EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. - From the start Monday night, it was obvious the Giants were going to be liberated from their winless misery.
The ball bounced their way at every turn. When Eli Manning threw an ill-advised pass - something he did at least twice - the ball was not intercepted but instead bounced harmlessly to the ground.
The Giants recovered two fumbles, something they had not done in a game this season. They led at halftime, another first for 2013. There was good Giants karma everywhere. The place-kicker for the opposing Minnesota Vikings missed a field goal - another first since opposing kickers had been 14 for 14.
On Monday at MetLife Stadium, with the home crowd cheering and happy for the first time in nearly 300 days, it was as if the football gods had said, enough.
They let the Giants up. An 0-6 start to the season was sufficient humiliation.
Not long before midnight, the Giants had their first victory of the season, a 23-7 rout of the Vikings.
'It's nice to win,' Giants Coach Tom Coughlin said. 'Oh, this is how it feels to win.'
It might not be fair to call it an easy win - there is no such thing when you are winless - but it was unforced and seemed to come to the Giants naturally. Facing the Vikings (1-5) certainly helped, but this first quality effort of the Giants season was not all luck and having the good fortune of playing a team without a bona fide quarterback.
Manning led the Giants on multiple efficient scoring drives without turning over the ball, finishing 23 of 39 for 200 yards and a touchdown. Two running backs whom until Monday had never carried the football for the Giants, Peyton Hillis and Michael Cox, gave the offense the much needed balance it had lacked. The defense intercepted a pass, pressured Minnesota quarterback Josh Freeman and held the Vikings superstar running back Adrian Peterson to 28 yards on 13 carries.
'We played outstanding defensively,' Coughlin said. 'We stopped their run and we put a lot of pressure on the quarterback for the first time.'
The Giants recovered two fumbles. It was everything the previous six losses had not been. And while it may be irrelevant from a pragmatic sense, the 1-6 Giants are only three games out of first place in the N.F.C. East with nine games left on their schedule.
Leading by just 3 at halftime, the Giants pulled away when the Vikings' Marcus Sherels fumbled a punt inside his own 15 that was recovered by Zak DeOssie at the 3-yard line. Two plays later, Hillis, a Giant for five days ago, bulled into the end zone for a 17-7 lead. He finished with 36 yards rushing on 18 carries and also had five receptions for 45 yards.
The 10-point lead was the Giants' biggest this season.
A 69-yard return on the ensuing kickoff put the Vikings into Giants territory for only the second time in the game. But a third down sack by Justin Tuck pushed the Vikings out of field-goal range to preserve the 10-point lead.
The Giants' defensive front four harassed Freeman - who had a miserable game, finishing 20 of 53 passing for 190 yards, an interception and a quarterback rating of 40.6 - throughout the second half and turned his miscues into successive field goals by the Josh Brown that put the Giants ahead by 16 points.
It had been a dominating Giants performance nearly from the start of the game when they took the opening kickoff and kept the ball for more than nine minutes on a 16-play, game-control drive that featured seven rushing carries and a third-down scramble by Manning. It was everything the Giants had hoped to establish: a dependable running game and accurate third-down passing by Manning.
Unfortunately for the Giants, after all that steady work and efficient offense, the Giants had only a 35-yard field goal to show for it. But for a change, there were positive signs. The rookie running back Michael Cox burst off right tackle on the game's second play for 5 yards. Cox got the ball five more times in the drive, gaining 17 yards. Manning completed four successive passes for 46 yards, and soon, the Giants were at the Vikings' 16. But a third-down pass into the end zone went off the fingertips of Hakeem Nicks, and the Giants settled for a field goal.
Coming up short of a touchdown did not seem significant at the time, especially after the Giants held Peterson to zero yards on his first two carries and forced a punt. But when the Giants could not move the ball during their second possession - Manning did not see a wide-open Victor Cruz in the middle of the field on third down - Steve Weatherford was called on and lofted a 51-yard punt within yards of the left sideline.
Sherels fielded the ball at his own 14 just as the Giants rookie DeMarcus Moore overran the punt and took himself out of the coverage, just as he did when the Kansas City Chiefs returned a punt for a touchdown. Sherels then had an unimpeded path upfield. No Giant came close to tackling him after the 50-yard line with the exception of Weatherford who tugged at the neck of Sherels's jersey as he crossed the goal line for a touchdown.
It was the third punt returned for a score against the Giants this year. And the Giants committed two penalties on the runback, one for holding by Jacquin Williams and one for an illegal horse-collar tackle by Weatherford.
When the Giants got the football back early in the second quarter, Manning quickly completed two passes to Cruz. A pass-interference penalty on Minnesota cornerback Xavier Rhodes, who had a fistful of Nicks's jersey along the sideline gave the Giants the football on the Vikings' 24. On the next play, Manning was looking to his right where Cruz and Nicks had been lined up.
But both receivers were covered. As the Minnesota pass rush was closing in, Manning threw to the left side of the end zone. The ball was underthrown, and Rueben Randle, who has been in the spotlight because he has often seemed on a different page than Manning, saved his quarterback this time. Randle leapt over a defender and caught the football a few feet off the ground for a touchdown and a 10-7 Giants lead.
When the second half ended with the Giants still ahead by 3 points, it was the first time they had lead at halftime this season.
Extra Points
Giants center David Baas returned to the starting lineup Monday after missing several games with a neck injury. At the end of the Giants' opening drive, Baas limped off the field with a knee injury. Brandon Jacobs was held out of the game with a groin injury.
Posted by Unknown on Monday, October 21, 2013 - Rating: 4.5
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