Giants win over the Vikings 27-20.
Kerry Collins was 25-for-35 for 300 yards, 2 TDs and 1 INT.
Ron Dayne had a 30 yard touchdown run.
Tiki Barber rushed 24 times for 127 yards.
Tiki Barber caught 7 passes for 46 yards.
Giants offense scored a season-high 4 touchdowns.
Amani Toomer caught an 11-yard touchdown pass.
Ron Dixon had 107 yards receiving.
Charles Stackhouse scored the first touchdown of his career.
Cornelius Griffin had a sack and a fumble recovery and four tackles.

The Giants made it a close game.
"As usual. They always give you your money's worth, but I wouldn't complain if it didn't go down to the wire all the time. Even when the Giants win, they leave you with new problems to think about. We lost Ike Hilliard a few weeks ago, and today we lost Tim Carter. If that's not enough, Ron Dixon gets hurt too, and the last I see of him he's limping off the field at the end of the game. We had all this talent in the receiver spot, and suddenly we don't have enough guys to take the field."

There's the kicking problem too.
"What's that all about? I remember not too long ago, Matt Bryant winning the Seattle game for us by hitting on three field goals for the 9-6 win. Now, the holder has changed, and we can't kick field goals or even make the point after. The whole seemed messed up. They fumbled the snap once for an extra point, and another time for a field goal, and then Bryant missed a field goal.
I don't know if it's the snapper or holder or Matt Bryant, because later he missed an extra point with Jesse Palmer holding. I'm thinking that Bryant might have been a basket case by then with all that happened earlier. Hopefully they can figure this out before next game, against the Redskins and our old friend Jessie Armstead."

At least they pulled it out.
"When you say 'they', you're really talking about Tiki Barber. Tiki wouldn't allow us to lose. He had the most receptions this game, and the must runs. Tiki Barber is the whole Giants offense, and they almost wore him out. I've said it before, but it's worth repeating. Giant fans, you have to vote Tiki Barber into the Pro Bowl. Just go to the link at the top of our Team Giants page, or to the NFL Giants site, and vote!"

What happened to the kicking game?
"It looks like Jim Fassel played too much fantasy football and got burned. They had dropped punter Rodney Williams and picked up Matt Allen. Allen is a rookie and seemed to be working out with a net average of 36.1 yards, sixth-best in the conference, except that twice he was stuck running with the ball instead of punting it away.
When Denver dropped Tom Rouen, Fassel decided to trade up again, stating, "There are some concerns about Matt as we move forward." Choosing Rouen's experience over Matt Allen, the Giants decided to overlook the fact that Rouen's net is only 31.7, in part because of two blocked kicks.
When Tom Rouen took over for Matt Allen, he also took over the holding duties and didn't have much time to work with Matt Bryant who was 11-for-11 on field goals up till then. Matt Bryant was concerned because things were going so well, but said. 'It's just part of the game. You can't just say, 'I can't kick unless I have this guy holding for me.'
Fassel said that he would be comfortable with Rouen coming in on short notice and playing in last Sunday's game against the Jaguars. "It's not like he's coming in to play quarterback," said Fassel. "He doesn't have to play. He just has to punt."
Well, Rouen had a punt partially blocked, and with him holding, Bryant missed two field goals. Today we have this mess. The kicking game had seemed settled and now it's turned into a major problem. By the way, Matt Allen is still on the roster, so who knows how this will play out."

The Giants almost let it get away.
"They did a great job against Daunte Culpepper. He didn’t throw an interception but was an ineffective 9-for-20 for 91 yards, and had completed only one pass to their big playmaker Randy Moss for 5 yards.
The fireworks started in the fourth quarter when Culpepper was benched for Todd Bouman. The Giants greeted Bouman with a sack, and then Frank Ferrara knocked the ball from his hands on the next play and the Giants recovered the ball. Bouman wasn't rattled by that and on his next series, Bouman opened the drive with passes to Randy Moss for 48 and then 32 yards. Next play, Moe Williams rushed up the middle for a 1 yard touchdown, to cut the Giants lead to six. The next series, Bouman passed incomplete, and then with 2-10 at the Vikings 22, Michael Bennett rushed up the middle for a 78 yard touchdown, and the Vikings had the lead."

Teams have been cleaning up on the Giants, running up the middle.
"Yes, in every game since Keith Hamilton was knocked out for the season. They have to do something about that right away. On the next series, the Giants moved downfield mostly with Kerry Collins passes to Ron Dixon, Tiki Barber, and Jeremy Shockey. Tiki ran the ball in for a touchdown on an 8 yard run.
They followed that up with a 2 point pass from Kerry Collins to Marcellus Rivers. The defense held the Vikings, and the Giants wisely let Tiki Barber run the ball four times, two of them for first downs and that killed the Vikings timeouts and the clock."

Giants amassed 460 yards of offense.

Giants 4 touchdowns gave them 7 in the last two weeks, matching their total for the first seven games.

Tiki Barber rushed 24 times yesterday for 127 yards. It was his second straight 100-yard performance.

Giants recorded a season-high 5 sacks, one each by Mike Barrow, Kenny Holmes, Cornelius Griffin, Michael Strahan and Frank Ferrara.

Giants did not have an interception for the sixth consecutive game, matching their longest such streak since 1965.

Tim Carter suffered a torn right Achilles tendon with 4:46 left in the second period.
Carter tripped while running a route next to the covered-up pitcher's mound and fell to the turf.

Carter is the third key player - and second wide receiver - to be lost for the season in the last four games.

With Carter out, RB Delvin Joyce took over on kickoff returns, returning three for an average of 24 yards.

Giants, with seven games remaining, have four healthy receivers, Amani Toomer, Ron Dixon, rookie Daryl Jones and running back Sean Bennett, who was moved to receiver after Hilliard's injury.

Ron Dixon sprained his knee on a 29-yard catch on the Giants' game-winning touchdown drive.

Giants failed on both field-goal attempts and two extra points, due to problems in snapping, holding and kicking.

Vikings outscored the Giants 14-8 in the fourth quarter. The Giants have been outscored 77-34 in the final 15 minutes of games this season.

Next Game
Nov 17, Washington at Giants, 1:00PM

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