The Giants defense got challenged by coordinator Perry Fewell after last week’s humiliating performance in New Orleans and they’ve responded with a stronger performance.
Of course, playing the Packers means that a strong half gets you a four-point halftime deficit. Aaron Rodgers hit a wide-open Donald Driver with 70 seconds to go in the half to give the Pack a 21-17 lead. It came at the end of a drive that saw Rodgers use his feet to escape danger from a resurgent Giants pass rush more than once to move the chains and get the Packers into scoring position.
The defense has had to do a lot of heavy lifting because of a pair of Eli Manning turnovers. He threw a terrible ball that Clay Matthews picked off for a touchdown and Matthews then forced a fumble just before halftime. B.J. Raji recovered it near midfield after both teams stood around thinking it was an incomplete pass despite never hearing a whistle. The Giants don’t have the margin for error in this game or in their season to make such mistakes.
Manning has had his good moments as well, including a 67-yard touchdown to Travis Beckum that opened up the scoring. Victor Cruz also continued his breakout season with several big plays and they’ll need more of the same in the second half to pull off the upset. The defense will also have to keep up their play, something that could be more difficult after safety Kenny Phillips left the game with a knee sprain.