Eli Manning Dominates Texans as G-Men Earn 1st W

GIANTS 27 - TEXANS 22 

So where have all the Eli Manning haters gone now? The popular refrain from Giants fans after the first two weeks of the season is that Big Blue made a mistake in not drafting Sam Darnold with their first pick in the 2018 Draft. Well, they're probably signing a different tune now.

Manning was brilliant in leading the Giants to their first win of the year, a dominant 27-22 win over the Houston Texans that wasn't as close as the final score indicated.

The Giants quarterback was 25-of-29 for 297 yards and two touchdowns. A big reason Manning had so much success in picking apart the Texans, Sunday was the simple fact that Head Coach Pat Shurmur benched right tackle Ereck Flowers for the entire game.

Instead rookie Chad Wheeler got the start on the right side against Texans superstar J.J. Watt. While Watt still got to Manning a couple of times, Wheeler held his own for the most part and didn't become a storyline for all the wrong reasons.

The results showed. Not only did Manning have a big game offensively, but even the Giants running game that stretched to a halt for a better part of the first two weeks was lively. Saquon Barkley had 82 yards rushing with a touchdown. His 15-yard touchdown run gave the Giants a 7-3 lead in the first quarter.

Perhaps the best moment of the day for Manning and the Giants came with 7:37 to play in the game. With New York clinging to a 20-15 lead, Manning drove the Giants 77-yards on nine plays, culminating in a Manning touchdown pass to Sterling Shepherd to give Big Blue an insurmountable 27-15 advantage.

Defensively the Giants did ok, although there were times DeShaun Watson picked them apart with long throws down field to guys like Will Fuller and DeAndre Hopkins.

There were a couple points it looked like Houston was on their way to storming back in the game, but mistakes killed Houston's chances. For example, late in the third quarter with the Texans down 20-9, Watson moved the Houston offense to the Giants' own 33-yard line, before Lamar Miller fumbled the ball back to the Giants ending  a potential scoring drive.

Fast forward to the fourth quarter, Houston again was knocking on the door after Watson completed passes of 24 and 15 yards to Hopkins on back-to-back downs to move to the Giants 22. After a 14-yard completion to Jordan Thomas moved the Texans down to the eight-yard line, New York pinned its ears back and started pressuring the Texans quarterback. The pressure worked as Watson threw an ill-advised floater into the back of the end zone that was picked off by Alec Olgeltree.

With the victory, the Giants improve to 1-2 on the season. Big Blue will host the Saints next week at MetLife Stadium at 4:25 p.m.