Final
Giants, Redskins tangle to avoid NFC East cellar
Sep 24, 2014 - 4:27 PM (SportsNetwork.com) - All Kirk Cousins has to do now is win.The Washington Redskins and their interim starter at quarterback piled up 511 yards of offense last Sunday but they couldn't muster one when it mattered most, losing a shootout to NFC East rival Philadelphia.
They'll get another chance after a short week of preparation as the NFC East takes center stage on "Thursday Night Football" when the New York Giants renew their storied rivalry with the 'Skins.
Each club is off to a somewhat disappointing 1-2 start in 2014 but New York comes in on a winning note, having secured its first win of the campaign with a 30-17 triumph over previously unbeaten Houston last Sunday.
Rashad Jennings piled up a career-best 176 rushing yards and a touchdown for the Giants in the win, while tight end Daniel Fells and wide receiver Victor Cruz each hauled in a TD pass from Eli Manning.
The Texans had entered the Week 3 clash with a plus-five turnover ratio en route to a mildly surprising 2-0 start, while the Giants were a league-worst minus-six in that category while dropping their first two tests.
However, New York came up with three interceptions of Ryan Fitzpatrick and got a mistake-free performance out of Manning to aid Jennings' huge 34-carry effort.
Manning finished a sharp 21-of-28 for 234 yards with the two touchdowns in by far his best outing of the young season. Cruz also stepped up for New York, generating 107 yards on five catches.
"Nice to win, nice to do a lot of good things in the process," Giants head coach Tom Coughlin remarked. "A lot of guys played well."
Washington, meanwhile, is fresh off a heartbreaking 37-34 setback to the Eagles in which Cousins, playing for the injured Robert Griffin III (dislocated ankle), passed for a career-high 427 yards and three touchdowns, including an 81-yard touchdown pass to ex-Philadelphia star DeSean Jackson.
Pierre Garcon had 138 receiving yards and a score on 11 catches, and Jackson also crossed the century barrier on five receptions.
"I think these guys are just competitors. No matter who's at quarterback, they're gonna battle," Cousins said.
The Redskins had a chance to win or at least tie the game in the waning moments after an uncharacteristically poor punt from the Eagles' Donnie Jones, Cousins misfired badly on three consecutive throws, however, letting a wounded Eagles' team, missing four of its five offensive line starters by the end of the game, escape.
Despite that first-year Redskins coach Jay Gruden was more than satisfied with his signal caller.
"(Cousins) was excellent," the mentor said. "I'm very proud of the way he played."
This will be the 165th time Washington and Big Blue have locked up when you include the postseason with the Giants winning three of the past four in the series and holding a 95-65-4 all-time advantage.
WHAT TO WATCH FOR
The biggest issue in this game may be Washington's health or lack thereof.
The Redskins left Philadelphia with a full MASH unit, most notably losing cornerback DeAngelo Hall (ruptured left Achilles) and safety Duke Ihenacho (broken left foot) for the season. Pass rusher Brian Orakpo (left middle finger), defensive lineman Jason Hatcher (hamstring) and guard Shawn Lauvao (right knee) are also ailing as Washington listed 17 players on its injury report at the beginning of the week.
"We're losing guys left and right," Orakpo, who is expected to play Thursday, said. "Football's a tough game."
"Obviously this is a week that I would rather not have a Thursday night game," Gruden added.
One guy who will not be missing is defensive tackle Chris Baker, who destroyed Philadelphia QB Nick Foles with a devastating blindside block in Week 3 which set of a bench-clearing brawl in which Baker and Eagles left tackle Jason Peters were ejected. The NFL decided not to suspend Baker after determining that his hit was legal.
"Baker didn't do anything wrong with that hit," Troy Vincent, the NFL's executive vice president of football operations, told the Washington Post. "When you look at the rule, he didn't do anything illegal. People can say it's a cheap shot and you can talk about whether it might fall under unsportsmanlike conduct. But when you know the rule and you look at the play, he didn't hit him in the head. He didn't hit him in the neck. We looked at it. I looked at it very closely."
Offensively, the Redskins are second in the NFL, averaging 444.0 yards per game and Cousins' numbers were gaudy against the Eagles with the third-year player completing 30-of-48 passes, including the big play to Jackson which saw the speedster high-step into the end zone in an effort to antagonize his old mates.
Heck, Cousins was 12-of-13 for 124 yards and two TDs before the Eagles offense and his old friend from East Lansing, Foles, had even taken a snap.
Cousins and Foles had once battled for the starting job in college at Michigan State, a gig Cousins won before Foles transferred to Arizona. That ledger is now even although Cousins tore apart the Eagles with quick timing routes and anticipatory throws, the kind of passing attack the injured RG3 is not all that adept at.
Philadelphia certainly helped by not jamming the receivers in an effort to disrupt rhythm, likely a testament to Jackson's ability to pop the top on any defense at any time, something the Giants are intimately familiar with.
Jackson now has 16 career touchdowns (11 receiving, three punt-return and two rushing) against NFC East opponents, tied with Ahmad Bradshaw for the most by any player since he entered the league in 2008. Of those 16, seven (four receiving, two punt-return and one rushing) have come against the Giants, also the most by any player since 2008.
Cousins, a fourth-round draft pick in 2012, the same year RG3 arrived in D.C., has excelled at times as a fill-in in the past, especially when replacing Griffin in-game. Being the guy when teams are actually game planning for your skill set from week to week is a different animal, though.
"It's different every week," Gruden admitted. "That's the thing about being quarterback in this league is every defense poses different issues for you and it's every week it's something different -- you're going to see a different blitz, a different coverage and it is something you've got to continue to be flexible in your train of thought and your thinking and your approach to the game."
Despite the loss last week and it's implications in the NFC East, however, Cousins' more traditional approach to the position seems to suit Gruden's coaching style far better than Griffin. After all, Gruden rose to a head- coaching position in this league by developing Andy Dalton, a QB with similar skills as Cousins, while he was the offensive coordinator in Cincinnati.
"We don't expect him to go out and win the MVP or win a Super Bowl to prove he's an upper-echelon quarterback right away, Gruden said. "We do expect him to produce and play within the offense and not make mistakes and do what he's supposed to do -- handle the protections and play the position."
Conversely, the Giants are just happy their longtime starter at QB finally put together a decent performance and the obviously correlation is the running game led by Jennings.
You can't expect the Jennings to pile up 176 every week but when he's moving the chains that opens up play-action for Manning, who is most comfortable when pushing the football down the field, something he has been able to do in the past when playing at FedEx field.
"Keep running and keep pounding," Manning said when talking about his running game last week. "One point we ran the same play three times in a row."
Heading into Thursday's contest at Washington, Manning has won six of 10 regular-season starts against the Redskins at FedEx Field. In those 10 starts, Manning has 185 completions for 2,289 passing yards, the most of any active visiting player at FedEx Field since he entered the league in 2004. Meanwhile, Manning's 10 touchdown passes on the road against Washington rank second among active players, trailing only Dallas quarterback Tony Romo with 12.
OVERALL ANALYSIS
Ordinarily this is a spot in which you would take Washington but the Redskins are so banged up that New York should be in a prime position to steal one on a short week.
"I'm excited, it's a benefit for our offense to play on Thursday night, because we're going to go out there and we're going to play up-tempo," Giants offensive tackle Justin Pugh said. "We've got to go out there and go down to a hostile environment and win a divisional game."
Sports Network predicted outcome: Giants 24, Redskins 21
- NEW YORK: 45
WASHINGTON: 14
Final
Sep 25 11:38 PM - NEW YORK: 45
WASHINGTON: 14
End of Regulation
Sep 25 11:37 PM - Ashley The Redskins should've just asked me to be their qb!
Giants 38, Commanders 14 4th - 11:47Sep 25 11:11 PM - NEW YORK: 31
WASHINGTON: 14
End of 3rd
Sep 25 10:55 PM - NEW YORK: 24
WASHINGTON: 7
Halftime
Sep 25 9:57 PM - NEW YORK: 7
WASHINGTON: 0
End of 1st
Sep 25 9:01 PM - NEW YORK: 0
WASHINGTON: 0
1st Quarter - 15:00
Sep 25 8:26 PM
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