G-Men spike Vikes

Randy Moss had a monster day, but so did Kerry Collins who tossed 3 TD passes and forced the Vikes to play catchup all day.

Neither team scored on their opening drive. Minnesota started their second drive deep in their own territory. On a 3rd and 5 from their own 36 Culpepper hit Moss with a 31 yard pass off play action. The drive stalled, but Gary Anderson split the uprights with a 50 yarder to make it 3-0. After a touchback New York drove 66 yards to Minnesota's 14 when Ron Dayne busted thru a huge hole and ran to paydirt. Minnesota couldn't move the ball on the next series, so Mitch Berger put the Giants on their own 33. Collins drove the team down to MIN's 34 and on 4th and 12 they elected to go for it. Brad Daluiso's didn't have a 51 yarder in his leg, but Kerry Collins had a 20 yard pass to Amani Toomer in his arm. Minnesota dug in and Robert Griffith stopped Tiki Barber cold on the 12. This time Daluiso came on to make it 10-7. The Vikes gamble on a 4th and 1 from their own 47. A screen pass to McWilliams was snuffed out and the G-men took over on downs. Barber took an inside handoff 27 yard on the first play of the drive to bring the G-men to MIN's 20. 3 plays later Greg Comella rambled 11 yards off a dump pass in the flat while the Vikes were blitzing. This made it 17-3 NY with 5:24 left to go in the half. With 4:32 to go in the half and the ball on their own 18 Culpepper tried to hit Cris Carter in double coverage, but Shaun Williams would not have anything to do with a Viking success. Williams jumped the route and cleanly picked off the pass and took it down to the Vikes 12. Two plays later Collins hit Ike Hilliard at the 1 to get a fresh set of downs. The big Dog, Ron Dayne, took it in for his second TD of the day and just like that the score was 24-3 NY.

The Vikes controlled the ball for most of the 3rd quarter, but only had 10 points to show for it. A quick FG by Anderson and a surprise onside kick recovery let to their domination of the clock. Cupepper hit Cris Carter for a 6 yard toss to make it 24-13. Early in the 4th Collins hit TE Pete Mitchell with a 30 yard TD pass to make it 31-13. No lead is ever safe vs the explosive Viking offense and when Robert Smith banged it in from the 1 with 7:14 left the score was 31-20. Minnesota attempted another onside kick, but this time NY recovered on MIN's 43. Four plays later Collins hit Hilliard in the back of the end zone for his 3rd TD toss of the day. With 4:13 left to go the score was 38-21 G-men, which is how it would end. NY moves to 1-1 and MIN drops to 0-2.