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NY Giants Rush: Monday Morning Manning – Week 15

By: Marco Imperati

Wow. Is this happening again? Are you serious? Here we go! Uh oh. These are just a few of the phrases that were said during this game, with of course, leaving out a few dozen words that shouldn’t be in print. The Giants season of disbelief continues and it showed no sign of slowing down.

Did you think outplaying Dallas and losing at the end wasn’t enough? How about the scoring barrage that ultimately ended in a loss in New Orleans? The Patriots game? How about the Jets? I’ll leave it up to the fans to dissect where the week 15 home loss to the Panthers stacks up, however I think it might sting the most.

Down 35-7, the Giants showed as much fight as the team possibly could in coming back, scoring 28 points, and tying the game. Like many of the losses this year, too much time was left on the clock, and Cam Newton generated a drive to get his team in field goal positioning and the win.

At times, Eli Manning looked great. However, there was some spotty, head scratching play. One of those plays was a red zone interception where Eli said that he was throwing the ball away. Although his hand was hit by a Panthers defender and WR Hakeem Nicks falling down, I didn’t understand Eli making that throw.

In the loss, Eli finished with a stat line of 29-46, 245 yards, 4 touchdowns, 1 interception.
On a positive note, the running game seems to be hitting its stride. After a solid game in Miami last week, Rashad Jennings became the Giants first 100-yard rusher today. After a four running back rotation, the team looks like they have settled into Jennings at RB, and Vereen in third down.
Giants fans will have a tough week before the team heads into Minnesota in week 16. They’ll hear about the team’s very think playoff hopes. They’ll hear about the defense not being able to come up in a big spot, what seems like, ever this year. They’ll hear about the replacements for Coach Coughlin. At least we have OBJ, right?

Well, they’ll hear about his performance on Sunday took center stage amidst a Giants comeback and eventually, heartbreaking defeat. Last week I wrote about the competitive fire Beckham plays with and how excited I was to see him line up against Josh Norman. It seemed like Beckham could not get his head into the game for the first three-quarters.

He was repeatedly seen mixing it up after the play, during the play, and taking shots at anyone in clear shot. I love his fire, however I thought he went out of his way to do more harm then good today. The one shot that will be discussed this week is the helmet-to-helmet shot he laid on Josh Norman after a play in the 2nd quarter. Minimally, OBJ will face a hefty fine. I would not be shocked if the league suspended him which would be just a nightmare for the Giants to overcome.

Up next: The Panthers win send the Giants to a 6-8 record. Looking realistically at a playoff birth, the Giants must win at a tough Minnesota Vikings team next Sunday night and then vs the Eagles in the finale. While this is going on, they will scoreboard watch and hope the surging Redskins lose the final two games of their season.