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Giants beat the Bucs 17-3: game summary

The Giants defense played strong early (Gibril Wilson had a couple of nice stops) and the Giants offense had good field position. The Giants were able to move the ball but 3rd and long situations were tough with the wind making the passing game pretty risky.

Eli overthrew Burress on one play but did manage to get some yardage with relatively low-risk passes. Thanks to the short field and the passing game, the Ginats scored a TD on their second position (Burress made an awesome catch on this play). That was big - because of the wind, both teams were able to put a bunch of guys in the box. The Bucs couldn't run at all and we could only run a little.

When the Bucs got the ball back the Giants D continued to look good. Strahan showed that he's the best DE in the NFL right now. A bit later Kiwanuka had a sack - that was sweet to see. He's going to be a player!

With about 12 minutes to go in the second quarter, Tamp Bay had to punt from their own 4 yard line (an awesome feagles punt stuck them down there and solid D made sure they stayed stuck - another Giants rookie, Dockery, made a nice play to knock down a pass). The Giants got the ball on the Tampa Bay 41.

The Giants didn't go very far, as Shockey dropped a 4th down pass. Luckily when the Bucs got the ball back they fumbled and the Giants recovered at the Bucs 30. A crazy pass (damn wind) to Buress, a Tiki run, and Jacobs slams it into the endzone from the 1. The Giants were up 14-0. A significant lead when passing is very risky.

Tampa Bay started to come alive after a squib gave them decent field position. Cadillac Williams had a first down run. Then Galloway helped us out with a pair of drops, including one when he burned Corey Webster and should ahve picked up big yards. On 3rd down it looked like Pierce was covering him (badly) but luckily Galloway dropped it again.

The Bucs did manage a field goal before half time. The Giants pass rush vanished and the Bucs should have had a TD when Webster got burned again (by Clayton this time). The pass didn't connect and Webster had a nice blitz to stall the Tamp bay drive. The Giants went into halftime up 14-3. The score was fine but was the momentum shifting?

Seems so, because the Bucs came out and played well in the 3rd quarter. Our offensive line couldn't handle their pressure and our defensive line couldn't bring it (thanks to short passes where Gradkowski got rid of the ball quickly). The defense held and di start getting some pressure. The Bucs defense was very aggressive and the Giants and Bucs played the field position game in the 3rd quarter. Short left the game so Wilkinson came in. He did make a big play stopping Tampa bay from getting a 1st down and looked pretty good overall.

When the 3rd qurter ended, the Giants defense needed to regroup as the Bucs were putting together a solid drive. Strahan got some good pressure to end that drive. Eventually the Giants did put together a decent drive. They had been running Barber left for no gain all day, but Brandon jacobs provided a spark with a very tough run. He's fun to watch. Not so fun when he gets called for taunting thoguh. Of course he had just taken a helmet to helmet hit but the refs didn't call that even though it looked dirty. The drive stalled at the Bucs 13 and Feeley was good from 31 for a 17-3 lead. More importantly, the Giants had taken some time off the clock.

With less than 4 minutes left in the game, the Bucs needed two TDs. Considering the wind, the game was pretty much over.