EAST RUTHERFORD Kareem Martin Color Rush Jersey , N.J. —Tampa Bay Buccaneers, 38-35, on Sunday at MetLife Stadium. The Giants have won two straight and are now 3-7. The victory was their first of the season at MetLife Stadium in five tries.The Giants finally sealed a wild game when B.W. Webb intercepted a deep pass by Jameis Winston with 13 seconds to play, the Giants’ fourth interception of the game. The Bucs had scored touchdowns on their four previous possessions since Winston replaced starting quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick.Coach Pat Shurmur said the nail-biting victory was “hard on the heart.”The Giants got the four turnovers, including a Pick 6 from linebacker Alec Ogletree, and a fourth-down stop.“Four turnovers is outta sight, plus a stop on fourth down, which is essentially a turnover,” Shurmur said. “That was awesome.”At 3-7, the Giants are now only 3 games out of first place in the NFC East after the Redskins lost to the Houston Texans, 23-21. The Redskins also lost their starting quarterback when Alex Smith was carted off with an ankle injury.“Crazy, isn’t it?” asked Shurmur. “That’s what I said through the first eight weeks. You just gotta keep playing. You never know.”Eli Manning completed his first 11 passes and finished 17-of-18 for 231 yards and 2 touchdowns. Manning’s passer rating of 155.2 was his best since he went 19-of-26 for 268 yards and 3 touchdowns against the Washington Redskins on Dec. 21, 2009 as the Giants won, 45-12.“I think there is some excitement going around,” Manning said. “It is good. It is a good feeling to have in the locker room and you see some growth, You see the improvement. You see guys getting familiar with their spots and what they are doing.”The 38 points the Giants scored were their most since a 52-49 loss to the New Orleans Saints in Week 8 of the 2015 season.Saquon Barkley had his best rushing game as a pro and his ninth 100-yard game from scrimmage in 10 NFL games. He rushed 27 times for 142 yards and two touchdowns Robert Thomas Color Rush Jersey , and caught two passes for 10 yards and another score.Odell Beckham Jr. caught four passes for 74 yards and a touchdown.The Buccaneers ended up with 510 total yards of offense, but the turnovers and the fourth-down stop proved to be enough to help the Giants win a shootout with Tampa Bay.“This was our first victory in front of the home crowd,” Shurmur said. “We were thrilled we were able to do that. It’s too damn late in the year for it to be the first one ... I’m just glad that they (fans) were able to watch a victory.”Moments that matteredTwo quick scores: The Giants scored on their first two possessions. They went 63 yards in 6 plays for a touchdown on their opening possession, with the score coming on a 6-yard pass from Manning to Barkley.The Giants took their first two-score lead of the season on their second possession, going 95 yards in 12 plays (6:36) with Saquon Barkley going 5 yards for the touchdown. That gave the Giants a 14-0 lead with 13:37 left in the half, their biggest lead of the season.The Bucs scored on fourth-and-goal from the 1-yard line when Fitzpatrick scrambled in to make it 14-7.Fourth-down stop: After the Giants’ opening score, Tampa Bay drove to the Giants’ 5-yard line before Fitzpatrick was stopped on fourth-and-1.Michael Thomas bails out OV: The Giants missed a scoring opportunity late in the first half when a drive stalled at the Tampa Bay 37-yard line after Manning and Barkley missed connections on a third-and-2 wheel route with Barkley unable to haul in a throw that was behind him.The Bucs got a break when a third-and-10 roughing the passer penalty on Olivier Vernon gave the Bucs a first down at their 49. Vernon then committed neutral zone infractions on back-to-back plays, pushing the ball to the Giants’ 41-yard line and giving the Bucs an opportunity to tie the game before halftime. Michael Thomas intercepted a Ryan Fitzpatrick pass intended for O.J. Howard at the Giants’ 13-yard line, though, ending the threat with 30 seconds left in the half.A Pick 6: The Bucs got the ball to start the second half and Alec Ogletree gave the Giants a 21-7 lead on the second play of the half. He picked off a Fitzpatrick pass for DeSean Jackson that Janoris Jenkins batted into the air, returning it 15 yards for a touchdown just 37 seconds into the half.FitzMagic fizzles: Fitzpatrick got replaced by Jameis Winston late in the third quarter with the Giants ahead 24-7. Fitzpatrick finished 13-of-21 for 167 yards and three interceptions, which came on the final three possessions he played.Winston led the Bucs on four straight touchdown drives, and this was a 38-35 game in favor of the Giants with 2:22 to play.The Giants answer: Needing to do something to stem the Buccaneers’ momentum after the Bucs got within 31-28 with 5:11 to play, the Giants’ offense answered. A 54-yard pass from Manning to Evan Engram put the ball at the Tampa Bay 11-yard line. Three straight handoffs to Barkley, the last a 2-yard touchdown run, gave the Giants a 38-28 lead with 3:52 to play.Injury newsGiants’ defensive end Kerry Wynn left the game in the third quarter after suffering a concussion.What’s next?The Giants go down the road to Lincoln Financial Field to face the Philadelphia Eagles next Sunday. The Eagles defeated the Giants 34-13 in a Week 6 game at MetLife Stadium. The Divisional Round is usually one of the most exciting weekends of the NFL season Cody Latimer Color Rush Jersey , but what we got instead was three games that were never really in doubt and one close game to round out the weekend. Still, there are a few takeaways we can find from these games as we turn toward crowning a conference champion this weekend.The pass set up the runAll of the winning teams this weekend did a great job running the ball, but not all of them ran the ball to win. There’s going to be a lot of looking at the final rushing numbers with some concluding the ground game was the reason these teams won, but like many instances, these teams got to run because they were winning and so much of that running was set up by the passing game.The Kansas City Chiefs took a 7-0 lead on their first drive with gains of 11, 16, and 34 through the air. Kansas City also had the biggest pass-to-run ratio of the weekend on 1st and 10 in the first half — 12 passes against just four rushes — and they averaged 9.25 yards per play on those. 16 of Damien Williams’s 24 rushing attempts and 87 of his 129 rushing yards came in the second half of the game when the Chiefs started with a 24-7 lead.In Los Angeles, the Rams have been using the passing game to open up lanes on the ground throughout the Sean McVay era. With a consistent look of 11 personnel (three wide receivers) and tight splits (receivers inside the numbers), the Rams use the threat of the pass to create advantageous running opportunities with their offensive line against light boxes. Even as the Rams were successful on the ground, C.J. Anderson faced a box of eight defenders or more on just 17.4 percent of his attempts Saturday night, per Next Gen Stats. Todd Gurley saw a stacked box on just 6.3 percent of his attempts. Those splits are really all you should need to see what defenses focus on to stop the run — and it’s not the back.New England jumped out to a 35-7 halftime lead with 31 drop backs and 18 rushing attempts. That lead was gained through the air. The Patriots barely topped a 50-50 run-pass split in the second half with 13 pass attempts against 14 non-Brady kneels rushing attempts.Chargers kept it lightAgainst the Baltimore Ravens last week, the Chargers played almost exclusively with seven defensive backs on the field to match the speed of Lamar Jackson and the rest of the Baltimore offense. They stuck with that defense to start against the Patriots, but the problem there is New England doesn’t have the same athletes and the offense is a little more traditional. There doesn’t need to be an extra defensive back to account for the quarterback on runs because — I’m not sure if you’ve ever seen Tom Brady — that quarterback isn’t going anywhere. The strategy hit a bump early when safety Adrian Phillips got injured, though he returned to play 72 percent of the defensive snaps.During the regular season, the Patriots faced just 14 plays against seven defensive backs on the field per Sports Info Solutions — three rushes for 32 yards, eight passes for 38 yards Evan Engram Color Rush Jersey , and three sacks. But New England went into this game prepared for an all-DB defense and the Chargers had no counter once things didn’t go their way.Ghosts of Monday nights pastNow deep into the playoffs, we have moved away from the ESPN Monday Night Football crew and any inane commentary that goes along with it and, oh no.(breathes deeply)The Rams thing is just, wow. How anyone could think that offensive line was a liability heading into the weekend is amazing and there’s no possible way to think that after the Dallas game. The Rams were first in Adjusted Line Yards during the regular season — by a fair amount — and first in ESPN’s Pass Block Win Rate as a whole with the No. 1 tackle, No. 3 guard, and No. 5 center, individually. Even the LA run defense, which was 28th in DVOA, hasn’t been that much of a liability because the pass defense was good (ninth in DVOA) and rarely did rushing attempts matter against the Rams because they were always ahead (see the game against Dallas).Kansas City’s secondary has also been the better part of the Chiefs’ defense. The Chiefs were 12th against the pass by DVOA, but 32nd against the run, so if there was a run defense that could be a liability it was in Kansas City.The Eagles’ secondary has been patched together, but they finished the season 15th in pass defense DVOA. Their struggles against the Saints on Sunday had more to do with static zone coverage on long third downs and not adjusting for things like Michael Thomas sitting wide open in the hole in coverage rather than being completely outmatched.Get ready for pointsThe playoffs have been pretty chalky this season — both Conference Championship Games feature the No. 1 and No. 2 seed — but there could not be a better set of games than what we’re going to get this coming weekend. The four teams left were first, second, fourth, and fifth in offensive DVOA this season. Week 9 gave us a 45-35 Saints win over the Rams in New Orleans and Week 6 gave us a 43-40 Patriots win over the Chiefs in New England. These offenses are going to light up the scoreboard and we’re in for a Super Bowl shootout no matter who plays — though we should all rooting for Chiefs-Rams Part 2.