Giants win over Washington 23-20

"This game was following the same old script where the Giants have the lead and then blow it in the second half. Of course I loved seeing that the Giants were able to score a field goal and touchdown before Washington was able to do very much. On Washington's next drive, Kyle Allen was sacked just after starting to get his team moving along. This happened right near the end of the first quarter, and Allen was injured on the play. Alex Smith came in to replace him, and the drive ended with a field goal. The Giants added another Graham Gano field goal and a touchdown before the end of the first half, to give them a nice 20-3 lead. The big question was would it stand up?
It was troubling when Washington started off the third quarter by scoring a touchdown without very much effort. I tried not to get too excited watching Daniel Jones take over and lead his guys play after play, on a real long seven minute drive down to the Washington 22 yard line. Then there was offensive holding, followed by a sack that had the Giants facing a 3rd-and-21 play. A pass to Evan Engram that went for 12 yards wasn't enough, so the Giants had Gano kick a field goal, and the score was a comfortable 23-10 five minutes into the third quarter. Then it started to happen again. Washington scored a field goal and touchdown on their next two drives and that closed the gap to three points, Giants leading 23-20.
The game slipping away like it has so many times before. Luckily, Jabrill Peppers intercepted Smith on Washington's next drive. So the Giants had just over two minutes of clock time to kill to secure a win, but instead went 3-and-out. That left Smith with 1:48 left to guide his team to a touchdown victory, or a field goal tie and overtime. His first pass was good for 4 yards, but then it was Logan Ryan coming up with an interception to save the day for the Giants, and they had their second win. The script had a better ending today for all the Giants fans."

"What can I say? Daniel Jones did not turn the ball over for the first time in his career, and the Giants came away with a win. Even with that, there was no way they were going to make this look easy. Even with a 20-3 halftime lead, where they had 14 first downs to Washington's 7, eight of them rushing the ball. Even with Washington committing 3 turnovers, one interception and 2 fumbles, you knew, somehow you just knew the Giants weren't in for an easy win.
Yes, there were also four Washington penalties to the Giants one. Everything favored the Giants except for one thing. There was still the second half, and that hasn't worked in their favor all year. That includes the Giants in their first game with Washington for their only win, where they were up 13-3 at one point early on, but their offense couldn't score at all in the second half.
The Giants defense came up with a fumble recovery touchdown that put them up from the 13-13 tie that led to their 20-19 win. That win may not have happened except for a questionable decision by Ron Rivera to put the game on the line with a two point conversion play, and not to tie for overtime after seeing his team's defense hold the Giants cold for the last two and a half quarters.
So today, of course as you guessed - actually knew because you've seen it happen too many times now, the Giants opponent ruled the second half of the game. Washington scored two touchdowns and a field goal for 17 points, and the Giants scored just 3 on one field goal.
Thanks to the Giants putting up points in the first half, and with their defense intercepting Alex Smith twice in the second, Washington's efforts weren't enough.
It did help that Smith was a bit rusty coming off the bench after Kyle Allen was knocked out of the game early on. Smith, despite the two second half interceptions, guided his team to 19 points, but it just wasn't enough. Giants fans can feel happy with getting a win, but as they say 'you know it don't come easy', and the Eagles are up next on Sunday. Washington got off to a slow start coming off their bye week, but the Eagles are a different story. They've been really banged up, and the extra week may have come just at the right time for them."

Giants rushed for a season high 166 yards.

Giants committed at least one turnover in each of their first eight games, none today.

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