Coming off of a tough loss to the Philadelphia Eagles, the Super Bowl champion New York Giants knew that their next game against the winless Cleveland Browns was a must win.
Even though there are no guarantees or easy games in the NFL, the Browns were the last "easy" game for the Giants for the rest of the season. Want proof?
Next week the Giants must fly out to the west coast play the San Francisco 49ers before hosting Robert Griffin III and the Washington Redskins at home. Then they play on the road at the Dallas Cowboys before hosting the Pittsburgh Steelers at home. And that's only the next four weeks.
New York came out looking to start fast, but the beginning of the game was a complete mess for the Giants. Running back Ahmad Bradshaw fumbled on the first play of the game to set up a Trent Richardson touchdown.
Then after punting the ball back to Cleveland, the Giants allowed a 62-yard pass from rookie Brandon Weeden to Josh Gordon to take a 14-0 lead in the first four minutes.
"I was angry at myself for the fumble and I just used it," Bradshaw said to the Associated Press. "I was disappointed with the fumble, but you put it out of your mind. I knew I was cool. We knew the running game was there, we were confident."
The game had disaster written all over it, but Bradshaw would have his revenge. He made up for his fumble by punishing the Browns defense for 200 yards rushing and a touchdown.
"It was across the board," Bradshaw said of the rushing effort. "Inside, outside, left or right, the line was doing everything right."
The Giants went on the offensive, outscoring the Browns 27-3 the rest of the first half. Lawrence Tynes kicked a field goal for the Giants before Eli Manning tore apart the Cleveland defense through the air.
Ahmad Bradshaw added a rushing touchdowns and Manning hit Victor Cruz for his first of three touchdowns on the day to go up 24-17. Tynes added another field goal and the Giants never looked back.
Manning had a fantastic game, completing 25-37 for 259 yards and three touchdowns.
In the first half Weeden threw an interception to Stevie Brown on third-and-1 from the Giants 25 and on the next possession Cleveland fumbled, allowing the Giants another chance to score.
"I was trying to make a play. It was stupid," Weeden said. "I should have airmailed it and let Phil (Dawson) kick a field goal. That was the one throw I want back."
Weeden had a solid game, throwing for 291 yards and two touchdowns. He also threw two interceptions and is leading the league with seven on the season.
"We've been starving for turnovers," said Giants coach Tom Coughlin. The win tied Coughlin with Bill Parcells for regular-season coaching victories with the team at 77.
A week after being shut down by the Eagles, the Giants ran for 243 yards on the ground. Rookie David Wilson had a breakout game, adding a 40-yard touchdown that should help him get out of coach Coughlin's dog house.
Wilson has been limited as a running back since fumbling in the opening game against Dallas; he has been successful returning kicks the past few weeks. He had a chance to play in this game after backup Andre Brown left the game with a concussion.
"We started out fast and got an early lead," coach Pat Shurmur said. "We had a three-minute stretch before the end of the first half that was, 'Wow, you can't do that against a good football team.' "
Victor Cruz had a career day, scoring three touchdowns and adding five catches for 50 yards.
"We showed how resilient we are," said Cruz. "We started off rough, getting behind the 8-ball a bit, but we were able to keep our wits about us. We understand we'll be able to make some plays offensively."
The Browns fell to 0-5 for the first time since 1999 and gave up over 500 yards total to the Giants.
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