Rhett Bomar solid in Giants pre-season finale
Giants’ backup quarterback Rhett Bomar tossed a 60-yard touchdown pass to Duke Calhoun with less than two minutes to play as the New York rallied to beat New England 20-17 in the pre-season finale for both teams on Thursday night.
Bomar, was handed the backup job to Eli Manning after veteran Jim Sorgi was placed on injured reserve with a shoulder injury. But Bomar, 25, earned the job after the second-year pro had a solid outing against the Patriots second string players leading New York to three scores.
"It felt great," said Bomar, who completed 11-of-24 passes for 171 yards and one interception. "You always want to end the pre-season on a good note. It was good to end it like that."
The winning touchdown came just minutes after the Patriots jump ahead late in the game. Darnell Jenkins turned a short fourth-quarter screen play into a 66-yard scoring play.
"It's good to end the pre-season on a good note," Manning said. "You're going to go through some ups and downs in the pre-season. Not everything is going to work. You don't get a lot of series, so it was good to end on a good note tonight."
Tom Brady came out to start the Patriots opening drive and handed the ball off to his running-backs. Seven plays later, Brady ended the Patriots drive with a five-yard touchdown pass to rookie tight end Rob Gronkowski. To give New England a 7-6 lead in the first quarter. Brady looked sharp and ended the night completing four-of-eight passes for 51 yards. His backup Brian Hoyer took over and went 15-of-26 for 266 yards with one touchdown and one interception.
Despite the loss, New England was pleased with their performance and feels that they played much better and improved from last week’s game which saw St. Louis put up 36 points on the board. "We converted a third down, got a big play," Patriots coach Bill Belichick said. "It was nice to see us move the ball, not like it was last week.”
The Patriots end the pre-season 2-2, losing back-to-back games but Belichick doesn’t seem overly concerned heading into the regular season opener against the new look Bengals, with Terrell Owens.
“Overall, we had our ups and downs. The team has worked hard. I think they're ready to go. They competed well for the most part on a day-in, day-out basis."
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