Giants vs. Rams: What We Learned About the Giants in 28-16 Week 2 Win

The Giants just got done with knocking off the St. Louis Rams 28-16 on Monday Night Football.

The win gives the Giants their first win of 2011 and puts them at 1-1, tied for second place in the NFC East with the Dallas Cowboys and Philadelphia Eagles.

Yes, the Washington Redskins are in first place at 2-0. (Savor the moment Washington, it won't last.)

Now, the Giants will travel to Lincoln Financial Field to play the Philadelphia Eagles, a very important game early in the 2011 season for both teams.

After coming away from the win against the Rams, what did we all learn from the Giants on Monday night?

Lets find out.

The Giants Secondary Looks Awful

Anyone heard of Danario Alexander before tonight? Not too many people did.

Anyone have him on your fantasy team? Probably not...yet.

Alexander caught three passes for 122 yards and scored one touchdown against the Giants.

Now, Mike Sims-Walker is pretty decent. Great? No. Good, yes. So six catches for 92 yards, I'll understand.

Brandon Gibson caught four passes for 52 yards.

The Giants secondary is still very prone to giving up big yards down the field.

Aaron Ross got benched for the third quarter. Michael Coe at times looked lost. Corey Webster can't do it all by himself.

Antrel Rolle did have a decent game with eight tackles and a forced fumble.

But, what's going to happen next week against Philadelphia when they're facing DeSean Jackson, Jeremy Maclin, Steve Smith and Brent Celek?

The secondary of the Giants need to step their game up, even with their share of injuries.

The Defense Shuts Down the Run

The Giants held Cadillac Williams to 36 yards on 13 carries.

Steven Jackson was out with an injury. Even so, Cadillac is still a former Pro Bowler and no slouch in the backfield.

Fantastic job by the Giants defense and defensive coordinator Perry Fewell on that part on Monday night.

For the second week in a row, the Giants held the opposing running game to under 100 yards.

Shut down the run and make a team force themselves to become one-dimensional, just like the Giants did to Bradford and their offense.

That allowed Justin Tuck and Jason Pierre-Paul to cause havoc in the back field and make Bradford move out of the pocket.

Tuck and JPP combined for two sacks on Monday. Not their best, but a step moving forward.

But shutting down the running game is very key.

Now, can they shut down LeSean McCoy and Ronnie Brown next week?

Mario Manningham Needs to Improve...BIG TIME

Mario Manningham could have had a breakout game on Monday night.

Key words: could have.

Instead, he was held to 56 yards on three catches and no touchdowns.

During the first drive of the game, Eli Manning got picked off by Quintin Mikell on a pass directed to Manningham.

Mikell made a good play to the ball and Eli should have thrown it more towards the end zone instead of lobbing it up in the air, letting Mikell have time to get to it.

You can blame Eli for lobbing it up.

But Manningham could have gone back to get the ball. He didn't, because he didn't look back for the ball.

Then later in the game, Eli throws a nice lead pass to Manningham that he bobbles and catches while stumbling for 31 yards.

If Manningham doesn't bobble the ball, he's off to the races for six points.

That was two touchdowns for Manningham that he could have had, but didn't.

Hakeem Nicks had a touchdown, but wasn't much of a factor.

Manningham could have stolen the show on Monday, but didn't. He's got the big-play ability, but he and Eli need to get on the same page.

Super Mario needs to step up if he wants to be a big play target in the Giants offense.

The Offensive Line Has to Protect Eli Manning a Lot Better

Like last week, the Giants didn't do a great job of protecting Eli Manning.

The Rams were bringing a lot of pressure blitzes, and granted, that is a trademark of Steve Spagnuolo, but the Giants also need to pick them up a lot better.

Manning got sacked three times in the game, bringing his sacks total to seven on the season.

During 2010, Manning was sacked 16 times. And he's already been dropped seven times.

I know this is the second game that William Beatty, David Diehl, David Baas, Chris Snee and Kareem McKenzie are all playing together, but they must do a better job going forward of giving Eli more time to look downfield and keep him off his back.

The Eagles will be bringing a ton of pressure from Cullen Jenkins, Trent Cole, Mike Patterson and Jason Babin next week.

The Giants offensive line must do a better job of protecting Eli. Plain and simple.

Power Football, Run It Down Their Throats

Since Tom Coughlin took over this team in '04, the strength of this football team is running the ball.

Last week, the Giants got away from that in their loss to the Redskins, and they paid for it.

This week, they got back to it.

Ahmad Bradshaw had 15 carries for 59 yards. He also caught five passes for 45 yards and finished with 104 total yards.

Brandon Jacobs had 16 carries for 50 yards and a touchdown. He also had a catch for 17 yards, which gave him 67 total yards.

DJ Ware also had three carries for 22 yards.

Between the three running backs, they had 34 carries for 131 yards and six passes for 62 yards.

The Giants will win more games if Jacobs and Bradshaw are involved a lot more in the offense.

Monday night was no exception, and the final score was a result.

And Now, onto Philadelphia

The Giants last beat the Eagles 36-31 back on November 9, 2008 in Week 10.

Since then, the Giants are 0-6, including the 23-11 playoff loss on January 11, 2009 at Giants Stadium.

In 2010, the Giants came close to beating the Eagles in both of their games.

On November 21, 2010 in Week 11, the Giants were up 17-16 in the fourth quarter, but the Eagles scored 11 unanswered points, which included a 50-yard touchdown run by LeSean McCoy, and beat the Giants 27-17.

Then on December 19, 2010 in Week 15, the Meltdown in the Meadowlands happened.

The Giants were up 31-10 in the fourth quarter with about eight minutes to go.

And then the Eagles rattled off 28 straight points, Matt Dodge kicked the ball to DeSean Jackson, which he took back 65 yards for the game winning touchdown as time expired and the Eagles won 38-31.

The Giants likely would have won the NFC East and made the playoffs if not for that game. Instead, they ended up missing the playoffs despite finishing 10-6.

Now, we move to 2011.

Michael Vick suffered a concussion in his game against the Atlanta Falcons, so his status for the game in questionable.

If Vick can't go, or gets hurt again, Mike Kafka will make the start since Vince Young is still inactive.

Vick not playing would make a huge difference in the game. But even with Kafka, the Eagles are still loaded with weapons.

Against Atlanta, McCoy had 18 carries for 95 yards and two touchdowns and Maclin had 13 catches for 171 yards and two touchdowns.

DeSean Jackson was a non-factor in Week 2, but you know he'll be a main target in Week 3.

Whether Vick or Kafka plays will be a major factor in this game. If Vick is out, it changes a lot of the Eagles offense.

Even so, for the Giants to beat the Eagles, Coughlin and company must make a lot of improvements and adjustments before Sunday in Philadelphia.

If they play anything like they did on Monday against the Eagles, it will be a long day for the Giants on Sunday.