With Odell Beckham and Brandon Marshall wearing street clothes on the sidelines, there's no way the Giants offense will finally get off the ground right? WRONG.
While it was ugly initially with once again little push up front from the offensive line as well as subpar protection being apparent. On top of that, yet another inexcusable false start penalty by Ereck Flowers and the final straw coming with John Jerry getting completely blown up which led to an Eli Manning interception. The camel's back broke.
Enter the once best Canadian Football League offensive lineman Brett Jones in place of John J
Jerry and instantly, the offense came to life. Paul Perkins suddenly found running room to have a solid 33 yards on 6 carries. Eli looked far more comfortable in the pocket and started threading the needle on deep passes to Sterling Shepherd and a critical rezone 4th down to Roger Lewis which led to the Giants first and only offensive touchdown of the preseason.A walk-in run by Orleans Darkwa. The run featured in impressive block by rookie Evan Engram who put up a few highlight catches of his own.
Special shout-out to wide receiver Travis Rudolph for wrapping up a roster spot with a stellar performance highlighted by long leaping catch and run.
The second and third team offense was anything but inspiring. Josh Johnson appeared to take a slight lead in the back up QB battle over Geno Smith and the kicking competition got real interesting with both Mike Nugent drilling 2 50+ yarders and Aldrick Rosas showing little weakness. This could end up being a difficult decision in the end.
What more can be said about the defense? 3 sacks, a safety, and 2 interceptions returned for scores highlighted the night. Just a dominant performance by the starting defense which allowed 0 yards by the end of the first quarter and kept Christian Hackenberg looking like Christian Hackenberg. (No that's not a typo) the depth as some issues however, as once Bryce Petty came in, the score went from a 29-3 Giants lead to failed 2 point conversion attempt from losing in the final minutes and cornerback Eli Apple injured his ankle and was immediately ruled out. His availability for week 1 is probably questionable at best.
For the most part, the Giants should be feeling good about themselves from the performance put forth by the starting offense and defense in the unofficial dress rehearsal.
Looking forward to the backup QB and kicking competitions as well as the final roster spots to get locked up in the upcoming final preseason game.