The New Orleans Saints came into Metlife Stadium today with a showdown with the New York Giants. Last season, when the Saints were home against the Giants, the two teams had an offensive shootout that saw Drew Brees tie the NFL record with seven passing touchdowns. Unfortunately, it would not be that type of game this time around.

The New York Giants ended up irking out a 16-13 win over the Saints to go to 2-0 for the first time since 2009. The Saints are now 0-2 and are in the last place in the NFC South. Next week the Saints try to get their first win of the 2016 season against the Atlanta Falcons on Monday Night Football. The Giants try to go to 3-0 as they welcome the winless Redskins to Metlife Stadium on Sunday.

But before those games, let us look at the three most noteworthy things to take away from this game:

  1. The New York Giants did not need to rely heavily on the offense: Eli Manning’s stat line for this game was that he went 32 for 41 with 368 passing yards. The special teams and the kicker were able to get the Giants the win, so Eli did not need to be on his game. Eli was able to connect with Odell Beckham Jr, Victor Cruz, and Sterling Sheppard. In a sense, you can say that with Eli Manning being able to connect with the three-headed monster of Wide Receivers, it set up Josh Brown to kick his field goals today.
  2. The New York Giants defense was able to limit the Saints offense: Some NFL experts have been saying that this game was a redemption game. When this two teams clashed back on November 1, 2015, the Saints had 608 yards ( 505 passing yards and 103 rushing). Less than a year later, the Giants defense were able to limit the Saints to 288 yards (247 passing and 41 rushing.) One thing could also be said that with how the Giants were able to limit the Saints offense, they were playing like the old time Giants defenses.
  3. The New York Giants were able to have a better 3rd down conversion rate: It wasn’t pretty, but the Giants were able to convert the ball 46% ( 7 for 15) when it came 3rd downs. On the other side, the Saints only converted the ball 23% (3 for 13). I am a firm believer that if you can convert the ball on 3rd down at a decent rate, then you should be able to win the game. By converting on third downs, the Giants were able to keep the Saints offense on the bench a bit longer.

Overall, it wasn’t a pretty win for the New York Giants as it came down to the final seconds of the 4th quarter to win the game. But everyone did their part, and the Giants were able to get help from areas other than the offense.

Also, you need to give a lot of credit to head coach Ben McAdoo who was able to out- coach Sean Payton as shown in the final moments of the fourth quarter. But a win is a win and with how the Giants schedule is somewhat easy, any win will count.

Next week, the Giants play the Redskins as we will see the sequel of Josh Norman and Odell Beckham Jr.