Giants win against the Patriots 22-19.
Kerry Collins made 5 of 6 passes for 84 yards, and 1 TD.
Sean Bennett rushed 8 times for 32 yards and caught 6 passes for 56 yards.
Jesse Palmer was 13-19 for 124 yards, 0 TDs and 1 INT.
Antonio Warren had 10 rushes for 63 yards.
Ron Dayne had 7 rushes for 11 yards, and 1 TD.

It was a back and forth game.
The Patriots scored first, and they really came out strong with their first play of the game, a long 62 yard pass to Deion Branch. They established themselves as the dominant team, the Super Bowl champions, just in case the Giants were feeling too good about themselves after last week. Still, the Giants led at the end of every quarter. They did a nice job, except for special teams of course, but that seems to be the norm. I mean the coverage seemed maybe a bit better, but the kicking game was lousy this time out."

What players stood out?
"Well, the first unit wasn't in there long, but Kerry Collins was very effective again this week, and the whole offensive line held up good again. Just having Shockey in there opens things up for the offense, and Sean Bennett looked real good. At quarterback, Jesse Palmer was running the team just fine.
Ron Dayne looks better lately catching the ball than running it, although he did have that 1 yard touchdown run. Antonio Warren made some nice moves on his touchdown run and on the two-pointer, Frank Ferrara pulled in that interception, and Derek Dorris shines on special teams.
I guess Ron Dixon always scares me. He's like the good, the bad and the ugly all rolled into one. He'll make some great catches and runs, and the next thing you know the ball is out there loose, with what seems like all the players on the field fighting over it, and replays are being called. I mean, he has a lot of skills, but I just don't know about him."

Your thoughts on the game?
"It went a lot better than last year when the Giants lost to the Patriots 14-0. In that game, the Giants managed only 6 first downs to the Patriots 19, and gained only 92 yards to the Patriots 338. This time, the Giants were more in line with the Patriots, with 19 first downs to the Patriots 16, and total yards were 328 to the Patriots 377.
I know the Giants were initially concerned with having to play 5 preseason games, all of them in a short period of time, but maybe it's put them ahead of the other teams. Anyway, before anyone gets excited about beating the Super Bowl champs, we still have to remember that this was just a preseason game, and the Giants were experiencing their second full contact game, compared to the Patriots first."

They did a lot with Sean Bennett.
"No kidding. It was like they suddenly realized they had to see what Sean Bennett could do, and had to do it right now. After giving him just one play in the first quarter and one play in the second, they started the third quarter off with three plays to Bennett. The Giants didn't get the first down and had to punt, and the next time they decided to work Bennett, the series of consecutive plays went like this:
Bennett runs for 12 yards, Bennett runs for 3 yards, Palmer passes to Bennet for 8 yards, Palmer passes to Bennett for 12 yards, Bennett runs for 2 yards, Bennett runs for 4 yards, Palmer passes to Ron Dixon for 6 yards, Palmer passes to Bennett for 13 yards, Bennett runs for a 1 yard loss, Bennett (having suddenly played more football now than he has in the past two years) runs for 2 yards, and then fumbles.
Those ten plays all happened within a span of 5 minutes. What did it prove? That Sean Bennett is only good for about eight or nine plays in a row before he screws up? Overall, Sean looked good, rushing eight times for 32 yards and catching six passes for 56 yards."

What's up for next week?
"It's the Atlanta Falcons, and they opened their preseason with a 23-13 win over the Jacksonville Jaguars. They have Fred Taylor back after missing most of last season. They have a hot, number one draft pick in Duckett, and they came up with 5 sacks in that first game. The Falcons should be good competition for the Giants next week."

Just because the Houston Texans are an expansion team, and the Giants beat them last week 34-17, doesn't mean they're easy. They've gone on to win their second game against the New Orleans Saints 13-10.

Overall Jim Fassel was dissatisfied with special teams play, he singled out Darnell Dinkins, the fourth quarterback on their roster, as the best player on special teams.

LT Luke Petitgout did not play, experiencing headaches after last Monday's game.

DT Keith Hamilton missed the game because of an illness in his family.
Ross Kolodziej started in his place

Rookie Darian Barnes started at fullback and made a good catch of a Kerry Collins pass thrown behind him in the first quarter.

Fassel's take on the game? "We won," Fassel said. "But to me right now I told them it's always important to win the game, but it's more important to show improvement. And we didn't show enough improvement."

Next Game
Sat., Aug. 17 Atlanta Falcons 4:00 PM ET

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