Giants' Justin Pugh: Texans' defensive line 'tapped out' in loss
The Giants notched their first win of the season Sunday, a decisive victory over the 2-0 Texans. All week, the talk was how Houston's defensive line -- led by arguably the league's best player, J.J. Watt -- was going to demolish the five fat guys responsible for protecting Eli Manning.
Giants right tackle Justin Pugh allowed a Watt sack on the first series, but after that he and his linemates kept Manning clean. When was over, New York was on the right side of the 30-17 finish and Manning was 21 of 28 for 234 yards, with two touchdowns and no interceptions.
Pugh, meanwhile, maintained that the Texans' defensive line -- Watt included -- "tapped out" in the second half.
"'What's he going to do? How badly is he going to disrupt? How much is he going to hurt you guys?' '' Pugh said to reporters afterward (via the Newsday), echoing questions he heard in the days leading up to the game.
"Now you guys are asking the opposite question -- 'Why wasn't he disruptive?' -- and I think that's because we didn't want to hear that and we didn't want to answer those questions.''
Worth mentioning: In addition to the first-quarter sack, Watt had seven tackles, two tackles for loss, and a pass defended. Still, the Giants rushed for 193 yards, including 176 by Rashad Jennings.
"It wasn't so much about where J.J. Watt was going to line up,'' left tackle William Beatty said. "It was, 'Okay, we've got to get our running game going.' Rashad came out with his mind-set ready to go. It wasn't always running away from Watt.''
"We showed the resiliency of our offensive line,'' Pugh added. "I remember after Week 1, people were asking if we were the worst offensive line in football.''
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