After only one first down and not gaining much else on the first drive of the game, Matt Dodge was called in to punt. He continued his struggles this season by fumbling the snap and allowing the Lions to recover, starting at the Giants 43 yard line. A few plays later, Hill converted the turnover into a touchdown catch by Nate Burleson on 3rd and 1 from the 14 on the left side of the end zone to make it 7-0 after the PAT. Detroit wasn't really challenged much by the Giants defense and made them pay for Matt Dodge's mistake.
The Giants second drive ended with Matt Dodge on the field punting again, but this time wearing what looked like a wide receiver's glove on his left hand. When he managed to get the punt off successfully the crowd let out a mock cheer. When the punt hit the ground inside the 5 and was downed on the 4 by Chase Blackburn for a net of 56 yards, the crowd gave him a standing ovation. It felt good to be Matt Dodge for the first time in a while.
The Lions went three and out, punting to the Giants 20 with Reynaud returning it 20 yards to the 40 yard line. Up to this point, the Giants had run 11 plays for a total of 31 yards. This drive was their first good field position, championship teams capitalize in these situations, the Giants made sure to this time.
The drive started with Eli Manning hitting Steve Smith over the middle for a gain of 20, followed by a punishing 6 yard run by Brandon Jacobs and another reception by a diving Smith for 10 yards down to the 4 to set up a 4 yard TD run by Brandon Jacobs up the middle. The key on the touchdown run was a great lead block by Bear Pascoe to set Jacobs free. With the Giants' starting fullback Madison Hedgecock out, Pascoe was put in as the starter in his place. Normally Pascoe is a 3rd string tight end, but he did play fullback in college. In this game he did a great job for Big Blue springing run after run and protecting Manning from the rush time and again.
Giants offensive coordinator Kevin Gilbride had this to say about Pascoe starting for the inured Hedgecock in a report published in the TH-Record: "With Bear, the nice thing is that you can do just about everything that you could do with Madison and the two backs, but now you can also line him up with the two tight ends, one on either side. So, you lose a powerful, bruising, dominant type of blocker, but maybe you gain a little bit more versatility and hopefully that’ll make us a little bit more difficult to defend."
With the game tied at 7, the Giants kicker Shayne Graham, himself starting in place of the injured Lawrence Tynes, kicked the ball out of bounds at the Detroit 11 yard line. Normally that would give the receiving team great field position at their own 40 because of the automatic penalty, but the Lions are no ordinary team. Instead, former Denver Bronco TE Tony Scheffler and RB Jerome Felton collided at the 11 trying to catch the ball, it deflected off of them and out of bounds to give the Lions the ball at the 11. The Lions responded by going three and out and having to punt to close the first quarter.
On the ensuing drive, the Giants went three and out. The Lions followed that up with a three and out of their own, punting the ball to the Giants 7 yard line. The Giants then drove 93 yards for a touchdown when the possession was over.
They got there on a 3rd down pass from Manning to Manningham for 14 yards over the middle. Two plays later, a holding call on Bear Pascoe made it 2nd and 20, but the Lions were penalized for Ndamakong Suh having his hands to Shawn Ohara's face; an automatic first down. On first, Bradshaw ran to the right for 15 yards to create another first down. Two plays later, Bear Pascoe made up for his holding call by dragging the Lions' Julian Peterson three yards after catching the ball for a first down.
Ahmad Bradshaw followed Pascoe for another large gain, this one for 11 yards to set up a 33 yard pass from Manning over the middle to a streaking Manningham to make it 14-7 after the PAT. After the pass, the Lions Cliff Avril put a blatantly late hit on the Giants Manning and was called for roughing the passer, the 15 yard penalty was assessed on the kickoff. Manning went 4 of 5 for 64 yards on the drive.
The Lions ensuing possession, their 5th, had a promising start to it when Shaun Hill hit Calvin Johnson on the right side for a 22 yard gain to convert their 4th third down of the game. The Giants were putting consistent pressure on Shaun Hill all day and finally got to him 2 plays later when they hit and knocked him out of the game with what would end up being a broken left forearm. The Lions are the 2nd team in three weeks using their 3rd string QB against the Giants because their defense has knocked one or more QBs out of the game at this point, a total of 4 QBs have been knocked out of games by the Giants defense this season.
Drew Stanton, a 4th year pro from Michigan State, entered the game and immediately overthrew Brian Johnson while under pressure from Justin Tuck. A few plays later on third down while under pressure yet again by the Giants, Stanton took off and weaved through the Giants defense for a 9 1/2 yard gain diving at the first down marker and almost making the play. On the next play, the Lions went for it from their own 43 yd line and converted.
As the half wound down, the Lions were able to cobble together enough yards to give kicker Jason Hanson an attempt from 50 yards out that he converted with no time left in the half to make it 14-10 Giants.
In the second half, the Giants appeared to be pulling away with the lead and the momentum after stripping Stanton on a sack by Osi Umenyiora and taking possession of the ball at New York's 43 on Tuck's fumble recovery. The Giants went on to score a touchdown on a 3 yard play action pass to Travis Beckum after multiple penalties by the Lions inside the 5 yard line gave the Giants three first and goals in a row before they punched it in on third and goal after two failed run attempts by Brandon Jacobs. The score was 21-10 at this point with a 3rd string QB in and no running game to speak of...the only ones who thought they had a chance were the Lions themselves.
On the next possession the Lions didn't change anyone's mind by going three and out, but they soon made believers out of at least a few people. They forced the Giants to go three and out and resumed possession of the ball at the 7 yard line after the punt by Dodge. Drew Stanton jammed a ball in to Calvin Johnson, who was double covered, down the left sideline and he took it 87 yards for a TD to make it 21-17 after the PAT. The Lions would not die, they would not give up. "There were missed tackles after the catch, they are the number one team in the league in yards after the catch," said Tom Coughlin of the 87 yard touchdown by Johnson.
On the following kickoff, the Lions' Zach Follett was injured on a helmet to helmet collision with the Giants' Jason Pierre-Paul and was on the field motionless. He was carted off with his head taped down to a stretcher after about 20 minutes to a round of applause from the crowd at New Meadowlands Stadium. Follett was later transported to a local hospital and had limited movement below his neck.
Lions' coach Jim Schwartz huddled his team for a few minutes as their team mate was carted off. They responded by playing listlessly on that drive and having to punt the ball. Their defense fared no better, playing a lifeless possession that gave up a 46 yard run to Bradshaw and an eventual 6 yard TD run by Brandon Jacobs to make it 28-20 Giants with time running out for the Lions. "It was great man, we felt good. The offensive line did a great job, I have to give it to them. They opened up a lot of holes...they handled every blitz," said Ahmad Bradshaw after the game.
On their next possession, the Lions were able to gain enough yards to give Jason Hanson a 50 yard field goal attempt, which he converted, to make it 28-20. They kicked it short to the Giants who ended up punting. With time running out the Lions went into the 2 minute drill and went to work.
On third and ten Stanton scrambled 20 yards for a first and seemed to be rolling. The Giants called a timeout with their defensive line needing to catch their breath and came to the line against the Stanton and the Lions. Stanton dropped back, was flushed out of the pocket by the pass rush and drilled a ball down the middle to the tight end Pettigrew that went high and through his hands into the welcoming hands of Giants safety Antrelle Rolle for an interception to seal the game for New York to roaring approval from the home fans who were given quite a scare by the Lions this afternoon.
Eli Manning trotted out to kneel on the ball and triumphantly walked off the field for the fourth time this year against two losses. The Giants dropped to 1 win against 5 losses. "They played well, they had a nice run going. in terms of the teams we studied, they were in position to win all their games," said Coach Coughlin, "they did a good job of building the first downs, but ultimately we came away with the win." He added "We earned the 4-2, we battled back, let's hope it keeps going."
"It was a pretty good day...scoring four times in four trips to the red zone, you know, that's what you got to do" said Eli Manning at the post game press conference. With three wins in a row and a game against the reeling Cowboys next week on Monday night, things are looking up for the former champs. Manning later added "Dallas is very talented...their offense is explosive, they score a lot of points. We're going to have a great week of preparation and see if we can go out and play some good football." If the offense can go next week without any turnovers like they did this week there's no reason why they can't play some good football and pull out a win on national TV against a desperate Cowboys team.
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