Giants Show Great Balance and Strong Defense in 23-17 Win Over Redskins

Week One of the 2009 NFL season finally came for the Giants fans.

All the talk of missing Plaxico Burress finally left when Sunday's game ended with the Redskins because the Giants balanced offense showed Burress will not be needed.

The Giants took the opening kickoff and moved the ball effectively down the field on the Redskins defense. The Giants running attack of Brandon Jacobs and Ahmad Bradshaw got decent chunks of yards and kept the Redskins defenders moving back.

Eli Manning found some new targets to throw to, including Mario Manningham and Hakeem Nicks.

The Giants still need to work on their short-game situation on third and one and fourth and one, as Jacobs and Bradshaw each got stopped, but an easy 28-yard Lawrence Tynes field goal made it 3-0.

In the second quarter, Manning found Manningham on a screen pass and he made the Redskins tacklers look foolish by juking and moving and scored on a 30-yard touchdown pass to make it 10-0.

Even the defense was getting in on the action. Jason Campbell's pass to Santana Moss was intercepted by Corey Webster, and Webster was falling out of bounds, he was able to keep his toes in bounds to make the play, a play which will make the ESPN highlight reel because it was a great pick.

Campbell also felt the Giants dreaded pass rush, having Osi Umenyiora sack Campbell, strip the ball away from him and Umenyiora picks it up and ran it back for a 37-yard touchdown run, making the score 17-0 Giants.

Before the end of the first half, the Redskins attempted a short field goal, but faked with punter Hunter Smith and he ran it into the endzone for a Washington touchdown, making it 17-7.

In the second half, the Giants defense put a ton of pressure on Campbell. Justin Tuck recorded 1.5 sacks on Campbell and Clinton Portis was hardly a factor in the game, rushing for 62 yards on 16 carries. If you take away the 34-yard run made by Portis in the first quarter, Portis had 15 carries for 28 yards, so the Giants shut down Portis very well.

Santana Moss also was not a factor in the game, catching two passes for six yards and no touchdowns.

Tynes had two more field goals in the game and Campbell had a garbage-time 17 yard touchdown pass to Chris Cooley with the Giants defense in prevent in the last two minutes of the game and the Giants won the game 23-17.

The Giants running combo combined for over 100 yards; Bradshaw with 60 yards on 12 carries and Jacobs with 46 yards on 16 carries.

Manning was able to spread the ball around to seven different receivers and used Steve Smith and Kevin Boss very well in the game, plus Manningham. Nicks made two catches for 18 yards, but left with a sprained ankle and his status for Week Two is unknown.

Overall, it was a good win for the Giants opening up, but a lot can be done to improve. Their defense really made Campbell feel uncomfortable all day and they put pressure on Portis and Moss.

The Giants must improve on the short-yardage situations as they had to kick a field goal from failing on a third and one and turned the ball over on a fourth and one. If the Giants had done better, the score wouldn't have been as close and the Giants would have blown out the Redskins.

The Redskins new defensive tackle, Albert Haynesworth, was hardly a factor in the game and the Giants offensive line kept him out of the picture most of the game. He had four tackles, but no sacks and never put any pressure on the line.

In fact, Washington only got to Manning once in the game, so an outstanding job by the Giants offensive line in this game as well.

With the Giants traveling to Texas to play the Cowboys on Sunday Night Football in Week Two, the Giants must make the proper adjustments needed on offense in order to play more effective and score more points against the Cowboys.

However, the major positive was the Giants defense and how strong they played. They didn't look like they missed a beat under new defensive coordinator Bill Sheridan, who got a Gatorade shower from his unit after the game, and with the return of Umenyiora and strong play from Chris Canty and Rocky Bernard, the defense looked very good.

It's hard to tell anything from Week One, but the Giants started out their 2009 season on a very positive note with a good home win against an NFC East opponent.