New York Giants Week 2 Rewind: Moments That Mattered in Giants' Week 2 Win

The New York Giants held on to a 19-16 win over the Carolina Panthers. Coach Gene Clemons takes a look at the moments that led to victory.

It is a great day in New York when the Giants are 2-0.

From a defensive standpoint, defensive coordinator Don Martindale came up with another outstanding game plan that the players beautifully executed. The offense, meanwhile, is still a work in progress but just like in Week 1, it showed glimpses of what it may be capable of becoming.

Ultimately, the Giants' Week 2 19-16 win over the Carolina Panthers came down to taking advantage of turnovers, a bend-but-don't-break defense, and rising to the occasion when needed most.

Let's look at the sequences that mattered in the Giants victory during their home opener.

Consecutive Takeaways

The Giants could not have dreamed up a better start to this game than what unfolded against the Panthers. They sent the opening kickoff to Carolina running back Chuba Hubbard, who fielded it at the goal line and got to the 25-yard line.

Just then, Carter Coughlin (one of the two Giants linebackers who has become a special teams ace) dislodged the ball, and rookie Dane Belton was “Johnny on the spot,” recovering the ball to give the Giants their first short field, which they converted into three points.

On 3rd-and-22 on the Panthers' opening drive, quarterback Baker Mayfield threw a short pass to Robbie Anderson, but cornerback Darnay Holmes was able to strip the ball away, the loose ball recovered by cornerback Adoree Jackson. The Giants then took almost eight minutes off the clock, scoring three more points for the 6-0 lead.

The touchdown drive to answer a quick touchdown!

Neither team made a significant dent in the scoreboard through the first half. After the Giants went three-and-out, the Panthers got the ball and, in three plays, went 67 yards down the field on two Mayfield-to-D.J. Moore passes, and a Mayfield rush squeezed in between to score seven.

To this point, the lack of scoring touchdowns by the Giants left fans skeptical of the chance of putting a touchdown on the board. However, they were about to get a rhythm on the next Giants possession.

Saquon Barkley had two rushes for 17 yards, and Daniel Jones completed four of his six attempts for 59 yards, which turned out to be the game's final touchdown.

Jones rolled left on a play-action fake to Barkley, and tight end Daniel Bellinger leaked out in the flats where Jones hit him in stride. Bellinger was able to turn the corner and dive for the end zone pylon. It was the most in sync the offense looked all afternoon and at a perfect time where they needed to come up with a drive to give the defense some rest and answer the score by the Panthers.

Giants force a punt and kill the clock for the win!

After an 11-play drive that lasted over seven minutes yet only resulted in another field goal, the Panthers received the ball with 3:34 seconds remaining in the game. The Giants' defense was able to hold the Panthers offense to a quick four plays and force a punt with over two minutes remaining, a full complement of timeouts, and the two-minute warning.

A Barkley six-yard run and a defensive encroachment penalty gave the Giants a first down at the two-minute warning. Jons then scrambled up the middle on 3rd-and-6 to give the Giants a first down with less than two minutes to play and forced the Panthers to use their second timeout.

It was a gritty win by a team that shows that the last few years have not made them accept a losing culture. Nothing is always better than making corrections with a victory in your pocket.

There are a lot of things to correct, especially on offense. Still, there should be a bounce in the players' steps after starting the season, defying the prognostications of analysts and media members who predicted a rough start to the season in the win column. 

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