EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. -- A few thoughts on the New York Giants' 30-20 victory over the Atlanta Falcons at MetLife Stadium.
What it means: The Giants are 3-2, over .500 for the first time since the end of the 2012 season. And they are smack in the middle of the NFC East race with games the next two weeks against division foes. The most impressive thing about their third straight win was the ability of Eli Manning and the offense to play from behind. The Giants were down 20-10 with 21 minutes left in the game.
Stock Watch: Odell Beckham Jr., UP. There was nowhere else for Beckham's stock to go after he missed all of training camp and the first four games with a hamstring injury. But the Giants' first-round pick consistently got behind defenders and seemed to make things very difficult for the Falcons' defense when he was on the field during his debut. Beckham had four catches for 44 yards, including the 15-yard touchdown catch that gave the Giants the lead in the fourth quarter. He's likely to see his snap counts increase in the coming weeks, assuming his hamstring holds up.
Jennings down: The Giants did get some potentially very bad injury news in the game, though, when starting running back Rashad Jennings left in the third quarter with a sprained knee. Rookie Andre Williams did a very good job filling in, barreling over the Falcons' defense on a touchdown run and even catching a pass, which is not something he does well. If Jennings has to miss games, they believe Williams can fill in. But they start to look very thin at running back.
Game ball: Johnathan Hankins. It had to be someone on the Giants' defensive line after the way they turned up the pass rush to a smothering level in the second half. And I was going to go with Jason Pierre-Paul, who was unstoppable for the entire second half. But Hankins was a key part of the Giants' ability to collapse Matt Ryan's pocket on the interior of the line, and his fourth-down sack in Falcons territory with about five minutes left in the game sealed the victory.
What's next: The Giants have a critical two-game NFC East road stretch before their Week 8 bye. They travel to Philadelphia to play the Eagles at 8:30 p.m. ET on Sunday, then the next week they face off against the Cowboys in Dallas.
