Giants-Raiders: New York Physically Dominates Raiders, 44-7, Improves to 5-0

Leading up into Sunday's game, the Giants were uncertain if Eli Manning was going to be able to play with a bruised heel in their Week Five match-up against the Oakland Raiders.

But Manning practiced on Friday, no pain was reported, and he was dressed and ready to go Sunday afternoon.

The Giants took the ball on the opening kickoff and started their domination of the Raiders.

They passed it when they wanted to, they ran it when they wanted to, and Oakland couldn't do a thing to stop them. A 14-play, 77-yard drive that went a little over eight minutes ended with Ahmad Bradshaw scoring a one-yard touchdown to put the Giants ahead 7-0.

The Raiders quickly went three and out and gave the ball right back to the Giants.

Manning got the second drive rolling with a 43 yard pass to Steve Smith, a pass that got by two Oakland defenders and Smith somehow stayed in-bounds with the ball on a nice play. Two plays later, Bradshaw scampered untouched for 19 yards into the end-zone for his second rushing touchdown and quickly the Giants were up 14-0 in the first quarter.

The Raiders once again got the ball and did nothing with it, going on another three and out and punted the ball right back to the Giants.

On the next drive in the second quarter, it was highlighted with a 55-yard pass from Manning to Bradshaw and then was completed with a 30-yard pass from Manning to Mario Manningham and the Giants were now up 21-0.

On the Raiders' next drive, JaMarcus Russell was blitzed by Terrell Thomas, who sacked Russell and forced a fumble, which was recovered by Justin Tuck on the Oakland 13 yard line.

The Giants quickly made Oakland pay for the mistake as Manning threw a nine-yard touchdown pass to Hakeem Nicks and the Giants were now up 28-0 within minutes played of the second quarter.

As the second quarter winded down, the Giants had Justin Fargas stopped and it looked like they forced Fargas to fumble the ball, which was picked up by C.C. Brown and returned for what looked like a Giants touchdown.

But the referees ruled that because of forward progress, Fargas was ruled down and Tom Coughlin was not allowed to challenge the ruling on the field, which was a break for the Raiders because Fargas clearly fumbled the ball.

On the next play, Michael Bush ran in for a five-yard touchdown and the score was now 28-7 in favor of the Giants.

With 33 seconds left in the half, Russell again was sacked by Tuck, who forced a fumble that was recovered by Osi Umenyiora at the Oakland 28. The Giants defense was making Russell look terrible on Sunday.

With two seconds left, Lawrence Tynes made a 25-yard field goal and put the Giants ahead 31-7 at halftime.

The second half started with Manning on the sidelines for the rest of the game to rest the bruised heel and allowed David Carr to play the rest of the game.

Manning ended the day going 8-for-10 for 173 yards passing and two touchdowns. He did not look to have any ill-effects of the heel injury from a week ago.

After the Raiders started out the second half on another three and out and getting called for bad penalties, the Giants increased their lead when Carr scampered into the end zone from 12 yards out and the Giants were now up 38-7.

The Raiders got the ball back, but quickly coughed it up again. Mathias Kiwanuka sacked Russell, causing another fumble which was recovered by Antonio Pierce at the Oakland 22 yard line. Things could not be any worse for the Raiders offense.

Tynes made another field goal, a 33-yarder to make it 41-7 Giants in the third quarter.

On the next drive, the Raiders still failed to move the ball, which included a second sack from Tuck and another punt for the Raiders.

In the fourth quarter, the Giants moved the ball enough to continue to pick up yards and dominate the Raiders. Tynes made a third field goal, a 37-yard attempt and the Giants were up 44-7.

The Raiders had the ball last, and didn't move it anywhere and the Giants second string defense finally put Oakland out of their misery and ended the game to keep the score at 44-7 in favor of New York.

In relief, Carr went 9-for-14 for 90 yards and carried the ball four times for 27 yards and the one touchdown. Carr wasn't overly dominant, but played well enough against a horrid Raiders team to win.

The running attack for the Giants was solid again. Bradshaw carried it 11 times for 110 yards and two touchdowns. Brandon Jacobs carried it 21 times for 67 yards. Bradshaw was the more dominant back as the Raiders could not stop him and had better luck against Jacobs.

Smith had another fine game with three catches for 70 yards, Bradshaw had the one catch for 55 yards, Nicks had four catches for 49 yards and a touchdown and Manningham had two catches for 36 yards and a touchdown.

The Giants defense had a tremendous day with six sacks, three forced fumbles and three fumble recoveries while holding Oakland to 124 total yards while the Giants racked up 483 yards of total offense.

Russell was 8-for-13 for 100 yards, threw no touchdowns, was sacked six times and lost three fumbles. Darrius Heyward-Bey, the Raiders number one draft choice in 2009, was held to no catches and no yards on Sunday.

Overall, the Giants dominated from start to finish. They racked up almost 500 yards of offense, made Russell look incredibly bad, and played a good football game on all sides of the game. The Giants were expected to win and took care of business on Sunday.

The Giants improve to 5-0 while the Raiders dropped to 1-4 in 2009.

The Giants will now move on and gear up to travel on the road to play the 4-0 New Orleans Saints, a team with a tremendous offense and an improved defense.

Sunday's contest between the Giants and Saints could be the highlight matchup of Week Six in the NFL.

After Sunday's game, the Giants still remain as the class of the NFC and probably as the top team with the best balance in the NFL as well.