Rookie Running Back David Wilson hasn’t made the impact for the Giants as he had hoped this season through the first twelve games. But today Wilson busted out in a big way as he scored three times to help lead the Giants in a 52-27 victory over the New Orleans Saints.
“That was embarrassing what happened on the football field today,” said Interim Head Coach Joe Vitt after the game. “It starts with me – that’s where the blame should go. I didn’t do a good enough job of getting this team prepared.”
Wilson set a Giants record with 327 all-purpose yards as he returned a kickoff 97-yards for a touchdown and ran for two more to move the Giants to 8-5 and maintain a one-game lead over the Washington Redskins and Dallas Cowboys in the NFC East.
“Well, he did a great job.” Said Coughlin of David Wilson. “Our kickoff return team gave us unbelievable field position. Some of which we didn’t take advantage of. Then JJ Jernigan jumped in there and he made a play as well. So I was really pleased with that. It was good, hard, fast running, but obviously there was some good blocking as well. And we stayed away from the penalties, too, which, God Almighty, is discouraging. Last week we had a ball returned to midfield and we had a penalty.”
Meanwhile, the loss put a major dent into the Saints playoff hopes as they fall to 5-8 for the season and will have to run the table and need plenty of help from the math gods.
“Yeah, exactly. I don’t do all that math,” said Saints linebacker Jonathan Vilma. “I just know 8-8 this season I seriously doubt is going to be playoff-potential.”
The Saints got on the board early when Elbert Mack picked off Eli Manning and returned it 73-yards for the score. Then David Wilson got his record-breaking day started when he took the ensuing kickoff 97-yards for the touchdown to knot it up at 7-7.
But David Wilson wasn’t the only Giants player to have a big night. Eli Manning went 22-for-35 for 259-yards and threw for four touchdowns to four different receivers while throwing two interceptions. Manning first two touchdowns went to Martellus Bennent for 6-yards in the first quarter and Domenik Hixon from 5-yards out in the 2nd quarter before going into halftime with a 21-13 lead.
In the 3rd quarter Wilson ran for the first of his two touchdowns on the ground with a 6-yard run and then Manning connected with Hakeem Nicks for a 25-yard pass to build a 35-13 lead.
But then the Saints started to mount a comeback when Darren Sproles got on track when had five carries for 56-yards with a 13-yard touchdown run and then added 4 receptions for 28-yards including a 9-yard touchdown pass from Drew Brees to cut the deficit to 35-27.
Brees completed 26-of-43 passes for 354 yards with that one touchdown but was picked off twice, both times by Giants safety Stevie Brown who also forced a fumble while filling in once again for injured starter Kenny Phillips. Brown set the Giants single-season record for interception return yards. Something Brown says he wasn’t aware of at first.
“I mean, that’s what I was told. I mean, it’s a nice accomplishment. It doesn’t really mean too much.”
After the Saints closed the game in the 3rd quarter and looked to make it a close game, the Giants pulled away in the 4th quarter. Manning threw his fourth and final touchdown pass on the night when he hit Victor Cruz in the end zone from 10-yards out.
Cruz had a big day as he hauled in eight catches for 121-yards and a touchdown.
After adding a Lawrence Tynes 39-yard field goal Wilson capped the night off when he broke free on a 52-yard scamper into the end zone to build the lead to 52-27. Wilson had 13 carries for 100 yards.
Going forward, Coach Coughlin preached the same message as always in this point of the season.
“Same message, over and over and over. Humble in victory, lots of work to do, very difficult opponent coming up this week. And still, maintaining this one-game lead. Understanding the difficulty of our schedule but understanding also you can’t get where we want to go without playing the best and having a chance to beat the best. The message now is, again, each one of these games is very, very critical to getting to where we want to go.”
The Giants will travel to the Georgia Dome to take on the 11-2 Atlanta Falcons who are coming off a loss to the Carolina Panthers. But the Falcons are 6-0 at home this season and 32-7 over the past five seasons.
Meanwhile the Saints will play host to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers who are also coming off a loss, a last-second defeat to the Philadelphia Eagles.
Game Notes:
- CB Elbert Mack returned a first quarter pass by Giants QB Eli Manning 73 yards for a touchdown, the longest interception return of his career and his second career touchdown return. It was the third interception return for a touchdown of the year by the New Orleans defense, their most since the 2009 season (9).
- It was the Giants’ first kickoff return touchdown since Domenik Hixon’s 74-yard run back against New England on Dec. 29, 2007. The Giants had played 76 regular season and nine postseason games between kickoff return touchdowns.
- Brees surpassed the 4,000 yard mark for the season and became just the first quarterback in NFL history to surpass the mark in seven consecutive seasons.
- It was the second pick returned for a touchdown this season by a Giants opponent. On Sept. 16, Tampa Bay’s Eric Wright intercepted a pass and brought it back 60 yards for a score.
- Brees now has 44,652 career passing yards as he has moved into eighth place in NFL record books past Drew Bledsoe 44,611
- Giant’s cornerback Prince Amukamara left the game in the fourth quarter with a hamstring injury, which obviously bears watching. Amukamara has been the Giants’ best cornerback this year, and during his brief NFL career he has not so far shown himself to be a quick healer.
