in what was its final points of the game.

The Giants, who improved to 5-9 for the season, have now swept the regular-season series against Washington two years in a row. The Giants will close out their 2014 road-game schedule next week against the St. Louis Rams and will host the Philadelphia Eagles in the regular-season finale the week after. 

Patricia Traina covers the Giants for Inside Football, the Journal Inquirer and Sports Xchange. All quotes and information obtained firsthand unless otherwise sourced. Follow me on Twitter @Patricia_Traina.