NEW YORK – Manning Bowl II did not disappoint fans, as the two brothers were slinging the ball like they were playing in their backyard or in the street, using parking signs and mailbox’s as touchdown markers. I would love to tell our readers this but it just wouldn’t be true. The game was pretty much a sleeper in the first half and Big Blue did not play very well. The Colts offense was making it look easy, marching down the field against the Giants at will. The second half of the game wasn’t any better. The Giants lost 38-14.
There were still too many penalties and the Giants special teams still needs a lot of work. The Giants offense was anemic the first half. In truth, they were almost non-existent. The Colts were just eating away the clock, with these long precise drives that didn’t leave the G-men much time to work with. When the Giants finally did get the ball, the Colts defense stood their ground. This was a very odd battle I witnessed tonight and I truly don’t know what to make of it.
This game brought back memories of the 2009 season when nothing was going right for Big Blue. It was a painful game to watch. The final stats are a little off because the Colts gave up a garbage TD to the G-men playing zone, late in the fourth quarter. What made this even more disappointing was waiting all day (game started at 8:20 PM) to see such a poor performance. The Giants are going to need to do some serious soul searching to find out if they are the team that beat the Panthers last week or the team that got crushed by the Colts last night.
Let’s take a look at some of my notes from the game.
– The Giants looked very sluggish the first half of the game. The second half was no better.
– The Colts won the opening coin toss.
– QB Eli Manning had a horrible game. He finished 13/24 for 161 yards 2 TD’s 1 INT.
– S Kenny Phillips left the game at the end of the first quarter. He returned in the second quarter.
– Colts QB Peyton Manning played a very methodical game and was in the zone the first half. He finished 20/26 255 yards 3 TD’s. This guy is still the best QB in the NFL.
– The Colts defense played much better then their 23rd overall defensive ranking.
– The Giants were penalized 6 times for 55 yards in the game.
– Returner RB Darius Reynaud has not shown much since he was signed. He averaged 12 yards returning last night.
– The Giants had four players ruled out for this game, they are LB Chase Blackburn, TE Kevin Boss, LB Phillip Dillard and OL William Beatty.
– DE Justin Tuck left the game in the second quarter. He returned later in the game.
– The Giants offensive line gave up 4 sacks but also allowed Eli Manning to get knocked around the whole game (Dwight Freeney is not from Earth).
– RB Ahmad Bradshaw lead all Giants rushers with 89 yards on 17 carries.
– The Giants defense gave up way too many rushing yards (160) against a primarily passing team in the Colts.
– WR Mario Manningham lead all Giants wide receivers with 4 catches for 75 yards and a TD.
– RB Brandon Jacobs had another mediocre game by his standards. He finished with 4 rushes for eight yards. He was also involved in some bizarre helmet throwing incident into the crowd.
– Defensive Coordinator Perry Fewell did as good of a job as you can do against QB Peyton Manning.
– Rookie WR Victor Cruz made his NFL debut last night.
– LB Michael Boley lead the defense in tackles with a total of eleven.
– The Colts dominated the time of possession game a lot more then their time of 35:06 shows.
– Rookie punter Matt Dodge had a better game but special teams still needs work.
– The Giants were down 24-0 at halftime. The first half was difficult to watch, to say the least, nothing went right for Big Blue.
Were you surprised by the outcome of the Giants vs. Colts game or did it pretty much go how you thought it would go?
RD – nygreporter.com
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