New York Giants Looks Awful Early but lead the Rams 21-6 at Halftime.

Hakeem Nicks Has a touchdown reception early, and the Giants offense hasn’t looked pretty (picture source fantasyknuckleheads.com)

The New York Giants offense looked absolutely awful for much of the first half, but thanks to big mistakes by the Rams were able to keep ahead of the Rams until the final drive of the half when the Giants passing offense finally found it’s rhythm.

Eli Manning couldn’t find any WR early in the game, and the Giants couldn’t convert third downs. Things looked bad for the Giants. However, the Rams came to the rescue with a big miscue on a punt by Greg Salas (who later redeem himself a bit with a nifty punt return). When the Giants got the ball back they struggled to move the ball, but thanks to a pass interference call on third down on Hakeem Nicks (though he looked like he made a very nice one handed catch that might have been overturned on a replay challenge). Hakeem Nicks then made an excellent adjustment to catch a pass in the end zone from Manning.

After that Manning and the Giants offense looked AWFUL. Manning, at one point was 3 for 12 and just looked bad. Drops, miscues, penalties.

The Giants might not have gotten to 21 either if it weren’t for a bad defensive holding call on the Rams in the Giants final first half drive, which moved the Giants from a 1st and 20 (after a holding call on David Boss), to give the Giants an automatic first down. After that, Manning caught fire. He made a beautiful pass to Mario Manningham which should have gone the distance for a touchdown, but Manningham couldn’t catch the ball cleanly. Manning then had a nice 22 yard touchdown pass to Domenik Hixon who had to juggle the ball around before making the catch.

The other big play by the Giants was a touchdown return by Michael Boley that went 65 yards.

The Rams came out in a no huddle offense and the Giants looked lost, but the Giants twice failed to captialize in the Red-zone, settling for field goals, which came back to haunt them early. The Rams are moving the ball on the Giants secondary like they are Tom Brady and the New England Patriots. Bradford has 197 passing yards in the first half.

Rookie review (to be updated)

Greg Salas-Bad fumble on a punt return that led to the Giants first touchdown. Had a nice return after that.

Lance Kendricks-Drew a pass inteference call, I believe. And also had a nice 26 yard catch.

Robert Quinn-After being a healthy scratch last week, Quinn is getting some playing time tonight. He has a tackle in this game.

Giants

Jacquian Williams-Watch this guy. The Giants clearly love him. He’s been on the field a lot. He plays in the nickel packages, he has a QB hit (or near QB hit) and had the pressure on Bradford on the backward lateral play that resulted in a touchdown. He’s been used a lot on blitzes and is really showing something, especially for a pick no one liked when it happened (because no one knew who he was).

Greg Jones

2 tackles. One big tackle when the Rams had the ball in the Red-Zone early in the game.

Mark Herzlich

No tackles. Missed a tackle on a punt return.

Tyler Sash

No impact on the plays, almost recovered the Greg Salas fumble, but it bounced out of his hands and was recovered by Dave Tollefson.

Henry Hynoski

Missed one block, but has been good except for that. The Giants have had a pretty effective run game.

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