NY Giants Rush: Monday Morning Manning – Week 2
By: Marco Imperati
After last week’s season opener, Giants fans, players, coaches and basically anyone else who experienced the difficult defeat to the Cowboys, were begging to start week 2. A win would soften the blow of Dallas and get pressure off a head coach, offensive coordinator, and quarterback who were dodging bullets from every corner of the media all week.
A loss would push that pressure down even harder and send a disheartened fan base into a spiral. The Giants had this game wrapped up but a second week of mental mistakes leave the Giants 0-2. Eli Manning has been hard to explain. Solid play, mistake free football (except for a sack/strip/fumble today) but absolutely can’t let a delay of game penalty happen on a critical 3rd down.
Some goods:
Odell Beckham Jr. He looked like the stud Wide Receiver that ended last season. After a pretty amazing first half, he went quiet in the 2nd half. When coverage started going his way with two and three guys, it would have been nice to get a second receiver involved. Paging Victor Cruz!
Shane Vereen. Great to see him more involved after not doing much in Dallas. He protects the quarterback and is as smooth as it gets with the ball in his hands.
Special Teams. After Steve Weatherford was cut, no one knew what to expect from a new punter. Brad Wing has been so good. In the return game, Dwayne Harris has been the aggressive returner the Giants paid him to be. Special Teams has been impressive so far.
Some bad’s:
Mental mistakes. They are killing this team. They are the reason this team is 0-2 and not 2-0.
Preston Parker. I do feel bad picking on a player who wasn’t suppose to be a vital part of the offense. Sorry Preston. His drops have been front and center, along side the costly mistakes this team has made. Eli Manning either trusts him too much or has no other options outside of OBJ and Vereen. Wonder if Parker is on the roster in week 3?
Reuben Randle. 2nd Round pick in a contract year should be cleaning up opposing teams secondaries. Especially with the attention OBJ gets. Randle finished the game with one catch for five yards.
Up next: NFC East rival Washington Redskins visit the Giants on a short week Thursday night at Metlife Stadium.