South Jersey native Eli Apple was part of a Giants secondary that held Drew Brees and the Saints offense to just 13 points. Photo by Al Thompson

EAST RUTHERFORD: The Giants offense produced 432 yards against a pretty hapless New Orleans Saints defense but could not put the ball in the end zone Sunday.

At least part of the reason was that Eli Manning, Victor Cruz and Shane Vereen each took turns losing fumbles topped by a questionable call by Giants head coach Ben McAdoo to go for it on fourth and two from the third-yard line – resulting in turning the ball over on downs when the pass to Odell Beckham, Jr. in the end zone from Manning was broken up by Saints defensive back Sterling Moore.

But Special teams and three Josh Brown field goals – including a walk-off 23-yard field goal lifted the Giants (2-0) to a 16-13 win over the New Orleans Saints (0-2) at MetLife Stadium. It was ugly, but Big Blue will take it.

“Tough win we had,” said Beckham, who finished with eight catches for 86 yards, but dropped what looked like a sure touchdown pass inside the five-yard line late in the fourth quarter and the score 13-13.

“We need to do more as an offense. Defense did a phenomenal job. They played lights out. We just need to score more points.”

The Giants’ lone touchdown came with 2:30 left in the second quarter. The Saints had driven to the Giants 20-yard line where the drive stalled.

Saints kicker Will Lutz looked like he had an easy boot of 38 yards to give either team the first lead of the game.

But the kick was blocked by defensive tackle Jonathon Hankins and scooped up by cornerback Janoris Jenkins who raced 65 yards for a touchdown and a 7-0 lead.

Jenkins said he could hear the ball being blocked and just focused on where the ball landed.

“Actually, I just heard the hand hit the ball and I just went looking for the ball,” Jenkins said. “It was a perfect bounce…I just scooped and scored.”

Manning finished the game 32 of 41 for 368 yards, no interceptions and a quarterback rating of 104.1. He was sacked twice.

As a team the Giants rushed 32 times for just 64 yards.

The Giants defense kept Saints future Hall of Fame quarterback Drew Brees in check most of the afternoon. The veteran was 29 of 44 for 263 yards and one touchdown pass. Brees was sacked twice and was never fully able to get comfortable in the pocket.

Led by an aggressive secondary that included Janoris Jenkins (8 tackles total, 2 passes defended), Eli Apple (7 tackles. PD), Landon Collins (6 tackles, sack) and Leon Hall (5 tackles, sack, TFL, QH), Big Blue was able to keep Brees from turning the game into a shoot-out.

Brees said looking at the stat sheet made the loss even more frustrating.

“I will just start off by saying this—if you told me prior to the game that we would get three takeaways defensively and not allow an offensive touchdown, I’d say our chances today are pretty good,” Brees said. “The unfortunate thing is that the blocked field goal that gets returned for a touchdown is a ten-point swing. So that’s pretty devastating when you look at the way the game unfolded and then the way it finished. Obviously that’s something that can tip the scales in a totally different way, despite the fact that our defense played outstanding and got a few takeaways. One of those was in their territory. That felt like there was a big play opportunity there to [Coby] Fleener to throw a touchdown; I’ll put that on me. I think that I didn’t do a great job of handling some of their third-down pressure stuff to sustain drives. We got into some third and long situations, or third and longer than probably we should have. So first and second down efficiency can be better and then obviously just the ability to sustain drives and keep them on the field and keep our defense off the field and get points at the end of it.”

Saints safety Jairus Byrd said his defense did what their game planned called for: Make the Giants drive, get turnovers and keep Manning and company out the end zone. Mission accomplished, but no victory.

“We wanted them to go the long way against us, and limit those explosive plays,” Byrd said at his locker after the game. “We did that. It comes down to the little things and we’ve got to correct those little things and we’ll see a different result.”

The Giants, who won at Dallas in their opener, improved to 2-0 for the first time since 2009 as Ben McAdoo joined Joe Alexander (1926) and Dan Reeves (1993) as the only head coaches in Giants history to win their first two games as the franchise’s head coach.

“These last two games are very similar to the start of last year, and obviously the finishes are what the difference is,” said quarterback Eli Manning, recalling that the Giants lost late leads and fell to Dallas and Atlanta to start the 2015 season. “We are able to find ways to make the plays that we need in crucial moments and a great job of guys making plays and communicating on the sideline.”

No one made a bigger play than Cruz. On third-and-eight from the New Orleans 36-yard line with 1:32 remaining, he outmuscled rookie cornerback Ken Crawley for a Manning pass down the right sideline. The 34-yard gain enabled Manning to take a knee three times before Brown’s deciding field goal attempt, which was 10 yards shorter than an extra point.

“We didn’t want to give Drew (Brees) the ball back,” McAdoo said. “He is a heck of a player, a future Hall of Famer, and if you can end the game with a kick, you end the game.”

Cruz routinely made difference-making plays before injuries cost him 10 games in 2014 and the entire 2015 season. Last week, he caught the game-winning touchdown in Dallas, and Sunday, the Giants might have been playing in overtime had Cruz not come up big.

Cruz conceded he didn’t anticipate making this many big plays this early in his comeback.

“I wanted to kind of just work my way in, catch the ball, catch things that are in front of me, make the plays that are presented to me,” Cruz said. “But to make a game-winning touchdown catch a week ago, and to come in and make a pretty decisive catch on the sideline, to pretty much seal the game, I can’t draw it up any other way. I just go out there and play the game. I think I’m getting better as these weeks go on, as these practices continue, and I just want to continue to build off of that.”

With Beckham having a day he might want to forget parts of, it is assuring to Manning and McAdoo that a dependable, familiar face is back. *

Micheal Eisen contributed to this article.

Follow Al Thompson Twitter @thompsoniii