Once again the New York Giants beat the New England Patriots stunning them behind the play of QB Eli Manning, 24-20 Sunday afternoon at Gillette Stadium in Foxboro MA.
The win by the Giants by back some ugly wounds of Super Bowl XLII and ended the home team’s dominance of opponents in their stadium by snapping a 20-game home win streak. It was also the first loss to a NFC East team since 2003 when they lost at Washington and the first regular season loss at home to the NFC since Green bay beat them in 2002.
After a scoreless first half things got heated in the final 30 minutes, with the lead changing four-times in the fourth quarter alone.
New York jumped out to a fairly quick 10-0 lead early in the second half behind a 22-yard field goal by Lawrence Tynes and a Brandon Jacobs 10-yard run. Both scores followed Tom Brady turnovers.
After having missed his first FGA to end the first half Patriots K Stephen Gostkowski got New England on the board with a 32-yard FG to cut the lead to 10-3 after 3 quarters.
A little over 30-seconds into the fourth quarter Brady got New England even when he found TE Aaron Hernandez for a five yard TD pass. And just 7 minutes later Gostkowski gave them a 13-10 lead when he knocked down a 45-yard FG.
But in the final 3 minutes it was Manning who outdueled Brady for the win. While Brady was getting the Patriots a game leading TD with just 1:36 to play it was Manning who had put the Giants up 17-13 with 3:03 to play when he went ten yards to Mario Manningham forcing the Brady counter maneuver.
It didn’t last long because just as they did in the desert they left too much time on the clock. Manning marched his team down field throwing a game winning 1 yard TD pass to TE Jake Ballard with 15 seconds remaining to send the Giants back to the Swamp with a 24-20 road win.
Turnovers and poor offensive play killed the Patriots today. They really had no rhythm on offense all day until their final scoring drive. And once again they had four turnovers, 3 by Brady (2 INTs, 1 fumble) with the Giants getting 10 points off the turnovers and another killed a good scoring chance by New England in the second quarter.
Then to make matters worse the offensive line play was once again atrocious. It seemed like on nearly every play Brady was being harassed, hit, stripped, sacked or chanced by a gang of white jerseys. T Matt Light was the big culprit as Giants DE Osi Umenyiora was in the offensive backfield all afternoon.
The defense actually looked pretty good, especially in the first half, they were hitting and covering the receivers pretty well and overall they didn’t play bad defensively.
Who would have thought the offense right now would be a bigger a problem them the defense? Brady has looked very normal the last few weeks and when he looks normal it does not bode well for the men from Foxboro.
Giants at Patriots Gamebook. This includes the box score, all the stats, play by play, drive charts and more.
Giants at Patriots Game Recap via Associated Press.
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Turning Points of the Game
Giants QB Eli Manning scrambling for a 12 yard gain and 1st down to keep the final drive alive and Patriots S Sergio Brown being called for pass interference on the one yard line that led to the final game winning score for the Giants.
Offensive Player of the Game
New York QB Eli Manning was 20 of 39 for 250 yards with 2 TD’s and 1 INT and led the Giants to a game winning drive with 1:44 left to play in which he threw the game winning TD pass.
Defensive Player of the Game
Giants LB Matthias Kiwanuka had 12 tackles, 6 of them were solo tackles, 1 pass defensed and had an INT.
Game Notes
Starters for the Patriots were:
On Offense:
LT – Light
LG – Mankins
C – Connolly
RG – Waters
RT – Vollmer
TE – R. Gronkowski
TE – Solder
WR – Welker
WR – Branch
QB – Brady
RB – Green-Ellis
On Defense:
DE – Deaderick
DT – Wilfork
DT – Love
DE – Carter
OLB – Mayo
ILB – Spikes
OLB – Ninkovich
CB – McCourty
CB – Arrington
S – Chung
S – Ihedigbo
Inactives for the Game:
Patriots
1. LB Dane Fletcher (thumb)
2. RB Kevin Faulk (knee)
3. WR Taylor Price (hamstring)
4. DE Shaun Ellis (ribs)
5. LB Jermaine Cunningham
6. G Donald Thomas
7. QB Ryan Mallett
Giants
1. RB Ahmed Bradshaw (foot)
2. WR Hakeem Nicks (hamstring)
3. C David Baas (knee)
4. CB Prince Amakamura (knee)
5. T James Brewer
6. T Stacy Andrews
7. RB Henry Hynoski
The spread (Patriots minus 9) was not covered but the over/under (51) was covered. I am now 5-2-1 vs. the spread and 5 of 8 calling the under/over.
This was the first game to go to halftime scoreless in the NFL this season.
The overall series with the Giants is now tied 5-5 including the playoffs.
The Patriots are now 2-3 vs. the Giants at home and had their 4 game regular season win streak between the two teams end.
New England is 18-2 vs. the NFC at Gillette Stadium (since 2002). The lone loss is vs. Green Bay in 2002. They had won 18 in a row before this loss.
Since 2002 the Patriots are 8-2 vs. the NFC East in the regular season. It’s the first loss vs. a NFC East opponent since they lost at Washington in 2003.
The Patriots lost a regular season game at Gillette Stadium for the first time since the 2008 season they had won 20 consecutive regular season home games.
Since 2002 when Gillette Stadium opened the Patriots are 70-15 at home.
Since 2003 New England is 26-3 following a loss and have lost back-to-back games for the first time since 2009.
Tom Brady is now 2-2 vs. the New York Giants, including the playoffs.
Brady’s 2 TD passes give him 281 in his career he is now 8th all-time. Hall of Fame Colts QB Johnny Unitas is 7th with 290.
New England is now EVEN in turnover differential.
This was the third time this season New England has had a four turnover game (Week 3 at Buffalo, Week 6 vs. Dallas and Week 9 vs. NY Giants) they are 1-2 in those games.
DE Ron Brace was activated from the PUP list on Saturday and took the roster spot vacated by S Ross Ventrone.
On Friday the Patriots released CB Josh Victorian from the practice squad and signed CB Malcolm Williams just like they did last Tuesday before reversing it last Friday.
New England LB Brandon Spikes hurt his knee in the 2nd quarter and did not return.
WR Wes Welker now has catches in 90 consecutive games including playoffs, 73 as a Patriot. The last time Welker did not have a catch in a game was 12/24/05 as a Dolphin.
Manning started his 111th game in a row, tying him for the fourth longest streak in NFL history with Brady, whose streak ran from September 30, 2001 until the 2nd Week of the 2008 season when Matt Cassel started in his place.
Pete Morelli was the game referee. The temp at kickoff was 57 and it was clear.
Pro Bowl voting is open feel free to cast your votes for deserving players.
Attendance: 68,756 at Gillette Stadium; Foxboro MA – Sell Out
Post Game Interviews
Patriots head coach Bill Belichick and Patriots QB Tom Brady post game press conferences via patriots.com
This Week in the AFC East
NY Jets beat Buffalo, 27-11
Miami routed Kansas City 31-3
AFC East Standings
Patriots 5-3/2-1
Bills 5-3/1-1
Jets 5-3/2-1
Dolphins 1-7/0-2
Next Game
The Patriots visit the New York Jets at Met Life Stadium on Sunday. Kick off is at 8:20 p.m. on NBC.
Follow Steve on Twitter @djstevem
Photo credit: AP Photo
