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Last year, the Giants closed a 1-3 preseason with a 38-27 loss to the Patriots and proceeded to win their first five games by an average of 16 points. The point being that there's probably no point in trying to read too much into New York's 20-17 victory against New England that closed a 2-2 preseason last night. Except that it was a good night for Eli Manning, the only NFC East starting quarterback to play in his team's preseason finale.
Manning incurred a three-inch forehead gash in New York's preseason opener. He missed the next week and didn't look sharp when he returned against Baltimore on Aug. 28. But Thursday night against their Super Bowl XLII opponents, Manning led a nine-play, 86-yard opening drive that he finished with a 13-yard touchdown pass to tight end Kevin Boss.
"It puts a team together when you can go down the field and be able to put the ball in (the end zone)," said Ahmad Bradshaw, who seemingly has supplanted Brandon Jacobs as the Giant's No. 1 back. "It gives us a lot of confidence and it helps us go further along the road."
Before donning a baseball cap, Manning was 7-for-9 for 91 yards and the touchdown.
"We've had some field goals and we've moved the ball well at times in the preseason, but we haven't gotten a touchdown with that first group, so it was important for us to go in there and get a touchdown drive," Manning said. "That's what you want to have in (regular season) games. You're in good sync, good rhythm, you're in control of what's going on. That's how we felt on that first drive."
Coach Tom Coughlin, whose Giants hadn't played well in losses to Pittsburgh and the Ravens, liked the performance against the Patriots.
"We played better," said Coughlin, whose offense was missing ailing center Shaun O'Hara and whose defense was minus injured tackle Chris Canty and cornerback Corey Webster. "That's the bottom line."
For Boss, a great Springsteen-like name for a player who calls Jersey home, the bottom line is the Sept. 12 opener against Carolina which thumped the Giants 41-9 during the penultimate week of New York's 3-8 tailspin that finished off last season.
"We have a little revenge (coming)," Boss said. "They beat us pretty good there at the end of last year, and we're looking forward to getting on the field with them and starting the regular season off on the right foot."
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