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New era, new regime, as the New York Giants for the first time since 2016 when they opened the season defeating the Dallas Cowboys 20-19 have won their season opener. This time it’s  21-20 against the Tennessee Titans. This game seemed like another Giants lost after the 1st half trailing 13-0 and the offense looked uninspired.  in the closing minutes of the game to make the score look somewhat respectable. In reality, the Giants offense struggled on the ground against one of the best run defenses in the NFL and surrounded too many yards on the ground to Derrick Henry and company. Here are my top 3 reasons why the Giants lost this game and are 0-1 for 2022.

  1. Giants Defensive bend/but no break: This game could have gotten out of hand for the Giants if not for their defense holding the Titans to only 13 points at the half. DC Wink Martindale’s defense played hard and mad e a number of key stops; especially in the 2nd half as they limited the Titans offense to only 7 points.
  2. Saquan Barkley welcome back: The Giants have missed the Saquan Barkley from his rookie season over the past two season, due to injuries. However, today Barkley had 18 carries for 164 yards and a touchdown to ignite the Giants second half surge to victory.
  3. Giants making big plays: It’s not usually a common practice that the Giants make big plays in the game that leads them to victory. Today they had a few that sparked this team to their first season opening win since 2016. Daniel Jones connected with Sterling Shepard for a 65-yard touchdown and Saquan Barkley had a big run of 68 yards and then with only 24 seconds remaining in the game and trailing 20-19, Barkley converted a 2-point conversion to give the Giants the lead for good.

Final Thoughts: This was a gutsy win by the Giants and not many football writers (including myself) or the fans gave the Giants a chance with any of their pre-game predictions. Despite the win by the Giants, there was still some issue s that this team needs to work on this week such as sacks allowed (5) and 1st downs allowed from Penalties (4).  Keep an eye out for my article on the Top 3 reasons when the Giants face the Panthers next week.