When the Giants took Saquon Barkley with the second pick in this year’s draft, the idea was to build an offense that looked like the one they deployed against the Buccaneers on Sunday afternoon.
Barkley ran for 142 yards and scored three touchdowns while Eli Manning completed 17-of-18 passes for 231 yards in a 38-35 victory over the Buccaneers. It’s the second straight win for the 3-7 Giants and their first home win of the year.
It was the fourth straight loss for the 3-7 Buccaneers and they made their third quarterback change of the season on the way to the loss. Jameis Winston replaced Ryan Fitzpatrick with the team down 24-7 in the third quarter. Fitzpatrick had thrown three interceptions before the yank and Giants linebacker Alec Ogletree returned one of them for a touchdown.
Winston rallied them for four touchdowns, but the defense couldn’t keep the Giants from scoring two more touchdowns of their own and he was intercepted by Janoris Jenkins on a desperation heave from his own 20-yard-line to end any hope of a dramatic comeback.
Winston was 12-of-15 for 199 yards and two touchdowns before that pick, but the issue with Tampa’s quarterbacks has been consistency rather than flashes of brilliant play. One would assume Winston will get a chance to show he can pull that off against the 49ers next weekend, but Dirk Koetter will have to let us know.
Defensively, there wasn’t as much to like for the Bucs. Jason Pierre-Paul got a couple of sacks of his former teammate Manning, but the above numbers tell how easily the Giants were able to move the ball over the course of the afternoon. That’s rarely been the case for the Giants this season, but the last two weeks have them moving in the right direction.
If they can keep it up against the Eagles next week, Odell Beckham may have some company when it comes to feeling that running the table isn’t that crazy an idea.