Giants take advantage of Rams’ generosity to win home opener

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. -- Steve Spagnuolo jogged out to midfield shortly after the final gun, shook hands with mentor Tom Coughlin and probably wished him well the rest of the season.

It's not known what the New York Giants coach said, but it should have been: ''Thank you," because Spagnuolo and his error-prone St. Louis Rams gave the New York Giants a gift win Monday night.

Eli Manning threw two touchdown passes, and linebacker Michael Boley scored on a 65-yard fumble return to lead New York to a 28-16 victory over the Rams. It was the first matchup between Coughlin and the former defensive coordinator who helped the Giants win the Super Bowl over Tom Brady and the New England Patriots in February 2008.

"It seemed when they gave us a little opening, we jumped in there and got points and scored touchdowns and didn't settle for field goals," said Manning, who completed 18 of 29 passes for 200 yards, with one interception.

This one was ugly, with mistakes by the Rams (0-2) giving New York (1-1) a crucial win after a disappointing loss to Washington in the season opener.

"It's a little bit of the same story as last week, we shot ourselves in the foot," said Spagnuolo, who kept the media waiting 25 minutes after the game before talking. "It's difficult enough to beat any football team in this league without doing that, when you kind of beat yourself."

All four of New York's touchdowns resulted directly from St. Louis mistakes.

Manning hit Hakeem Nicks with a 3-yard touchdown pass after a muffed punt, and Domenik Hixon made a spectacular juggling grab on a 22-yard score after a busted coverage late in the first half. Boley's touchdown came on a misplayed lateral, and New York's final score was set up by a third-down pass interference call early in the second half.

Sam Bradford threw a touchdown pass and Josh Brown kicked three short field goals for the Rams, who moved up and down the field, gaining 367 yards. The one area they could not move was in the red zone.

"The thing I liked about what we did tonight was we showed resiliency," said Giants Pro Bowl defensive end Justin Tuck, who had 1½ sacks in his first game of the season after sitting out the opener with a neck injury.

Bradford, who was 22 of 46 for 331 yards, might have made the biggest mistakes, throwing a pass backward and seeing Boley run it into the end zone.

It was that kind of night for St. Louis.

The Rams killed themselves in the red zone. They settled for three short field goals after drives stalled inside the Giants' 10, with the first coming after they got a first-and-goal at the 1 following a 68-yard catch and run by Danario Alexander, who had three catches for 122 yards.

New York built a 21-6 halftime lead and was never threatened again.

After Manning threw an interception deep in Rams territory on the opening drive, the Giants looked lost for a couple of minutes, until the Rams woke them up with their first big mistake.

It resulted because St. Louis was without regular punt returner Danny Amendola. Greg Salas took his place and muffed Steve Weatherford's punt, with Dave Tollefson recovering at the 38.

Nicks, questionable for the game with a bruised knee, put New York ahead with the 3-yard TD catch. The score came after New York got a first down at the Rams' 9 after Bradley Fletcher was called for pass interference against Nicks.

A 25-yard field goal by Brown closed the gap to 7-6 later in the quarter, and the Rams seemed to be in position to take the lead early in the second quarter when Bradford moved them to the Giants' 27.

However on third-and-8, Bradford tried to throw a halfback screen to Williams, who was lined up as a receiver. The pass was thrown backward, making it a lateral, and Boley picked up the fumble and ran 65 yards for the touchdown that made it 14-6.