Giants at Saints: What can the PFF grades and snap counts tell us?

Anyone else still feel drained from the New York Giants' game against the New Orleans Saints? I know I do, and I would suspect that many of the Giants do as well.

This game was a marathon played at a torrid pace. There were a combined 47 rushing attempts between the two teams -- 26 by the Saints, 21 by the Giants -- but a whopping 91 passing attempts.

Let's take a look at who played, who didn't, and what PFF has to say and see if what conclusions we can draw.

Offense

bELIeve in Manning

This was, without a doubt, the finest performance of Eli Manning's career. Not the most meaningful performance on the biggest stage, but No. 10 has never played a better game than he did on Sunday afternoon.

Completing 30-of-41 pass attempts for 350 yards, 6 touchdowns, and 0 interceptions, Eli was simply phenomenal. The Giants put the entire team on his right arm and he twice overcame 14 point deficits, and helped to put the Giants in position to win the game. They couldn't come through with the win, but that wasn't Eli's fault. Manning was 5-of-6 for 120 yards, three touchdowns, and a perfect 158.3 passer rating on throws between the numbers. Eli also had the highest passer rating in the NFL when he held the ball for more that 2.5 seconds with a 135.2.

Despite Eli's incandescence with the ball, Pro Football Focus only graded him with a +1.3, knocking Easy E heavily for his two fumbles. One of which was his fault, as the ball slipped out of his hand as he went to throw, the other was a great play by a Saints defensive lineman.

Eli's play is all the more impressive when you realize that Ereck Flowers (-1.4) and Marshall Newhouse (-2.9) both allowed five hurries apiece.

ODELLL!!!

Simply put, when Odell Beckham Jr. is healthy, he is one of the true game-changers in the NFL. His rapport with Eli Manning is nearly supernatural, and his blend of speed, agility, and route running make him uncoverable.

Beckham played 70 of 73 offensive snaps, and had eight catches on nine targets for 130 yards and three touchdowns. Eli had a perfect passer rating when targeting Beckham. Delvin Breaux came into this game having a very good year, but Beckham punished him, accounting for most of the rookie's nine receptions, 138 yards, and three TDs allowed in coverage.

Defense

DRC Does It Again

Over the last two weeks Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie has been the bane of opposing offenses, and easily the Giants' most important defensive player. DRC has accounted for 4 turnovers in the last two weeks, three of them being interceptions. He played 77 of 78 possible snaps and only allowed four catches for 38 yards in a game when nobody else covered anybody on either team.

This was after DRC gave up 2 receptions on 6 targets, and notching 2 interceptions, against Dallas.

Jayron Hosley and Trevin Wade combined to allow 11 receptions on 11 targets for 216 yards and 4 touchdowns -- I don't have a breakdown of which corner was targeted and gave up more.

Despite being taken out of the game on 3 separate occasions for injuries, Hosely kept coming back out on the field and managed to play 70 snaps. While his play wasn't great, he did show his toughness this game.

Welcome Back, Robert Ayers

As big an impact as DRC had, he wasn't the Giants highest rated defender. That honor goes to Robert Ayers. On 49 snaps (63 percent) he compiled a +4.6 rating. The difference in Ayers after not being on the injury report all week is impressive, and he should be in line for more snaps against Tampa Bay.

And for anyone wondering whether or not Damontre Moore being active was because he was "out of the dog house" or simply out of necessity: He finished the game playing 14 snaps on defense. In a game that featured Drew Brees dropping back 50 times, Moore -- the Giants "pass rush specialist" -- was on the field for roughly a quarter of those snaps.

And finally PFF has some more meat for the Markus Kuhn haters out there. On 36 snaps (46 percent), Kuhn "amassed" a -2.2 grade and failed to record a single tackle

Complete Snap Counts