At Twickenham Stadium in London, England, the New York Giants won in impressive fashion, scoring 17 unanswered points after trailing by 10 early. They defeated the Los Angeles Rams by that score: 17-10.
In the battle of inconsistent quarterbacks, Eli Manning fared the better of the two sides, but he will be grateful for his defense. Manning connected on 24 of his 37 pass attempts for the Giants, good enough for 196 yards on the day. His counterpart, Case Keenum, will have to have short-term memory. Keenum’s four interceptions led to his team’s demise, despite throwing the football 53 times and gaining 291 yards through the air.
Keenum’s inconsistency costs Rams
The Rams quarterback has shown, at times, that he could possibly be a decent NFL quarterback. Take a look at last week’s stats against the Detroit Lions. Keenum completed all but five of his 32 attempts and looked sharp throughout. However, on the last drive of the game, as Keenum’s offense was driving, he threw a pick to seal the Lions’ victory.
Not only did Keenum throw an interception on the last drive of the game against the Giants, he threw one on the drive before that as well. It would not really make much of a difference if Los Angeles was trailing by a ton of points, but they keep the score close for the most part -- and that is what’s frustrating.
Giants defense stands tall
Two plays into the Rams’ fourth drive of the game, Keenum threw his first pick of the afternoon. He threw it straight to Landon Collins. Collins secured the ball and ran it back 44-yards the other way to give the Giants their first touchdown.
Punts went on to dominate the game for the end of the half, until the early part of the fourth quarter with the pair of teams combining for 11 punts in a row.
Then, at the 12:20 mark of the fourth quarter, Keenum threw the ball to the Giants defense on the first play of the Rams drive. Collins nabbed his second interception and ran that one back 18 yards.
Collins’ interception led to the Giants first offensive touchdown. New York was working on a two-minute drive before Rashad Jennings scored from one yard out.
Los Angeles took a lot of time off the clock on their next drive following the Giants touchdown and looked good doing so. Keenum looked sharp, threw short passes for a couple of yards each throw. But disaster struck on the 11th play, as Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie caught the ball before Tavon Austin could.
With 50 seconds remaining in the game, the Rams were once more marching down the field. But, Brian Quick did not hear Keenum’s audible and promptly lofted a pass straight to Rodgers-Cromartie in the end zone.
Coming up
Both teams will have a bye week in order to rest from their trip across the pond. The Los Angeles Rams are going to host the Carolina Panthers, with a 4:05 PM EST kickoff. On the other side of the country, the New York Giants welcome in division rivals Philadelphia Eagles for an early 1:00 PM EST kickoff.