Redskins vs. Giants: Score and Twitter Reaction for 'Thursday Night Football'

The New York Giants picked up their first win of the season, defeating the Washington Redskins 32-21 at home Thursday night.

Eli Manning was an efficient 23-of-32 passing for 279 yards and two touchdowns. According to NFL Network's James Palmer, Manning moved into 12th in all-time TD passes (263), though his brother Peyton has collected more than twice as many (533) in his career. As long as he plays another 12 years, Eli should get there with no problem.

Odell Beckham Jr. caught seven passes for 79 yards and a touchdown, while Rueben Randle had 116 yards and a touchdown of his own. For Beckham, Thursday's game represented history, per Randall Liu, the NFL's director of NFC communications:

On the other side of the ball, Kirk Cousins eclipsed the 300-yard passing mark, finishing with 315. The number is somewhat deceiving, as he went 30-of-49 with one touchdown and two interceptions. SB Nation's Rodger Sherman provided this stat to further fuel the debate about whether Cousins or Robert Griffin III should be Washington's starting QB:

The final score doesn't properly illustrate the gulf between the two teams, as New York was never in danger of losing.

It seems as though the Giants go through the same song and dance every season. They start the year slowly, which leads to questions about head coach Tom Coughlin. Then, they turn things around to finish just well enough to save their coach's job.

After the Giants started 0-2, Coughlin's seat began warming up.

In an effort to avoid any of the speculation, the 69-year-old admitted he has stopped paying attention to any form of media altogether.

"I don't like being someone who really doesn't know what's happening in the world," he said Wednesday, per Michael Eisen of Giants.com. "But I've decided that I don't want to be affected by what's being said on the outside. So I really don't care for that."

Coughlin should feel comfortable with picking up the paper Friday morning now that his team is in the win column. He seemed happy after the game, at least by his generally surly standards.

"We won. So smile," Coughlin said in his postgame press conference, per Ralph Vacchiano of the New York Daily News.

Mike Tunison also offered up this piece of potential foreshadowing, which may have been Coughlin's plan all along:

A strong first quarter helped the Giants on their way to victory as they jumped out to a 12-0 lead inside the opening 15 minutes.

New York running back Rashad Jennings opened the scoring—not with a play on the offensive end but with a great play on special teams. He blocked Tress Way's punt, with the ball bouncing out of the end zone for a safety, per the NFL on Twitter:

Two plays into Washington's next drive, the defense delivered again, as Prince Amukamara intercepted a pass by Cousins and returned the ball six yards to the Washington 14-yard line. While it's easy to point the finger at Cousins for the turnover, PFT Commenter's hot take gave fans a different perspective:

The Giants capitalized on the interception, with Andre Williams scoring on a one-yard touchdown run to make it a 9-0 game.

Josh Brown and Dustin Hopkins exchanged field goals, as neither offense could sustain a drive deep into the red zone. Although Washington closed the deficit by halftime, it entered the locker room down by nine points, 15-6.

After Brown added to the Giants' advantage in the third quarter, the Redskins crossed into New York territory, only for Cousins to throw his second interception of the game. Cousins' pass was knocked up into the air, giving Giants linebacker Uani Unga enough time to dive and snag the ball before it hit the turf.

Pope Francis is on a well-publicized trip to the United States at the moment. Matt Ford of the Atlantic imagined how the pontiff would've reacted to Washington's performance:

Beckham compounded Washington's misery on the Giants' next drive. He created separation from Bashaud Breeland and opened up enough of a window to snatch Manning's pass out of the air to supply the home side with a 25-6 edge one minute, 21 seconds into the fourth quarter.

The second-year wideout made a difficult catch look incredibly easy:

In a microcosm of Washington's night, Matt Jones fumbled on the goal line on the Redskins' next drive to erase what looked to be six sure points. Trevin Wade did a great job of poking the ball free as Jones was about to cross the plane.

NFL.com's Chris Trapasso thought of the poor fans who put Jones in their fantasy football starting lineups for Week 3:

Running back Chris Thompson caught a four-yard touchdown pass with 3:40 left in the game, and Washington subsequently converted its two-point attempt to get within 11 points. The Redskins nearly pulled off an onside kick after the ball deflected off Randle. Shane Vereen instead recovered to avert a potential disaster for New York.

Capping off a somewhat crazy final stretch of the game, Randle caught a 41-yard touchdown pass, only for Redskins return man Rashad Ross to take the ensuing kick back 101 yards for a TD.

While the Redskins were listless for the first 50 minutes, the defeat didn't illustrate any issues we didn't already know of.

Cousins doesn't look like an NFL quarterback, and Washington will continue to struggle as long as he's under center. As good as the defense and running games are, it's almost impossible to have a winning team in today's NFL without a consistent quarterback.

There's no reason why RG3 shouldn't get a shot to earn the starting role again.

For the Giants, the victory is reason for optimism, but their upcoming stretch of games will determine their status as contenders in the NFC East. New York will go on the road next week to play the Buffalo Bills in what should be a tricky game and then face the San Francisco 49ers, the Philadelphia Eagles and the Dallas Cowboys.

If Coughlin's team has just two or three losses by the end of October, the playoffs will be a real possibility.