Eli Manning threw his third touchdown pass of the game on a fourth-down gamble by rookie coach Ben McAdoo, as the New York Giants beat the Cincinnati Bengals 21-20 on Monday night for their first four-game winning streak since 2013.
Manning threw scoring passes of 10 yards apiece to rookie Jerrell Adams and Odell Beckham in the first half, and a game-winning three-yard effort to rookie Sterling Shepard on a daring call with New York (6-3) down 20-14 early in the fourth quarter.
Manning, who was 28 of 44 for 240 yards and two interceptions, said McAdoo told him at three-quarter time that the Giants were in four-down territory, so he knew they were going to go for the touchdown on three plays from the Bengals' nine.
The fourth quarter started with an incomplete pass intended for tight end Will Tye. A six-yard pass to Tavarres King set up the fourth-down pass to Shepard.
"Shepard just had a shallow route," Manning said. "We talked about it where, if he needed to make a move, he could. He ran right by him and we kind of flooded the area. They doubled Odell and he ran right by the linebacker."
Shepard cut across the field from right to left and scored easily.
"Just put it in the end zone," Shepard said when asked his thoughts on the play. "Field goals aren't going to do you much good in this league, and the coaches had trust in us, and that's what we had to do."
The Giants' defence took over from there, closing it out on Landon Collins' fourth interception in the past three games and two stops, the last on consecutive sacks of Andy Dalton with less than five minutes to play.
Dalton threw a 13-yard touchdown pass to AJ Green and Jeremy Hill scored on a nine-yard run that was set up by an 84-yard kickoff return by Alex Erickson to start the second half. Mike Nugent kicked two field goals for Cincinnati (3-5-1), the second giving the Bengals a 20-14 lead early in the third quarter.
"It was a game that went back and forth and we didn't win the back and forth enough," Bengals coach Marvin Lewis said.
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