New York Giants 23, Washington Football Team 20: 10 Takeaways On the Giants Second Win

Giants have now won their last five games over the Washington Football Team.

For practically the entire season, we've been told that the Giants are making progress.

Well, for only the second time this season, that progress manifested itself in a victory, not surprisingly over the Washington Football Team, whom the Giants have owned the last five games.

Speaking of five games, the Giants finally managed to finish off a game by preserving a lead, which had escaped them in three of their last five games.

Some might say that's not progress given Washington's struggles this season, but hey, the Giants will take it any way they can get it as the win sets up a big rematch next weekend with the Eagles.

Here are a few leftover thoughts from a game the Giants needed to win--and did.

1. Offensive coordinator Jason Garrett appears to have finally hit his stride as a play-caller for this team. Garrett and the Giants offense made just the tiniest adjustment after the first quarter in which quarterback Daniel Jones went eight of 14 for 86 yards and was sacked.

That adjustment was to learn a bit more heavily on the running game. In that first quarter, the Giants ran the ball eight times and attempted 14 passes. From that point on, the run, which slowed down that Washington pass rush, was featured.

The Giants’ run-pass counts for quarters 2-4 were as follows: 12-8; 5-5; and 10-7.

2. Eventually, Devonta Freeman, who missed his second game with an ankle injury, will return to the lineup. But when he does, let’s hope the Giants don’t cut back Wayne Gallman’s snaps.

Gallman will never be the bell cow of that running game, but the Freeman might still be capable of being, but Gallman appears to have found a groove, rushing for 146 yards on 36 carries (4.05 average) with three touchdowns over the last three games.

3. Matt Peart needs to be in the starting lineup. As in permanently. The Giants’ third-round pick had another solid showing, especially in pass blocking.

I get it that head coach Joe Judge wants to rotate all his offensive linemen, but at this point, if Peart is your future, what good does it do to leave him on the bench for swarths of time?

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4. I’ve been asked why the Giants don’t just cut the cord on receiver Golden Tate, especially since with a 2021 cap hit of $10,852,942, he’s probably not in the team’s 2021 plans.

I get the main argument. Other young players are pushing for snaps, like Austin Mack, who, with Tate inactive, saw five pass targets on which he generated 82 yards on those targets (including picking up some yardage on at least one contested-catch).

Terminating Tate’s contract now means the Giants are on the hook for whatever they’ve paid him from his base salary plus his $2,352,939 prorated signing bonus.

If the Giants wait until the off-season to terminate his contract, they’d be looking at carrying $4,705,884 in dead money unless they designated him as a post-June 1 transaction. 

With the salary cap expected to dip to as low as $176 million next year, the last thing the Giants want to be doing is carrying a hefty amount of dead cap space.

5. With all due respect to my colleague and good friend Chris Russell over at Washington Football, who opined that “the Giants didn't win as much Washington beat itself,” the better team did indeed win this one—just as it has the last four games prior.

6. Hands up! That mantra has been adopted by defensive lineman Dalvin Tomlinson, who now has a team-leading five passes batted down at the line of scrimmage this season. (Why more defensive linemen don’t do this if they get stonewalled is beyond me.)

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7. Remember the days when the Giants coaching staff couldn’t adjust their headsets, let alone the game plan?

Those days are long gone, my friends, and for proof, look no further than what defensive coordinator Patrick Graham has now done twice (both against Washington, no less).

In true Bill Belichickian fashion, Graham has drawn up plays at the eleventh hour, plays that his players don’t always get a chance to practice before it’s showtime.

Such as the case this week on Logan Ryan’s big interception to seal the win, a play I'm looking forward to diagramming.

8. Daniel Jones made it through the game with no turnovers, only the second time in his career that's happened (both against Washington).

But it was close--really close, as Jones lost the handle on a ball while running, though that happened out of bounds. And tight end Evan Engram's bobbling of a catch that thankfully hit the ground rather than ends up being picked off came a little too close for comfort.

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9. I've said it before and will say it again. I think there are times this season when tight end Evan Engram is playing a little too tentatively out there.

I say tentatively because there have been at least two occasions this season where Engram seemed to take his eye off the ball just for a split second to find the converging defender about to crash down on him. That split second has led to incomplete passes.

Engram has stepped up to the podium after every game where he's been inconsistent. On his drop, he explained that he "got a little too excited.".

"I just have to keep working and stay at it all week and stay and catch balls and working on technique - keep eyes on the ball all the way to the tuck," Engram said.

"It was just a play that I wish I could get back and grab it and make play. Those things happen; you just have to overcome it."

Yes, but "those things" shouldn't be happening as often as they have so far this season, either.

10. I don't know what the call "Eli! Eli" signifies on offense, but at one point, I wondered if it was the start of calling out for an audible.

Anyway, I think it's pretty cool that the Giants still have Eli Manning (I assume that's who the call is named for and not fullback Eli Penny) with them in spirit.