See, Antrel: The fans won’t boo your team off the field at halftime when you take a 21–0 lead into the locker room. Yesterday’s 31–7 win was never in doubt, actually, from the touchdown on the opening drive — the first time that’s happened all season — to the Corey Webster interception on the game’s final play. Brandon Jacobs would run in that first-drive score, and on a windy day on which the Giants would rely on their running game, he and Ahmad Bradshaw would combine for four touchdowns and 200 yards rushing.
Of course, this is exactly what the Giants (a team fighting for a division title, or at least a Wild Card spot) should do at home against Washington, a team that’s now lost four games out of five. (And though the Giants have just one home game remaining, this aspect of the schedule worked out nicely: The Giants will play slumping Washington twice over the final five weeks of the season, while the Eagles will play Dallas, winners of three out of four, twice over the final four weeks.)
In any case, it’s required in any Giants post to look at the day’s turnovers, and they turned the ball over just once yesterday, on an ill-advised Eli Manning pass into the end zone. Meanwhile, Washington lost four fumbles, and Donovan McNabb threw an interception in the end zone as well (plus the one on the game’s final play) on a day the Giants cruised. (The Giants, by the way, sacked McNabb four times — two of those were credited to Jason Pierre-Paul — while for the fifth straight game, Eli Manning wasn’t sacked once.)
Said Jacobs after the game: “Running the football is how you win in December. If you don’t have that, unless you’re an indoor team, you’re in trouble.” Of course, next week they will indeed play indoors, at 5–7 Minnesota. But by then, help may be on the way in Manning’s receiving corps.