The New York Giants avoided an 0-2 start with a 41-34 come-from-behind victory over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Sunday at MetLife Stadium.
It was a wild affair that saw the two teams combine for more than 900 yards. Eli Manning threw three interception in the first half, but bounced back to throw for 510 yards and three touchdowns as the Giants rallied for the win. Let's look at the reaction from SB Nation's Giants blog Big Blue View and Buccaneers blog Bucs Nation.
Editor of Bucs Nation, Sander, wrote today that:
Going into the fourth quarter of yesterday's crushing loss to the New York Giants, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers were in the driver's seat. They were leading 27-16, had played solid football throughout the game and looked like they would be able to hold on to a win. And then, the craziest fourth quarter I've seen in a long time happened. The Bucs gave up 25 points in the fourth quarter, 6 more than they'd given up all game.
Sander asks the questions all Tampa Bay fans must have today and finds the answer in fatigue:
So what changed from the first three quarters to the final quarter of the game? Was it luck, was it poor play, was it poor coaching and playcalling? I would say all of that has something to do with the late-game collapse, but one factor stands out above all others: fatigue.
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The Buccaneers defense played 84 snaps in this game. Only two defenses in the entire NFL have played more snaps than that in a game so far this season.
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So why were the Bucs fatigued, and what can they do about those huge snap counts? Rotations would help, but the problem there is that the Bucs backup defensive linemen were horrible. In fact, every time the backups were in the game Tampa Bay would give up a big run or pass play.
Over at the blog of the victorious Giants, Kelsey O'Donnell wrote about five key plays from the game, including Victor Cruz's 80-yard touchdown:
Manning's 23rd career fourth-quarter comeback started with an 80-yard pass to Cruz which he ran all the way into the end zone for a touchdown. He rebounded nicely from a Week 1 disaster where he dropped three passes. Cruz ended the day with 179 yards and a touchdown on 11 receptions.
Big Blue View Editor-In-Chief Ed Valentine praised both of Manning's star receivers, among others, for their performances:
[Hakeem] Nicks, bad foot and all, caught 10 passes for 199 yards. Cruz caught 11 for 179. Both players had plenty of reasons not to perform as well as they did on Sunday, but came through when needed. Nicks, of course, has the foot issue. Cruz was coming off the three-drop game in the season opener and dealing with the death of his grandmother last week.
For highlights of the game check out the video below.
For more news on the New York Giants, check out the blog Big Blue View. For more on the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, check out Bucs Nation. For more news and information on the rest of the NFL, check out SB Nation's NFL Hub Page.