The Giants came into week 1 with a bunch of injuries to a variety of players, however they were excited to finally have all of their starting pieces in place going into the first game of the season. All it took was one practice for their best player to get hurt for the week. Superstar running back Barkley hurt himself in practice and was determined to be done for that week after getting evaluated by the medical staff. Although Coach Burn was visibly upset at this injury, he had no other choice than to start Booker and move on.
With Booker as the starting running back, the Giants quickly switched their gameplan to a pass first offense, instead of their normal run first offense. This worked better than they could have imagined as both Slayton and Golladay got into the action quickly, with Jones hitting them deep for touchdowns. Golladay and Booker would both score respectively to end the half, as the Giants went into halftime up by 31 points. In the second half, the Giants took to the ground in order to shorten the game. The Giants offense ate up a lot of clock in the third quarter leading to a 31-8 game with 1 minute left in the third quarter. All of a sudden, out of nowhere, with 1 minute left in the third, both coaches called it quits and demanded a restart. After restarting and getting exactly where the game ended the first time, it only took two plays for the Broncos to double their score. After a Giants 3 and out, the Broncos drove down the field to score again. With 4 minutes left in the game, the Giants offense had enough of milking the clock, so they threw a deep pass to Golladay to go up 14 points,effectively ending the game at a score of 38-24.
Daniel Jones had as many touchdowns as he did completions on this day. He ended throwing 4 passes for 254 yards and 4 touchdowns. Booker played well in his starting role, amassing 99 yards and a touchdown on 21 attempts. Golladay was the star of the game with 3 receptions for 179 yards and 3 touchdowns. Slayton helped the offense as well, scoring his one touchdown on his lone reception.
The Giants defense had a very good day for 3 quarters, however, the restart left them without any gas in the tank. After restarting the game, they gave up multiple long receptions in a short amount of time. With the offense stalling in the fourth quarter, their secondary almost gave up a game they were sure handed to win had there not been any restart. It took Daniel Jones to inspire the defense with his fourth quarter touchdown. After the touchdown they played like the first three quarters, shutting down the Broncos. Bradberry sealed the game with an interception, which was the only turnover for the defense on the day.
All in all the Giants played much better than some would have imagined in this game. They played smart, efficient football. With the team that they have assembled this year, it’s going to take playing smart football in order for them to compete. They aren’t built to win shootouts with their offensive line. Luckily in this game the line held up well, but their next game versus the Washington Football Team could be a different story. Washington has a devastating front seven and on paper the Giants are severely outmatched. We will see if Coach Burn can come up with a winning game plan in order to secure the win. For now the Giants are 1-0, which is good for third place in the NFC East.
