The New York Giants put an end to their two-game skid as they defeated the Carolina Panthers 25-3.
It was an ugly victory, but in the NFL a win is a win, and the Giants desperately needed one.
After surrendering 38 points last week to the Los Angeles Rams, Big Blue’s defense dominated the Panthers on Sunday.
The Panthers scored a field goal on the opening possession of the game, but New York’s defense dominated the rest of the game. They sacked the Panthers quarterbacks six times and held Carolina to just 173 yards of total offense.
The defense even scored the team’s first points of the game when they forced Sam Darnold to an intentional grounding penalty early in the second quarter to make the score 3-2.
The Giants’ defense rattled Darnold all afternoon as he completed 16-of-25 passes for just 111 yards and was intercepted once by James Bradberry. He was eventually benched in the 4th quarter for P.J Walker who went 3-for-14 with 33 passing yards.
It took a while for New York’s offense to get rolling as they only managed to score three points in the first half. But they started to find their rhythm midway through the third quarter as Daniel Jones connected with Dante Pettis on a five-yard touchdown to put them up front 12-3.
From there Graham Gano would kick two field goals and Devontae Booker scored on a 19-yard touchdown run in the 4th quarter to close out the scoring.
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Daniel Jones played an efficient game, completing 23-of-33 passes for 203 yards and the one touchdown. His best play was when he caught a 16-yard pass from Pettis in the third quarter. Jones jumped and extended his right arm to haul in the reception.
While Jones made the play of the game, the player of the game was rookie linebacker Azeez Ojulari, who had 2.5 sacks, five tackles, and four quarterback hits. He now has 5.5 sacks on the season which ties him with B.J. Hill (2018) for the most sacks by a Giants rookie (Lawrence Taylor unofficially had 9.5 sacks as a rookie).
Next up for Big Blue is a meeting with the (3-4) Kansas City Chiefs on Monday Night Football. The matchup with the Chiefs looks less daunting than it did a few weeks ago, with Kansas City’s recent woes, and the fact that quarterback Patrick Mahomes was knocked out of Sunday’s 27-3 loss to the Tennessee Titans.
