During the first half of "Thursday Night Football," most folks watching with a computer or phone nearby were frantically scrolling through their fantasy team making sure they weren't facing Larry Donnell this week.
Who is Donnell, you ask? If you watched the Giants destroy the Redskins, you know.
Donnell, the Giants' tight end, caught three first-half touchdowns (and the only reason he didn't get his fourth in the fourth quarter was that Redskins linebacker Perry Riley held him on an incompletion) as the Giants rolled to an easy 45-14 win.
Donnell was an undrafted free agent out of Grambling in 2012. He spent all that season on the practice squad, available for anyone to sign, and then stuck with the Giants for 16 games last year. The athletic 6-6, 265-pounder didn't really distinguish himself, grabbing just three passes all season.
He's making up for lost time now. He has four touchdowns on the season after Thursday's big performance. The Redskins had no answer for his size and athleticism in the red zone. Eli Manning was very sharp, with four passing touchdowns and another rushing score. The Giants' tight end spot was a huge question before the season, but Donnell has answered it.
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If Donnell's heroics weren't enough, Washington quarterback Kirk Cousins made sure there would be no comeback. He threw four second-half interceptions, taking a ton of shine off his positive performances in the two previous games as he fills in for injured Robert Griffin III.
It shouldn't be a surprise that Thursday night's game was boring. The league has been doing this Thursday night experiment regularly since 2006, and there have been just a handful of good games in nine seasons. Patriots-Jets and Broncos-Browns in 2008, Colts-Jaguars in 2009, Ravens-Falcons in 2010 and Bengals-Dolphins in 2013 are the only ones my Twitter followers could come up with ... and one or two of those is a reach because you'd never remember them if they happened on a Sunday. Most of the games, including Thursday night's snoozer, have been terrible. It's just too tough for NFL teams to put on a show with three days rest.
We were supposed to get better games this year because CBS joined in the broadcast and it got better matchups. But after three straight blowouts on CBS, the network must be wondering if it would have been better with some "Big Bang Theory" reruns instead.
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Frank Schwab is the editor of Shutdown Corner on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at shutdowncorner@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter! Follow @YahooSchwab
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