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.