|
 |   |
|
EVENTS Fantasy Central Inside Game Multimedia Central Statitudes Your Turn Message Boards Email Newsletters Golf Guide Cities Work in Sports
CNNSI.com GROUP
COMMERCE |
EAST RUTHERFORD, New Jersey (Ticker) -- The New York Giants' prayers for offense were finally answered. Kent Graham's 53-yard "Hail Mary" touchdown pass to Joe Jurevicius on the final play of the first half capped a 17-point second-quarter outburst that propeled the Giants to a 31-3 rout of the offensively-challenged New Orleans Saints. "I felt like New Orleans is a good football team that has just lost it in the fourth quarter," Giants coach Jim Fassell said. "Mike (Ditka) had them ready to play, they were coming out hard, the key to this game was our guys were making some plays, our third down conversion rate was real good. Our defense was very consistent." The Giants (4-3) called two timeouts during the final possession of the first half -- New Orleans even wasted one in an attempt to force New York to punt -- allowing Graham to stick a dagger in the hearts of the Saints (1-5). New York spread three wide receivers to the right and Graham unleashed a throw that reached the end zone. Defensive back Sammy Knight got his hands on the ball, but tipped it right to Jurevicius, a second-year player from Penn State who hauled in his first career touchdown reception to give the Giants a 24-3 lead. "We work on it once a week in practice. Some people may think it's luck but we pay attention to detail," said Jurevicius. "It was great it happened like that. The only job I have got to do is get down there and get behind and wait for a tip." "It felt good when I let it go," said Graham. "Once he was in the end zone I knew he had a good shot at a touchdown." The 24 points were more than New York had scored in a game this season. It totaled 266 yards of offense in the first 30 minutes after averaging 268 through the season's first six contests. The Giants finished with 321 yards of offense. Graham completed 19-of-29 passes for 238 yards and two touchdowns while also running for a six-yard TD just over 11 minutes into the game to open the scoring. It was the Giants' first offensive touchdown in 12 quarters and 178 minutes. "I know how close I was (to 300 yards)," Graham added. "I was trying to get there but I don't care, we won the game." Meanwhile, the Saints stalled so badly that Ditka called the peformance "embarrassing" during a halftime television interview. New Orleans would get its only points of the afternoon on the final play of the first quarter, when Ditka passed up a chance to go for it on 4th-and-1 and Doug Brien booted a 25-yard field goal. "Obviously there is not much you can say about today, we were disorganized offensively," Ditka said. "I guess we are the elixir that makes everybody happy, when we show up everyone else seems to get better. We will keep trying, we can't blame anybody, I have to take the fall, I am the coach." The Saints totaled just 270 yards of offense, most of that coming after the game was out of reach. Billy Joe Tolliver was 14-of-33 for 176 yards and intercepted three times, including twice deep in New York territory. "I thought we had a good game plan we just didn't execute, you can't turn the ball over on the road, its tough enough at home," said Tolliver. "Two of them (interceptions) I didn't see." Excluding a game with Washington in which they were blitzed for 50 points, the Giants have allowed just 11.8 points per game in their other six contests. Cary Blanchard's first field goal as a Giant 4:12 into the second quarter gave the Giants a 10-3 advantage. With 1:03 to play in the first half, Graham's beautiful toss into the left corner of the end zone was caught by Amani Toomer for a 27-yard score. Toomer entered the day leading the NFC in receptions but had been without a touchdown catch. Blanchard was signed by the Giants during the week after Brad Daluiso suffered a season-ending injury in Monday night's victory over Dallas. "Its nice to get back and start kicking the ball again, to get that one field goal and to get those kickoffs after not playing for awhile," Blanchard said. The day of firsts continued into the third quarter, when Joe Montgomery scored on a 12-yard run, the first career touchdown from the rookie from Ohio State. Montgomery's run up the middle through an inept Saints defense came one play after linebacker Jesse Armstead picked off Tolliver and returned it to the New Orleans 12-yard line. Montgomery and LeShon Johnson combined to carry 32 times for 64 yards in place of Gary Brown, who had season-ending knee surgery earlier in the week. "The line did a great job blocking, my job was easy, I just went in there cut back and it was there," said Montgomery. "It's funny I had to go against my locker-room buddy at Ohio State Rob Kelly who is a linebacker, he was the last tackle I had to break." The day was not all bad for the Saints and it also did not go perfectly for the Giants. New Orleans rookie running back Ricky Williams surpassed the 100-yard barrier for the first time in his career, totaling 111 yards on 24 carries. The rest of the team, however, combined for one yard on the ground. Despite their best all-around performance of the season, the Giants took a beating. Armstead was forced out of the game because of a rib injury, safety Shaun Williams appeared to seriously hurt his left hamstring and safety Percy Ellsworth suffered an ankle injury. Ellsworth had one of New York's interceptions, as did linebacker Ryan Phillips. Tight end Pete Mitchell had his best game in a Giants uniform, catching five passes for 69 yards. Jurevicius hauled in two passes for 63 yards and Toomer totaled 59 yards on three receptions. Eddie Kennison led the Saints with 62 yards on five receptions. "Everybody's trying to figure out what's going on, everybody is taking responsibility," said Saints center Joe Fontenot. "It was a rough day, the bottom line is we can't put the ball in the end zone."
|
