Counter to my belief, Brett Favre's streak of consecutive starts came to an end last night, and without Favre under center, the Vikings struggled mightily on both sides of the ball. His replacement, Tarvaris Jackson, completed just 50% of his passes and threw one pick, and after leaving the game in third quarter, HIS replacement, third-stringer Joe Web, passed for a mere eight yards on two completions.
The winning quarterback didn't play much better, as Eli Manning tossed two interceptions and put up just 187 yards through the air.
But, the key to the Giants' win last night was their ground game. The G-Men ran for 213 net yards, thanks to efforts from Ahmad Bradshaw and Brandon Jacobs. If they get that kind of production from those two backs every game (and particularly next week against Philadelphia), they'll be in good position to knock off the Eagles in that divisional race,as they currently sit tied up. The magnitude of that rivalry will definitely be amplified going into this weekend's showdown.
As good as New York was on the ground, the Vikings were equally bad at getting their own running game going. The Giants' efforts in holding Adrian Peterson to 26 yards were extremely impressive, and I'm interested to see how they'll contain dual-threat QB Michael Vick on Sunday.
The second game had a much more dramatic finish, if not the same drama surrounding the players (i.e. Brett Favre). Despite Matt Schaub's Herculean efforts in carrying the Texans back from an 21-point deficit, it was his mistake that led to a Houston loss, as Josh Wilson took back his errant throw for the Ravens' final, sudden-death score. That loss marks the fourth time this season that Gary Kubiak's team has come back from at least 14 points down to either tie or lead....and lost.
The comeback wasn't all Schaub, however. Andre Johnson took over the game as well, hauling in nine passes for 140 yards and two touchdowns, one of them a deep bomb in which he burned Ravens safety Ed Reed. But, the former Miami Hurricane would come up even bigger, as he snagged a Schaub throw in the back of the endzone to pull the Texans within two. Those two plays, along with his overall effort, were among the better efforts I've seen from a receiver this year.
The fact that the Texans completed 31 throws on the Ravens' secondary (on a whopping 61 attempts), exposed that unit, yet it wasn't enough, and at this point that's perhaps the biggest thing that can be said about the Texans right now. In a game where they had all the momentum, they couldn't take advantage of their opportunity to seize control.
Jon Harbaugh's crew, on the other hand, ultimately did just that thanks to big plays. While Joe Flacco did connect with veteran Derrick Mason for two scores, Baltimore got its biggest boost off of a David Reed kick return, and the Wilson pick-six to end the game. The cornerback's positioning and great read on the throw gave him a shot, and the rest is history.
The way they achieved it wasn't the prettiest game the Ravens have ever played, but a 'W' in the win column certainly looks good this late in the season.
--Beau
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