Why the Giants Look Like a Dark Horse Playoff Team on MNF

Dolphins running back Lamar Miller scored his side’s first two touchdowns to wipe out Giants leads, but Eli Manning made it 17-17 at half-time with a touchdown pass to tight end Will Tye – Manning had earlier connected with Rueben Randle for a six-yard score.

Manning finished the game with a quarterback passer rating of 151.5, marking his best performance since the 2009 season. Instead, it was Beckham’s feet that became stars.Beckham caught a third-quarter pass in the end zone on which his toes were blades of grass away from the sideline to tie the score at 24 with 5:01 left in the third. He is one of the great threats in the game right now and he’s on a streak that can’t be stopped.

The Dolphins’ 12 penalties represented their second-highest total of the season, but what was particularly disappointing for Campbell was the fact four of them were personal fouls. But of all people, his coach dissed that hypothesis today on a conference call.

“You’d love to have that heal and be over with, but it doesn’t look like that’s going to happen”, he said.

There’s no quick turnaround now, though, just a quick glance back, to the days when the Dolphins were a team of destiny, and not the one that continually leaves you longing. And then we got to the point we felt like we had to throw it a little bit more. They have lost five times after holding a fourth-quarter lead. Wide receiver Odell Beckham Jr. ran a post-go pattern and got an 84-yard touchdown, untouched, to provide the final margin.

Does that mean receivers are getting open more against Grimes this year?

Beckham ran a slant-and-go that drew the safety toward the first act of the route, then drove up the field and caught the pass while flashing his sprinter’s speed on the play.

Coughlin needs to do what’s best for his team to get in the playoffs, and Manning to Beckham is far from a desperate measure. Hard to say – and Campbell didn’t even want to even entertain the question Tuesday.

They can’t even play spoiler this week; the Chargers (3-10) are even worse than the Dolphins are. “I think that’s where it all came from”. Thankfully this week, the Giants’ offense closed out the victory on the arm of Manning and a couple of bruising runs by Rashad Jennings.

“Those are the ones you’ve got to make”, Tannehill said.

“They’re playing their keys”, Campbell said of opposing offenses. It was so close that the play originally was ruled incomplete and out of bounds, but Tom Coughlin challenged it.

“The whole theme all week was to play 60 minutes and to finish a game, finish the game, be able to make the kinds of plays necessary when the game is on the line”, Coughlin said. “We played with tremendous heart the entire game”. That’s a tribute to him and the way he goes after it. That’s contagious also. This week, they host the 13-0 Carolina Panthers. They close the season at home against the Ravens (4-9).

“We knew it was a big game because the Eagles and Redskins had won, and we had to stay tied”, Beckham said afterward to a group of reporters. All I know is that the Eagles and ‘Skins still play each other and we all know the Giants will see the Eagles again week 17. It’s going to be tough. Victor Cruz (2,032), Boldin (1,969) and A.J. Green (1,968) put up great numbers to begin their careers, but none of them were within 20 receiving yards of Beckham Jr.’s per-game average at the same point in their careers.