Wow, this season is becoming fun, albeit a lot of work for the editors of TLP. Back to back divisional wins have been rare in recent history, and sacking Sheli Manning 7 times in a great defensive effort, seemingly even rarer. How great was it to see the sad sack QB pouting hit after hit?
Along with the stellar defensive play, the resurgence of Adrian Peterson made this the editors favorite game of the season. To celebrate, we bring our loyal readers a trifecta of NY newspaper articles. The first comes from the pages of The New York Daily News:
Giants season only gets worse in loss to Washington
Now that that’s over with, the Giants can continue their firesale.
Eli Manning again showed nothing as his likely Giants farewell tour hit another season low in a 20-13 loss to Washington that looked a lot worse than the score.Safety D.J. Swearinger intercepted two passes, Matt Ioannidis had 2½ sacks for NFC East-leading Washington.
Adrian Peterson caught a 7-yard touchdown pass from Alex Smith and ran for a season-high 149 yards, with the last 64 coming on a touchdown jaunt with 3:06 to play, as Washington (5-2) matched their best start since 2008.Dustin Hopkins added field goals of 53 and 39 yards for Washington, who will finish the week with a 1½-game lead in the division. The three-game winning streak is their longest in two seasons.Washington sacked a battered Manning seven times, forced the two turnovers and made big play after big play in sending the Giants (1-7) to its fifth straight loss.
Aldrick Rosas kicked field goals of 37 and 21 yards for the Giants. Manning, 30 of 47 for 316 yards, hit Evan Engram on a 2-yard touchdown pass with :17 to play. Engram also let a scoring chance slipped away at Washington’s 32 when a short fourth-down pass went through his fingers with the Giants down 10-3 early in the fourth quarter.The Giants came into the game wondering whether the trades this past week of starting cornerback Eli Apple and 2016 All-Pro defensive tackle Damon Harrison would be a problem. The Giants defense was fine. Its offense wasn’t, and Washington’s defense was very, very good.
Read the rest.
And this one from The New York Post:
The defense the Giants have left was almost enough
Some excerpts:The players were different, but the result was the same. So was the performance of the Giants defense — good, but not good enough.
For three quarters, the Giants didn’t miss starters Eli Apple (trade), Damon “Snacks” Harrison (trade) and Alec Ogletree (hamstring injury). But when they faded in the fourth quarter of Sunday’s 20-13 loss to the Redskins, those players surely could have helped.
“Defensively, we tried to hold them as much as possible,” safety Landon Collins said. “We didn’t do a good enough job to hold them off.”
“Every turnover you think is going to be a [difference-maker] and I thought it was going to be big,” Collins said. “But stuff happens.”
“I’m just playing it day by day. I love the Giants, they love me,” he said. “You never know, it’s a business. So whatever happens, happens.”
Right now, Collins said he is focused on the team’s many problems, and somehow getting this wayward season on track. He admittedly is “very surprised” to be 1-7 for the second straight season.
“I don’t like it,” Collins said. “It’s awful. It’s a hard feeling.”
And finally, from The New York Times:
Adrian Peterson Leaves the Giants (and Tony Dorsett) in the Dust
By Kevin Armstrong
Oct. 28, 2018
EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. — Now 33 and still known as All Day, Adrian Peterson, the Washington Redskins’ punishing running back, concluded his work with a jog up the ramp to the visitors’ locker room on Sunday. He carried with him a memento: the jersey of the Giants’ rookie running back Saquon Barkley, who had written Peterson a message in black marker on his No. 26 when the two exchanged uniforms after the game.
“Thank you for what you did for the game,” the message read. “One of the best to do it. Much respect.”
It was one more acknowledgment of Peterson’s place in the game’s annals. He rushed for 149 yards and scored two touchdowns on Sunday in Washington’s 20-13 win over the Giants, and along the way he passed Tony Dorsett to claim No. 9 on the career rushing yards list.
“It means a lot. He’s a guy I looked up to playing for the Cowboys,” Peterson, who grew up in East Texas, said of Dorsett. “Just accomplishing the things that he accomplished throughout his career, that’s what I always kind of set myself up to be able to accomplish one day. Now that it is here, I can appreciate it and just continue to pass guys.”
Peterson’s odometer now sits at 12,863 yards, but he still showed off impressive speed in pulling away for a 64-yard touchdown run in the fourth quarter. With Washington ahead by 13-6 and 3 minutes 16 seconds remaining in the game, guard Brandon Scherff pulled to the right — “ready to hunt,” as Washington Coach Jay Gruden said later — and cleared a path. Peterson pulsed forward through a gaping hole to get out in front of the Giants. Aware that a defender would be looking to dive at his feet in a last-ditch effort, Peterson kicked his legs up after 25 yards.
“All day, all day,” McCoy said. “You could’ve run home, All Day.”