The Giants win their second game of the year, this time against the playoff bound Kansas City Chiefs at Metlife Stadium 12-9 on a 23 yard field goal by Aldrick Rosas. The field goal was set up by a 34 yard pass from Eli Manning to Roger Lewis Jr.
The win comes after a week of speculation of the future for both Ben McAdoo and Jerry Reese’s job after a poor effort in defeat against the San Fransisco 49ers. During the week what seems to be a late response, Coach McAdoo took action
Coach McAdoo had a very firm meeting with his players on Wednesday as they watched game tape and held players accountable in front of their peers. We discussed the meeting earlier in the week but would it translate on to the field?
By watching the effort, all involved would have to say yes! Big Blue held Kansas City Chiefs to only nine points as the defense responded in a familiar fashion, with timely stops by the defense.
Coach McAdoo felt very good about the win. “We played like the type of team that we’re capable of playing. We played tremendous defense today. We were all over the field. We were flying around, running to the football. That was great to see. Special teams was big for us, again, I can’t say that enough. Going against that offense – they have a lot of speed, a lot of lump-in-your-throat returners. Three of them. And, we played tremendous on special teams and the offense just stuck with it. We were short-handed today, but that’s no excuse. We have enough talented players to go out there and play well. Eli (Manning) took his shots when he had a chance to take his shots. We had some receivers, you know, Tavarres King and Roger Lewis made some plays for us today.”
Rosas stated that he and others took the meeting from Wednesday as motivation, “I just took it as motivation. To be held accountable to the whole team, they put up slides for the whole team. We were kind of like on some plays, we are better than that. He just said, “Be the best version of you, that’s what the team wants. So that’s why you’re here and just be motivated.”
Alex Smith who has been a very safe quarterback still put up numbers but was kept out of the end zone and threw two interceptions. Alex understood that there are no easy wins in this league. “There are no gimmies in this league. Everybody is good; they’re not going to walk to you and say, ‘Here’s this game.’ I think a little bit of that is prognostication and all that. Everybody is looking at wins-losses and things. This is the NFL. You have to bring it every single week, and so the biggest thing for us is being frustrated. We expect to go out there, play well and win. That’s our mindset, and when it doesn’t happen, it’s frustrating. You have to find a way to stay together and to build off this. Until those opportunities aren’t in front of us, all those goals we keep talking about, until they take those away, they’re still there for us. We have to be able to try and build on this.”
Alex Smith finished 27-40 with no touchdowns and two interceptions. The two interceptions came from Damon Harrison and Janoris Jenkins.
Jenkins was heavily criticized over the last week from his efforts against the 49ers, bounced with one and maybe should have been two interceptions. Janoris was asked if he felt any extra pressure from last week and the negative attention he received after last weeks game. “I don’t pay attention to that, man. Like I said, last week was last week. We came out, we played good this week and we’re just moving forward.”
Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie stated the last two weeks were definitely an eye opener for the defense. “I think after the week we had, you know, guys being called out, being put on the bench, I think everybody responded well. I think just being called out as a team, I think we responded well.”
The team played with a lot of energy and Eli manning stated that it must continue for the any future success the team wants to have. “I think we talked about that a little bit during the week, just that we’ve got to do a better job keeping the energy up. It’s easy to start before the game but before the second half, third quarter, celebrate the stops, get the offense going, communicate a little bit more and just keep the excitement going and take that the whole game. ”
Manning improved his record against Kansas City to 3-1 as he finished 19-35 for 205 yards with no interceptions and no touchdown passes. The win also keeps the Giants a perfect 7-0 against the Chiefs at home.
We will have more coverage of the win as well as a preview of the Thanksgiving day matchup against the Redskins in tomorrows Big Blue Report
Below are audio clips from post game media sessions with Jonathan Casillas and Roger Lewis JR.
