The Giants' first home Monday night game in eight years was one to celebrate.
Opportunistic on both offense and defense, the Giants took charge with two second quarter touchdowns and earned a 28-16 victory over the St. Louis Rams in MetLife Stadium that raised their record to 1-1.
Eli Manning threw touchdown passes to Hakeem Nicks and Domenik Hixon, Brandon Jacobs rushed for a score and Michael Boley picked up a fumble and returned it 65 yards for another touchdown.
This was the first time the Giants hosted a Monday night game since Sept. 15, 2003, when they lost to the Dallas Cowboys in overtime, 35-32. It was their first home Monday night victory since Oct. 18, 1999, when they beat Dallas, 13-10.
St. Louis, which fell to 0-2, scored on a touchdown pass from Sam Bradford to Danario Alexander and three Josh Brown field goals. The Rams traveled inside the Giants' 20-yard line four times, but settled for field goals on three occasions.
**Postgame Quotes
**QB Eli Manning: *It is great to get the first win each season. The division is wide open and three teams are 1-1 in the East. We have Philadelphia this week; going up against a good team, a good defense that knows us well, I thought we played good at times. I thought there is still room for improvement. We had some new guys running around in there but in some key moments in the game, I thought we stepped up and played well. *FULL TRANSCRIPT
                              [BOX SCOREPassing Leaders
STL |
C/ATT |
YDS |
AVG |
TD |
INT |
RAT. |
Bradford |
22/46 |
331 |
7.2 |
1 |
0 |
79.2 |
NYG |
C/ATT |
YDS |
AVG |
TD |
INT |
RAT. |
Manning |
19/30 |
223 |
7.4 |
2 |
1 |
91.2 |
Rushing Leaders
STL |
CAR |
YDS |
AVG |
TD |
LG |
Williams |
13 |
36 |
2.8 |
0 |
9 |
Bradford |
3 |
15 |
5.0 |
0 |
17 |
NYG |
CAR |
YDS |
AVG |
TD |
LG |
Bradshaw |
15 |
59 |
3.9 |
0 |
15 |
Jacobs |
16 |
50 |
3.1 |
1 |
9 |
Receiving Leaders
STL |
REC |
YDS |
AVG |
TD |
LG |
TGTS |
Alexander |
3 |
122 |
40.7 |
1 |
68 |
7 |
Sims-Walker |
6 |
92 |
15.3 |
0 |
33 |
11 |
NYG |
REC |
YDS |
AVG |
TD |
LG |
TGTS |
Manningham |
3 |
56 |
18.7 |
0 |
31 |
7 |
Bradshaw |
5 |
45 |
9.0 |
0 |
23 |
5 |