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Monday Morning Manning: Week 2

By: Marco Imperati

Almost exactly one year ago, the New York Giants played the Saints in what may go down as the holy grail for Fantasy Football. Eli Manning and Drew Brees combined for nearly 850 yards of offense and 13 touchdowns in a thrilling 52-49 win for the Saints. In week 2 of this NFL season, the Giants and Saints locked up once again. Although close, things ended a bit differently for this new look Giants with big blue ending the game on their terms in a 16-13 win.

Before Josh Brown kicked the game winner, Eli and the offense were able to kneel down three times and run down the clock. They were unable to do that last year. Thanks to the ball being spread around on offense and a stout new defense, the Giants are off to a 2-0 start.

Manning finished the game with a stat line of 32-41, 368 yards, 0 touchdowns, 0 interceptions. Eli looked as in command as ever today. Although the offense couldn’t find a way to score a touchdown (lone touchdown coming on a blocked field goal return for a touchdown), Eli was able to spread the ball around to 8 different pass catchers. Rookie Sterling Shepard lead the way with 8 receptions for 117 yards. The play of the day was a 3rd and 8 late in the 4th quarter with Manning sailing a 35-yard pass, beautifully thrown, to Victor Cruz down to the Saints 2 yard line. From there, Eli was able to keep his offense on the field and the Saints, out of timeouts…could do nothing but watch.

Up next: Next Sunday the Giants will stay home for the second week in a row and welcome the reigning NFC East champion, Washington Redskins. The Redskins have started their season at 0-2 and most recently losing in the division to the Dallas Cowboys. They will be chomping at the bit to get a win in the division. Their have been rumblings in Washington about the team not supporting quarterback Kurt Cousins. A win will cure a lot of the problems with the Redskins.

The side plot and not that small of a side plot will be Josh Norman and Odell Beckham Jr. playing on the same field again. Ben McAdoo will have his biggest test so far as coach of this team in how he keeps his team from lighting up the newspaper headlines this week, and keeping OBJ focused on the job at hand.

@MGiants11