A sputtering New York Giants offense and late, costly pass interference penalty on cornerback Donte Deayon saw the New Orleans Saints come out of MetLife Stadium with a 33-18 victory in Week 4.
After cutting the lead to eight and seemingly stopping the Saints on a 3rd-&-8 with two-and-a-half minutes left, Deayon’s hold on Michael Thomas gave the Saints a second-chance, allowing Alvin Kamara to put the icing on the cake with a 49-yard touchdown run.
Eli Manning and the Giants attack were tame once again for a majority of the day as they gained 150 of their 299 total yards on their two drives that ended in touchdowns.
Manning threw for 255 yards and a score while rookie running back Saquon Barkley was held for 44 on the ground with a touchdown as well.
It was an underwhelming and disappointing effort against a struggling Saints defense that was allowing an average of 421 yards per game in 2018.
Their lack of execution left the defense out to dry, which initially did well to slow down the dangerous Saints offense before things fell apart in the second half.
While quarterback Drew Brees threw for just 217 yards with no passing touchdowns, Kamara put up a combined 181 yards with three scores to pace New Orleans.
Things looked promising for the Giants after a dominating opening offensive possession, a strong showing against the Texans in Week 3 looking as though it created some momentum for a unit that has struggled for the past two years.
Manning led the Giants on a 10-play, 75-yard scoring drive that clocked in at just under five minutes. Sterling Shepard capped things off with a two-yard touchdown reception to put New York up with eight minutes left in the first quarter.
Things ground to a sudden and painful halt though as the Giants gained just 27 yards in their next three drives of the first half.
It was a dangerous game to be playing against a dangerous Saints offense, yet the Giants were only trailing by five at halftime thanks to a defense that bent, but it didn’t break at all over the game’s first 30 minutes. New Orleans saw four drives get into the Giants red zone, but the defense came up big and held the Saints to Will Lutz field goals each and every time.
They broke in the second half, though.
A Kamara nine-yard touchdown rush capped off an 80-yard drive that carved New York open with relative ease. The score capped off a stretch of 19-unanswered points from the Saints.
A Giants field goal briefly interrupted the Saints onslaught as Kamara’s lunging effort from three yards out put New Orleans up 16 and seemingly put the game away with six minutes remaining in the game.
The Giants offense stirred toward the end as Barkley’s one-yard, leaping score before a Shepard two-point conversion brought New York back to within a possession with 3:44 left.
The ensuing kick-off saw Ted Ginn muff the catch, bobble possession before being tackled on the Saints three-yard-line before Brees and Kamara took advantage of the Deayon penalty.
