New York Giants start first half real slow vs the Dolphins, Win Game in Second half

And there are the New York Giants that fans are very familiar. The Giants started starting really slow vs the Miami Dolphins. The Dolphins jumped up to a quick 14-3 lead as the Giants beat themselves with bad penalties. The Giants have found themselves with an inordinate number of offensive penalties in the red-zone, especially at home, which is the opposite of what one would expect from a Tom Coughlin led team.

The Giants also struggled with drops, in one particular series Eli Manning threw a screen pass to Brandon Jacobs (dropped), a beautiful touch pass to Hakeem Nicks (dropped), and then a ball slightly underthrown to Jake Ballard on third down (because Eli got serious pressure on his pass) which was also dropped.

For defense the Giants allowed Michael Vick to run around and scrabmle like he was Michael Vick or something.

What’s worse than the Giants play in the first half of this game are my picks, again, for this week.

As the, Ravens and Saints are also really disappointing today as well both teams are losing to vasly inferior opponets. Though the Ravens just might not be any good this year.

Eli Manning has looked excellent early in the game as he is 18 for 26 for 186 yards and a touchdown and that’s with zero run game (Bradshaw has 7 carries for 33 yards, Jacbos has one carry which he fumbled the ball and fell on it for a loss) and all the dropped passes.

In the second half, the Giants didn’t start any better as the Dolphins marched right down the field for a field goal. The Giants struggled against the run today vs one of the worst rushing teams in the league. Reggie Bush rushed for over a 100 yards for only the second time in his career. The first time? In 2006 against the New York Giants when he was playing for the New Orleans Saints.

Eli Manning put on a brilliant display today overcoming bad penalties, dropped passes, and a woefully inactive run game. After today’s 58 yard rushing performance on the ground the Giants will likely take over dead last in rushing effeciency and yards per game.  Manning had to put the ball through the air 45 times as he passed for 349 yards and 2 touchdowns with no interceptions.  He was under pressure thoughout the game.

Good Cruz showed up today as he scored the final touchdown after breaking a tackle. Cruz ended the game with 7 receptions for 99 yards and a touchdown.  Nicks and Manningham each had 6 receptions for 130 yards combined (67 and 63 respectively).

During the waning minutes of the game the Giants pass rush finally showed up vs the Dolphins who have had trouble protecting the quarterback all season. The Giants ended the game with 5 sacks (Pierre Paul, Linval Joseph, Mathias Kiwanuka and Umeinyora each had a sack. Kiwanuka and Tuck also had a .5 sack each).

All in all a rather pedestrian performance from the New York Giants, who will have to play much better moving forward if they plan on competing for the playoffs vs a brutal second half schedule.