The NFL’s 2017 Thanksgiving slate ended with a real turkey, a poorly played game that saw Washington beat the New York Giants, 20-10. Washington improved to 5-6, and the Giants fell to 2-9, further continuing their lost season under head coach Ben McAdoo. Kirk Cousins made the difference with 242 yards and two touchdowns on 19-of-31 passing.
The first half was largely putrid football with both teams trading punts and failing to generate any kind of consistent offense. A pair of field goal drives ended up being the only points as New York and Washington went into halftime tied, 3-3.
Washington finally found the end zone late in the third quarter with Cousins hitting Jamison Crowder for a 15-yard touchdown. But the game suddenly turned when Cousins threw a 53-yard pick-six to Janoris Jenkins, tying the game back up, 10-10.
Not much happened after that, but Washington got the lead back with a 14-yard touchdown pass to Josh Doctson. Manning got strip-sacked shortly afterward, ending what little hope of a comeback New York had. Washington got one more field goal to salt the game away.
4 things we learned
1. The Giants offense is broken beyond repair
This offense has bigger problems than missing Odell Beckham Jr. and Sterling Shepard. Manning was badly off-target for most of the night, and a DOA running game didn’t help matters. Manning had only 60 passing yards in the first half and couldn’t get anything going for the second half, finishing with a dismal 13-of-27 passing for 113 yards, an interception, and a lost fumble.
There are a lot of reasons why the Giants fell to 2-9 and put McAdoo on the hot seat. A fundamentally broken offense is probably the biggest reason why.
2. Washington dearly misses Chris Thompson
Thompson was one of the few bright spots in an offense decimated by injuries, but Washington lost him last week when he broke his leg, ending his season. Cousins clearly missed Thompson, a valuable asset in both the run and pass. Samaje Perine did well picking up chunk yards in the fourth quarter and ended with 100 yards on 24 carries. But without Thompson as an X-factor, Washington’s offense struggled to get out of first gear for most of the night. This will be a recurring problem down the stretch.
3. Washington stays slightly alive in the playoff race
The NFC East race is well out of reach with the Philadelphia Eagles at 9-1, but by moving to 5-6, Washington stays in the wild card conversation for at least one more week. It’s still well behind several teams and has a million injury concerns, but the team isn’t dead yet. It’ll try to build on this when they face the Dallas Cowboys next week.
4. The real losers were the viewers at home
This sequence in the fourth quarter summed up the game pretty well.
#Redskins bring the punt team on 4th and 1. Call timeout. Bring the offense on the field. Can’t get the right personnel on the field. Delay of game. Punt.
— Master Tesfatsion (@MasterTes) November 24, 2017
This game is not watchable.
It’s probably a good thing that this happened after most people’s turkey comas kicked in. For those less fortunate, they had to watch one of the worst games of the season. The best part about this game was when it ended.