Sunday was a pretty good day for the New York Giants. Odell Beckham Jr. missed the game against the Washington Redskins with an injury, but contrary to some popular beliefs in the buildup to the game, the offense didn’t miss a step and even surprisingly performed better than in the games where Beckham was healthy.
Not only did Eli Manning throw for three touchdowns but Saquon Barkley rushed for a career high in yards as well as a touchdown of his own, averaging 12.1 yards per attempt in the very same game. Evan Engram had fallen out of use before his injury, but in his return, even he made an impact for the offense with 77 receiving yards on three catches.
The dynamic offense didn’t stop there, with the receiving touchdowns being spread out between Sterling Shepard, Russell Shepard, and Bennie Fowler, the latter two receivers scoring on their only catches of the game. Manning ended the day with a stat line of three touchdown passes, no interceptions, and 197 yards on 14/22 completions.
While the yards total could have been higher, Manning still had a big impact in helping the team win and also played a part in leading them to a 34-0 halftime lead that would eventually expand to 40-0 before Washington put points on the board later on to reach a final scoreline of 40-16.
Kyle Lauletta also appeared for the first time in a regular season game but didn’t have the start that many were hoping for, throwing five incompletions with one interception while the game was still 40-0. Not that it would matter, with the scoreline being as lopsided as it was, but it wasn’t exactly a promising first regular season appearance and it doesn’t make anyone more hopeful that Lauletta is a real competitor in next year’s inevitable starting quarterback job.
The Giants, with this win, currently hold the ninth overall pick in the 2019 NFL Draft. It’s not as good as what they would have gotten through tanking the rest of the season after their abysmal start, but still enough to find some talent in the first round, even ruling out the possibility of a trade up. With the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Detroit Lions, and Cincinnati Bengals having the same record as the Giants, it will be interesting to see how the final standings play out over the rest of the season.