Quarterback Eli Manning passed for four touchdowns on Sunday. Associated Press

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J.—The kickoff may be the most delightfully chaotic play in professional football.

NO - 27

NYG - 52

In a game in which every player's movements are scripted down to the inch, it is the closest the NFL comes to outright bedlam. It places 22 players on the field and gets them to charge into each other with enough force to uproot a streetlamp.

For most of their 88-year history, the Giants have made kickoffs look every bit like an unholy mess. This team once went two decades without scoring a kickoff return. They hadn't done so in five years entering this weekend's game and since 1925, had scored on just 19 kickoff returns, or once every 64 games on average.

But Sunday against the New Orleans Saints, the Giants kickoff returns resembled a meticulous operation at work. Led by rookie David Wilson, who returned a first-quarter kick for a 97-yard touchdown, the Giants' kickoff-return team amassed a franchise record 287 yards and paved the way for a crushing 52-27 blowout.

Wilson "did a lot of good things today," coach Tom Coughlin said after the game. "He did a great job. We needed a spark and we certainly got one."

From the first moment Sunday, every kick return by the Giants teemed with possibility. Wilson returned the opening kickoff 58 yards, scored the team's first kick return touchdown since December 2007 on his next attempt to tie the game at 7-7 and the Giants never looked back.

Receiver Hakeem Nicks celebrates a touchdown catch in the third quarter. Associated Press

By the end, Wilson had set a new franchise record for single-season kickoff-return yards with 1,301 and the Saints were reduced to kicking short of the end zone to keep the ball out of his hands. Even that couldn't stop the Giants as receiver Jerrel Jernigan also got in on the act, taking a short kickoff 60 yards.

Given advantageous field position on almost every drive, the Giants offense capitalized. Eli Manning passed for 259 yards and threw touchdowns to four different receivers, helping the team record its highest score of the season and surpass the 50-point barrier for the first time since 1986.

The win was a crucial one for the Giants, who had earlier seen the Washington Redskins (7-6) and Dallas Cowboys (7-6) both win games that came down to the final kick. This victory improves New York's record to 8-5 and maintains their one-game lead in the NFC East with three games remaining.

For the Saints, who committed four turnovers, the loss dropped them to 5-8 on the season and almost certainly extinguished their fading playoff chances. It means New Orleans will finish without a winning record for the first time since 2008.

The Giants looked shaky at the start of the game, going three and out on their first series and throwing an interception on their second possession that Elbert Mack returned 72 yards for a 7-0 Saints lead.

But as it turned out, they trailed for just 13 seconds. Wilson fielded the ensuing kickoff at the 3-yard line and bolted up the middle of the field, veering to his right at midfield and going untouched into the right corner of the end zone. The rookie running-back celebrated his score with a backflip and the Giants took control.

"He had a big night," Manning said of Wilson. "Giving us a touchdown after I threw the interception for a touchdown was very nice of him. I appreciated that."

Manning hit Martellus Bennett for a 6-yard touchdown on their next series, found Domenik Hixon for a score before halftime and once he added another to Hakeem Nicks in the third quarter, the Giants led 35-13.

The return touchdown was the just the start of a breakout game for Wilson, the team's first-round pick in this year's draft. On Sunday, he received his biggest workload of the season in the running game, scoring his second rushing touchdown of the season on a 6-yard plunge in the third quarter and reaching the end zone again on a 52-yard gallop later on. He finished with 100 rushing yards on 13 carries.

The Saints briefly threatened to make a game of it in the third quarter, cutting the Giants' lead to just eight points when Darren Sproles scored his second touchdown on a nine-yard catch from Drew Brees. But Jernigan's 60-yard kickoff return wrested back the momentum and Victor Cruz's fourth-quarter touchdown put the game beyond reach.