Week 10: Giants vs Raiders

Three games in a row. The Giants have won three games in a row. They haven’t been the prettiest wins, and they haven’t exactly been against juggernauts, but a win is a win. Let’s get into it...

First Quarter:

Not only is he sexy, he's a great actor too.

This game against the Oakland Raiders started off as pretty as a shirtless Phillip Seymour Hoffman as the Giants’ returner Jerrel Jernigan coughs up the ball on the opening kick off. The ball is snagged by the Raiders’ Taiwan Jones and retuned to the Giants’ five yard line.
Raiders’ QB Terrelle Pryor ended up running the ball in for the score.
The Giants go three and out on their following drive.
On the Raiders’ next drive, they go seven plays, but settle for a punt. During the punt, rookie Damontre Moore blocked the kick and it was recovered and housed by rookie Cooper Taylor.
The Raiders got the ball back but punted the ball away. This time it was successful.
New York couldn’t make anything happen on their next drive because of a Peyton Hillis fumble. To be honest, he shouldn’t have gotten the ball in the first place, because it was a screen pass on a third and twenty.
The Raiders ended up getting three points from that turnover with the help from their tubby kicker, Sebastian Janikowski.
The Giants punted the ball away on their next drive.
After one Raiders’ play, the quarter ended.
Score: Giants 7 - Raiders 10

Second Quarter:
Oakland punts with their first drive of the quarter.
Eli and his rag-tag team of misfits somehow manage to assemble an eleven play drive that ended with a five yard touchdown pass from Eli to Randle.
The Raiders punt again.
On the following drive, Eli got picked off by Tracy Porter. Porter then returned the interception for a touchdown. Like I said before, it was an ugly game.
With over a minute left, Coach Coughlin decided to run the clock out, and not take a shot for another score.
Score: Giants 14 - Raiders 17

Third Quarter:
The Raiders got the ball at the beginning of the half, and the drive ended with their tubby kicker

Nice job, Sebas! Pizza party after the game to celebrate!

blasting a field goal.
The Giants punt the ball back to Oakland.

On his next drive, Terrell Thomas picked off a pass from Terrelle Pryor, and almost took it to the house. But, Thomas almost fumbled the ball. That would have been Terrell-able. GET IT?!
Fortunately, he didn’t fumble and the Giants started their drive on the Raiders’ five yard line. This was Andre Brown’s first game back since his injury during the pre-season, and he came back in a big way with a touchdown run. Looks like the Browntown Express is back on the rails.    
Oakland’s next drive stalls and they punt the ball away. This ended the quarter.
Score: Giants 21 - Raiders 20

Fourth Quarter:
Andre Brown was the star of this opening drive as he ran the ball seven times out of fourteen plays. This drive ended in a field goal.
The Raiders couldn’t get anything going on on their next drive. Especially since Rolle sacked Pryor for a nine yard loss. They wind up punting.
The Giants go three and out and end up punting as well. 
With almost five minutes left in the game Oakland gets the ball back to try to regain the lead. However, Mathias Kiwanuka sacks Pryor and knocks the ball loose. The Giants’ Cullen Jenkins recovers the ball.
The Giants, with the help of the Browntown Express, run the clock out and head into the locker room with their third consecutive win.
Final Score: Giants 24 - Raiders 20

This was a huge win for Big Blue. But at this point, every win is a huge win.

The games are only going to get more crucial with the next three games are against the Rodgersless Packers, a Cowboys team that’s missing Sean Lee, and the Redskins who at the very best are as good as the Giants. This series of games could really change the landscape of the NFC East.

So what have I learned?

The Giants’ defense is carrying this team. It’s up to the offense to step up and start playing up to their potential. I don’t know what their problem is. Maybe they need some inspiration. Not Batkid inspiration, because that’ll just bring everyone to tears. They need something like a Jonathan Moxon halftime speech inspiration.

It's the inspiration this team deserves, but not the inspiration it needs right now.

The offense isn’t far off from breaking out. Eli and his receivers are very close to connecting on a lot of those passes. Once that gets figured out, the offense can really explode.

Terrell Thomas, who is sometimes referred to as T2, really is like the Terminator. After three ACL surgeries, he still has his eyes on the mission at hand.

It is great to have Andre Brown back. The Giants were missing a consistent running back like him. Unfortunately, Brown is as durable as a wet pinata. Hopefully he can stay healthy for the rest of the year. Maybe he shouldn't get thirty carries a game.

The big punt block and return were executed by two rookies. It’s good to see that the Giants have some big play ability with two of their young players.

Three and six was the Redskins record last year and they ended up winning the division. As long as the Giants have a breath, they have a chance.