Daniel Jones and the New York Giants improved to 3-0 when they defeated the Cincinnati Bengals, 25-23, Thursday night at Paul Brown Stadium.
In their first road preseason game of 2019, the New York Giants defeated the Cincinnati Bengals (1-2) to improve to 3-0. For the third straight game, head coach Pat Shurmur had to have been pleased with his team’s effort, especially from his young players.
After the Giants defense forced the Bengals offense to punt on the first possession of the game, the Giants marched down the field 66 yards on 15 plays and scored the first points of the game on an Aldrick Rosas 41-yard field goal. In what would be his only series of the game, Eli Manning completed four out of right passes for 41 yards.
The Bengals would score the first touchdown of the game on an Andy Dalton 26-yard touchdown pass to tight end C.J. Uzomah.
Dalton's Dimes ???@AndyDalton14 | @CJUzomah81#NYGvsCIN pic.twitter.com/hIWkKDSjXW
— NFL (@NFL) August 22, 2019
The Giants would retake the lead 10-7 midway through the second quarter on a Rod Smith one-yard touchdown run. The highlight of the drive featured a rookie-to-rookie connection when Daniel Jones completed a 27-yard pass to Darius Slayton to the Bengals one-yard line.
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The game would be tied at halftime following a Randy Bullock 50-yard field goal. The game would remain tied until 13:08 remaining in the fourth quarter when quarterback Jake Dolegala threw a three-yard touchdown to Damion Willis to put the Bengals up 17-10.
Big Blue would go back in front 18-17 on the very next possession of the game as Jonathan Hilliman one-yard touchdown run, followed by a two-point version on a Kyle Lauletta pass to Alonzo Russell.
Their lead would extend to 25-17 moments later as Brittan Golden returned a punt 68 yards for the touchdown with just 6:58 remaining in the game.
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However, after the Giants defense forced a three and out, Golden made his one blunder on the night as he muffed a punt, and the Bengals Mason Schreck recovered the fumble at the Giants 35-yard line. Seven plays later, the Bengals closed out the scoring on a Dolegala two-yard touchdown pass to Josh Malone with 2:43 remaining in the game. They tried to connect again on a two-point conversion but the attempt failed.
It took the Giants eight plays to run off the clock and come away with a 25-23 victory.
Daniel Jones, once again, showed why he’s been the Giants preseason MVP, and why Gettleman took him with the sixth-overall pick. He completed 9-of-11 passes for 141 yards.
The Giants will close out their preseason schedule next Thursday when they travel to Foxboro to take on the defending Super Bowl Champions New England Patriots.