Saquon Barkley leads New York Giants destruction of Redskins

You’d have to think long and hard to remember the last time the New York Giants had a game under control by halftime.

There was irony in this New York Giants 40-16 victory over a hapless Washington Redskins squad, who seem to be playing out the schedule, after their two top quarterbacks were lost for the season. Between the two broken legs suffered by Alex Smith and Colt McCoy, the heart of the ‘Skins seems to be have been ripped away as well.

The ironic part is that Big Blue can actually play better.

Before we get into rookie quarterback Kyle Lauletta’s debut, which was a complete dud, understand that Eli Manning left plays on the field. Manning took a sack when he shouldn’t have, and turned a potential six points into three, but he also had three touchdown passes and a 132.0 quarterback rating.

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Wideout Sterling Shepard had an outstanding game blocking, and saved Manning from himself, on an ill-timed goal line out pattern that should have been intercepted.

Never has 170 rushing yards looked easier in the NFL than it did for running back Saquon Barkley. The Penn State rookie also had four receptions for 27 yards, which left him just short of 200 total yards from scrimmage, yet included an all-too-easy 78-yard score in the second.

To his credit, Barkley conceded he left six-points on the field after another long first half scamper (52-yards).

Barkley said, per Giants.com:

"“I remember mid play, I’m running and I’m reacting to how I think I’m going to set this dude up. All I see is Shepard, boom, just killed a guy. And mid run I’m like, woah, that was impressive. But I’ve got to be better there. I’ve got to crack in the end zone. That’s why I didn’t get in the end zone. Shep’s block got my mind somewhere else other than where it should be. No, but seriously no, I really got to find the end zone even though we happened to score on that drive.”"

Kicker Aldrick Rosas missed an extra point and indeed showed he was human. And the Redskins back-up to the third-string quarterback Josh Johnson came into mop-up duty and promptly led his team to a couple scores, not a good ending to a day for the Giants that should have been 100 percent positive.

The statistics were mostly gaudy, and the domination was complete, and the good news is that this team can make adjustments and still improve. After a season and a half of hell, the New York Giants need to look at vanquishing this NFC East rival as part of the journey, and not the final destination.

All teed up

As far as the New York Giants back-up quarterback situation, Lauletta got his first work in as a professional. In a word, it was ugly.

The former Richmond Spider was 0-5 passing, with an interception, and fortunate that it wasn’t two picks. No one expected Lauletta to make folks forget Tom Brady, but his quarterback rating was zero.

That in and of itself was comical because he would have thought that anyone could play worse than Washington Redskins quarterback Mark Sanchez. Sanchez went 4-16 on the afternoon with two interceptions, including a deflected pick-six by safety Curtis Riley. The former New York Jets draft pick had 10.7 quarterback rating, which falls in the Geno Smith range for anyone paying attention.

Sorry folks, this one gets graded on a bell curve, which in and of itself demonstrates improvement by the New York Giants. At the beginning of the season, everyone was simply hoping for a victory. Then after getting over the hump with a post-bye week win over the San Francisco 49ers, the team wanted to play better and achieve a win.

Vanquishing the playoff bound Chicago Bears changed the paradigm yet again, once again in an upward trajectory.

Now, taking the field in a game you’re supposed to win, and putting the lid on it before halftime. That’s called progress, with the additional bonus of showing signs of relevance in the NFC East. While relevancy becomes more apparent next season, there’s still one more quiz to take on Dec. 29th versus the Dallas Cowboys. That game will be a true measuring stick.