News / Sports
NFL Week 17: NY Giants All But Assured of Playoff Birth with 34-28 Win Over the Washington Redskins
Tiki Barber rushed for a team-record 234-yards and 3 touchdowns to almost certainly put the New York Giants into the NFC playoffs. In his record-setting performance Barber had a pair of touchdown runs of 50-yards or more as the New York Giants (8-8) beat the Washington Redskins (5-11) 34-28.
The Giants, who had lost six of their last seven games, got on the board in the first quarter with a Jay Feely 34-yard field goal but the Redskins responded with an 80-yard drive capped by a 48-yard touchdown pass from Antwaan Randle El to Santana Moss.
After the Redskins touchdown it became the Tiki Barber show. Barber found a seam and busted a 15-yard touchdown run in the second quarter and followed that up with a 55-yard sprint for another score to give the Giants a 17-7 lead. Feely added another field goal and the Giants went into the locker room at the half with a 20-7 advantage.
New York pushed their lead to 27-7 in the third quarter when Eli Manning connected with Tim Carter on a 6-yard touchdown pass.
Washington wasn’t ready to concede to their NFC East rival and they drove 69-yards on 11 plays to cut the score to 27-14 after Jason Campbell hit Ladell Betts on a 7-yard touchdown.
The Redskins put together another long drive in the fourth quarter and T.J. Duckett bullied his way in on a 1-yard run to cut their deficit to 27-21.
Barber, playing in his last regular season game, wasn’t ready for it to be his last NFL game. Mid way through the fourth quarter the Giants running back went 50-yards for his third touchdown of the game and gave New York some breathing room.
Campbell led the Redskins to another touchdown but it proved to be to little to late.
Eli Manning finished with just 101 yards passing for the Giants, completing 12 of 26 attempts. It was clearly the running game of the Giants that put them into the playoffs as Barber accumulated 234 yards on 23 carries.
