Eli Manning and Company have been unbeatable, but they still have lots of room for improvement.

On Sunday the major priorities were stopping the run on defense and reviving their dominating rushing attack on offense. The Giants were able to both in their 24-0 defeat over winless Tampa Bay.

Just a week after they surrendered 251 rushing yards and needed a field goal with time expiring to defeat the Cowboys, the defending champions of the NFC (3-0) were able to push around the struggling Buccaneers (0-3) from the start all the way to the end of the game.

Manning had two touchdown passes and Ahmad Bradshaw and Brandon Jacobs led their revived and powerful ground game that during the previous two weeks had been absent.

Tom Coughlin, Giants coach said, coming in we had a few objectives. We had one game where we did not play very good against the run. We knew they would test us and that we would need to rise up to do a much better job. We knew also that we would need to run the ball much better. We did a fairly good job doing that.

The Buccaneers have lost seven games in a row, dating back to an 0-4 record last December that cost them a spot in the playoffs. The Giants out gained them 397 to 86 yards. It was late third quarter before they got a first down.

It was the first shutout for the Giants since October 2005 when they defeated Washington at home 36-0, and was their first road shutout since November 1983 when they beat Philadelphia 23-0.

Raheem Morris, rookie head coach of Tampa Bay who is still looking to get his first win said, they were able to beat us down.

Today we got beat by a team of grown men. One day we would like to be that kind of a team, said the youngest head coach in the NFL. They came in and really took it right to us. They out gunned us, out manned us. It was not even close.

Manning went 14 for 24 for a total of 161 yards. He followed up on last week’s impressive performance in New York’s dramatic 33-31 win in Dallas. During the closing minutes he led the Giants on their game winning drive that helped to produce the field goal of 37 yards by Lawrence Tynes as the game time expired.

Early fourth quarter Manning left the game after a touchdown pass of 18 yards to Sinorice Moss gave the Giants a 24-0 lead. David Carr, backup quarterback, and a defense depleted with injuries finished the game. The Giants were able to preserve their shutout when they stopped Tampa Bay on downs with five minutes to play at the Giants five yard line.

Jacobs said, our defense was very impressive. I knew that they would come out to play with chips on their shoulders.

During the second quarter Manning threw a touchdown pass of four yards to Steve Smith, and Jacobs scored on a 6 yard running touchdown on an 80 yard drive which was New York first possession in the game. The Giants had scoring drives of 64, 66 and 72 yards as well, and dominated time of possession, holding the ball 43 minutes and 38 seconds to Tampa Bay’s 16 minutes and 22 seconds.
The Giants ran the football 226 yards, following two 200 yard games against the Redskins and Cowboys. Bradshaw had 104 yards in 14 carries, while Jacobs ran for 92 yards in 26 carries.

Meanwhile, the Giants held the Buccaneers to only 28 rushing yards in ten attempts. Derrick Ward had only 2 yards in five carries against his former team after rushing last season for 1,025 yards while playing with the Giants.

Michael Clayton, Tampa Bay receiver said, it was embarrassing and disappointing. We need to play a lot better.

For the third week in a row, Tampa Bay fell behind and got taken away from their game plan of running the football to wear their opponents down, especially on humid, hot home games.

New York was able to flip the script around by running forty plays during the first half while Tampa Bay ran only 14. They also out gained the Buccaneers 215 yards to only 19 as well as a 14-0 advantage in first downs, averaging almost six rushing yards per carry.

Justin Tuck of the Giants played despite having suffered an injury to his left shoulder the week before when he was tripped up by Flozell Adams of the Dallas Cowboys. It could be argued that the defense of the Giants didn’t need him really.

Mathias Kiwanuka, Tuck’s replacement, hit Byron Leftwich just as he was releasing a pass. Terrell Thomas, starting for Aaron Ross, injured cornerback, intercepted the first quarter pass.

During the fourth quarter Leftwich was replaced after going only 7 for 16 for a total of 22 yards passing with one interception. Josh Johnson, backup quarterback, led Tampa Bay on a promising drive. However, the Buccaneers were not able to avoid getting shut out. The last time Tampa Bay failed to score was the season opener to the 2006 season when Baltimore defeated them 27-0.

Tampa Bay had only five first downs, tying the fewest they have ever had in franchise history.

Morris said, we don’t have any choice. We have to get better than our performance today. We had only five first downs. On third down we went 0-9 and had only 86 yards on offense. It was a complete disaster.

It appeared for a moment that Terrell Owens was going to be a non-factor during his game playing for the Buffalo Bills. Then in the next minute, fans were spilling their popcorn as they celebrated throughout Ralph Wilson Stadium.

Just when the offense of the Bills needed a spark, Owens provided it with his touchdown of 43 yards with five minutes gone in the fourth quarter, as the Bills beat the Buccaneers 33-20 on Sunday.

With help from their opportunistic defense led by their safety Donte White, Buffalo was able to put their lingering frustrations from last week aside, where they squandered a lead of 11 points during the final 2:06 of the game and lost to New England 25-24 in the season opener.

After the game Owens didn’t hang around to talk about things. Apparently he is unhappy with the way some of the media questioned him for refusing to talk after the Patriots game.

Teammates of T.O. Were very excited to see the deep threat presence of Owens pay off finally. The touchdown came after he had been limited to just two catches and 9 yards receiving, and coming after Buffalo had almost blown a 17-0 lead versus Tampa Bay.

Trent Edwards, Bills quarterback said, we were both excited. I don’t really remember what we said. I just hope honestly that it continues to happen. That is why we got him.

Edwards showed his faith in Owens when he hit him while in stride right at the goal line, where he was one step ahead of Aqib Talib, Buccaneers cornerback.

It was also a sign for Edwards that he is starting to shed the “Captain Checkdown” label he earned during the preseason. He showed once again the he isn’t afraid going deep when he connected on a touchdown pass of 32 yards with Lee Evans to open the scoring up. Edwards went 21 for 31 for a total of 230 yards with an interception and two touchdowns.

Evans said, it all comes down to having opportunities. Trent was not afraid of taking chances. You need to always have the deep play as a threat. I think today that we put it out there on the table that we would do that.

The win for Buffalo ended their five game losing streak at home, and also occurred during the first home game for Owens since he signed a one year deal in March with the Bills.

The Bills being able to capitalize against the once highly respected Tampa Bay defense certainly helped, as the Buccaneers continued giving up long passes after their season opener 34-21 loss last week to Dallas.

In the Bills two games under Raheem Morris, their new rookie head coach, Tampa Bay has allowed 900 offensive yards including Buffalo’s 438.

Ronde Barber, veteran cornerback for Tampa Bay said, they were able to dial some things up against us that we really should have been able to stop, but we didn’t. Refusing to speculate over what was going wrong, Barber replied that you should ask the coaches. I am not going to make any kind of statement on that.

In addition to the two long passes for touchdowns that they gave up, Barber was unhappy as well with missed tackles on Fred Jackson, Bills running back, which enabled him to gain 163 yards rushing.

Barber said, it is totally unacceptable. Good defenses are all good tackling defenses.

Coach Morris tried to keep an even keel, although he clearly was unhappy with the defense and Tampa Bay’s lack of discipline. The Buccaneers had 13 penalties for a total of 112 yards.

Morris said, I am not really worried in terms of their confidence. But they have to play better.

On a more positive note, the offense for the Bucs does continue to be productive. Byron Leftwich was 26 for 50, passing for a total of 296 yards and had three touchdowns as well as two interceptions. One of the interceptions bounced off receiver Sammie Stroughter’s hands.

Kellen Winslow had a total of 90 receiving yards and scored a touchdown. Jerramy Stevens and Carnell Williams scored as well.

It appeared that Buffalo was about to break the game open with their 17-0 lead even before the first quarter ended. Except for the touchdown by Evans, Whitner was perfectly positioned to intercept the pass from Leftwich that sailed over Williams’ head.

Late first half Tampa Bay regained some momentum when Jackson fumbled the football inside Tampa Bay’s 14 yard line, and Sabby Piscitelli, safety, returned the ball 72 yards. Leftwich connected with Williams one play later for a touchdown of 8 yards to cut the Bills lead down to 20-14.

However, Whitner helped the Bills shut the door early third quarter with his burst into Tampa Bay’s backfield and tackle of Derrick Ward on fourth down and one for a loss of one yard.

For Whitner it was a complete emotion turnaround, after the loss last week which left him in tears.

Edwards said, last week we learned a lesson. It was a valuable lesson that we will need for the entire season. We need to finish games. We did that today.

The Dallas Cowboys and Tony Romo figure that they will do just fine not having Terrell Owens.

It is easy understanding why when they are surrounded by a supporting cast full of talented players like Felix Jones, Marion Barber, Jason Witten, Miles Austin, Patrick Crayton and Roy Williams.

On Sunday, Romo began the post Terrell Owens era with 353 yards passing, his career best, along with three long touchdowns, keying the Cowboys win and spoiling the coaching debut of new Buccaneers coach Raheem Morris.

Without T.O. he had his career high in passing yards, Williams laughed before he turned serious.

No, it’s all good. It is good for him and good for our team, the replacement for Owens added. We had a team effort. Everyone contributed.

Austin was able to elude two tacklers near the sideline and score on a reception of 42 yards right before halftime. Early third quarter Williams was able to streak right through the error prone Buccaneers secondary on a 66 yard touchdown.

Romo connected with Patrick Crayton on an 80 yard pass play, the longest completion in Romo’s career, for a touchdown in the fourth quarter which effectively ended any hopes that Tampa Bay might have had for a comeback. Crayton caught four passes for a total of 135 yards.

Dallas head coach Wade Phillips stated, we knew going in that they are play makers. But until you are able to do it, all of the naysayer will say, you don’t have this, you don’t have that. I think that we do.

Byron Leftwich, Tampa Bay’s quarterback, went 25 for 41 passing for a total of 276 yards and had no interceptions. However, the relentless pass rush of the Cowboys gave him a beating after Romo put Dallas in control.

Derrick Ward and Cadillac Williams each scored touchdowns on one yard runs for Tampa Bay. The Buccaneers had 174 rushing yards but had to eventually abandon their running game.

Morris, who at the age of 33 is the youngest head coach in the NFL said, we are disappointed obviously. However we did a lot of very good things with our offense.

Cadillac Williams, who returned after two knee surgeries in the last 15 months, had 97 yards in 13 carries. Ward rushed for 62 yards in 12 carries and helped to spark a long drive in the second half to put Tampa Bay briefly back into the game.

Dallas and Tampa Bay are both hoping that this season they can rebound after collapsing last December and missing the playoffs last year.

Tampa Bay lost four games in a row after starting the season at 9-3. They fired Jon Gruden and hired Morris to replace him as head coach. Dallas lost three out of their last four games to finish the season at 9-7.

The biggest move in the offseason for Dallas was to get rid of Terrell Owens and make Roy Williams their lead receiver. Williams is excited about the role after he spent his first 5 ½ years in the NFL in Detroit and struggled under the shadow of Owens after he was traded over from the Lions during last season’s trade deadline.

Romo connected on his first two passes with the 215 pound, 6 foot 3 Williams. However after that the pair remained fairly quiet until the big catch in the third quarter by Williams put Dallas ahead 20-7.

Coming into the game Romo had thrown eight touchdowns and had no interceptions in his two career games versus Tampa Bay. He finished the game 16 for 27, improving his September starts record to 8-1. Williams caught three passes for a total of 86 yards.

Romo said, you are not thinking about yards. You are not being judged on yards. He holds the franchise record with 17 games passing for over 300 yards. In this position you get judged from winning and losing.

Leftwich didn’t suffer a sack from the DeMarcus Ware led defense. However during the fourth quarter he did suffer several hard shots. The pro of seven years led the Bucs on an 84 yard, 11 play drive capped by Ward’s touchdown, trimming the deficit to 20-14 for Tampa Bay with 13:45 left in the game.

Romo spotted Crayton two plays later wide open down the right sideline. Crayton outran his defenders Jermaine Phillips and Sabby Piscitelli easily to restore Dallas’ lead of 13 points.

Ronde Barber said, we had chances all day. The final score definitely doesn’t indicate how good we did play at times. The big plays just destroy a football team.

The 6 yard touchdown run of Barber, set up by the 44 yard pass play from Romo to Crayton, ended the scoring for Dallas.

During the closing minutes of the game, Tampa Bay marched 74 yards down field and scored on a two yard pass from Leftwich to Kellen Winslow. However, by the time that happened, most of the 63,806 crowd had already left the stadium, to leave large pockets of Cowboy fans in the stands.