The previously winless New York Giants did what most people thought they could not do on Sunday, knocking off the previously unbeaten Los Angeles Chargers. That was the good part, allowing the Giants to
exhale and providing optimism that the season may not already be completely lost. The bad part, of course, was likely losing their best offensive player to season-ending injury.
Jaxson Dart provides hope
Don’t put Dart in the Pro Football Hall of Fame just yet. Don’t assume Dart has proven he is a franchise quarterback who will lead the Giants back to prominence over the next decade or more.
Have hope, though. The rookie quarterback, I think, gave you that much on Sunday.
The Giants did not ask Dart to light up the sky on Sunday. He was 13 of 20 for just 111 yards. He ran 10 times for 54 yards, including a nifty 15-yard quarterback draw for a touchdown.
The Giants asked him for energy. He gave them that. They asked him to take care of the football. He did that, playing turnover free. Although, yes, he can thank Andrew Thomas for falling on his fumbled snap at the Giants’ 1-yard line.
Dart played with toughness, ignoring a second-quarter left hamstring injury that took much of the designed quarterback run game out of the Giants’ playbook. He took plenty of big hits, some his own fault for holding the ball too long or not getting down when he probably should have.
Maybe the most impressive thing Dart did on Sunday was complete a third-and-5 pass to Theo Johnson for 13 yards and a first down with 2:38 to play. It forced the Chargers to use their final timeout and allowed the Giants to run the clock down to :30 before punting.
How head coach Brian Daboll feels about Dart was evident in that he put the ball in Dart’s hands on the Giants’ most critical offensive play.
“I trust him,” Daboll said. “that’s his job as a quarterback, make good decisions. Convert, make the right choice. It wasn’t perfect, didn’t expect it to be in this first game.
“I think the young man played well within himself. Made a huge play when he needed to, to (tight end) Theo (Johnson), in that third-down play.”
The play is even more impressive when you learn that it was a route adjustment that Dart and Johnson came up with during the week.
“It’s interesting,” said head coach Brian Daboll. “With that play, it was a little bunch play. We’ve worked it one way for 10 years, as we run the play. And Dart sees me in the locker room right before I come out here, he’s like, on that play we ran, Theo and I talked about that, whatever it was yesterday or the day before, and if you get this look, I want you to sit. We normally don’t really sit on it.
“So that’s a credit to two young players playing the game and having confidence in a critical time to do what they talked about when they’re studying film.”
Winners want the ball when it matters most. Dart wanted the ball in that spot, and wasn’t surprised by the play call.
“No, I wasn’t, because I wanted the ball in my hand,” Dart said. “When I think back on the game, I obviously haven’t watched the tape, but there’s mistakes that I made that I want back in the passing game. I want to be cleaner, so I was grateful that they did have the confidence in me to give me the ball there. I just knew in that situation with the guys out there with me that we were going to make a play.”
Dart called it “really cool” to execute that play with Johnson.
“It was something that we discussed, kind of a change-up, an adjustment on the route. He was really just supposed to keep running all the way through. I told him, just from film prep and stuff, if you see that middle open, just sit down for me,” Dart said. “It was kind of a cool moment to see that happen in a big situation like that. We gave each other a little look, and I was really excited to obviously make that play with him.”
It was certainly cool for the Giants to see that they have a rookie quarterback who gives them hope.
Not very Nabers-ly
Why can’t the Giants have a nice, happy day without a big cloud rolling in over the top of the sunshine? The Malik Nabers news, with him likely being lost for the season to a knee injury that could be a a torn ACL plus other ligament damage, cast a pall over an otherwise great day.
The first word out of Kayvon Thibodeaux’s mouth, the bleeped one, expressed how everyone felt about the potentially devastating Nabers news.
“Unfortunately, this is a business of injury, and I feel terrible for Malik’s injury,” Daboll said after the game.
It seemed like every doctor with an X account weighed in with an opinion on the extent of Nabers’ injury. We will likely find out the full extent later on Monday, but it seems like the best-case scenario would be torn ACL only with no damage to other ligaments.
A multiple ligament injury, of course, complicates the recovery. Cross your fingers.
Oh, and I am not going to be one who blames the MetLife Stadium turf specifically. The playing surface has not been a major problem since the turf was replaced a couple of seasons ago. If you want to be critical of the use of artificial surfaces in general, fine. The FieldTurf CORE system used at MetLife is a modern, widely-used, surface. Here is the list of teams using it:
- Atlanta Falcons – Mercedes-Benz Stadium & Practice
- Detroit Lions – Ford Field & Practice
- New England Patriots – Gillette Stadium & Practice
- Seattle Seahawks – Lumen Field & Practice
- New York Giants – MetLife Stadium & Practice
- New York Jets – MetLife Stadium & Practice
- Carolina Panthers – Bank of America Stadium & Practice
- Cincinnati Bengals – Paycor Stadium
- Green Bay Packers – Practice
- Pittsburgh Steelers – Practice
- Tampa Bay Buccaneers – Practice
What do the Giants do now on offense?
Here are the Giants’ second-half possessions:
- Eight plays, 20 yards, punt.
- Three plays, -3 yards, punt.
- Two plays, 3 yards, touchdown.
- Seven plays, 39 yards, punt.
- Ten plays, 39 yards, turnover on downs.
- Six plays, 16 yards, punt.
Not much offense, to be honest.
Jalin Hyatt (29 snaps) and rookie Beaux Collins (21) saw considerable playing time once Nabers went down. Neither was ever targeted.
Of course, the first reaction will be that this is — finally — Hyatt’s chance to shine. True, but at this point does anyone really think Hyatt can or will blossom into the play-making deep threat the Giants envisioned when they traded up to select him in Round 3 of the 2023 NFL Draft?
The creativity of Daboll and offensive coordinator Mike Kafka faces a massive challenge trying to create big plays and generate consistent offense without Nabers.
And, no, no one is trading the Giants a starting-caliber wide receiver for Russell Wilson.
Following the formula
When the season began it looked like the formula for the Giants would be a talented defense leading the way, creating pressure on quarterbacks, causing turnovers, and setting up the offense with opportunities it would need to take advantage of.
Sunday, with Brian Burns, Abdul Carter and Kayvon Thibodeaux dominating the way the Giants drew it up, and with Dexter Lawrence and Dru Phillips making game-changing interceptions to set up the offense inside the Chargers’ 5-yard line, was the first time we saw that formula come to fruition.
The Nabers’ injury is going to make it more important for the defense to continue to fill up the turnover chest and put the offense in advantageous situations.
What was that sound?
On a few occasions Sunday chants of “Let’s Go Giants!” swelled up inside MetLife Stadium. With all of the ugliness that comes with the team having lost sooooo many football games over the past 2+ seasons, it was a welcome reminder of what it can be like when the Giants play winning football.
It was certainly a welcome sound. Far better than boos. Better than silence, or even worse the roars of fans from the visiting team as Giants fans shuffle sullenly toward the exits long before the end of another too-frequent defeat.
Wally Pipp-ed?
That might be the case for injured Giants running back Tyrone Tracy. Before Tracy suffered a shoulder injury in Week 3 against the Kansas City Chiefs, it had already seemed like rookie Cam Skattebo was trending toward become the Giants’ No. 1 running back.
Sunday’s 25-carry, 79-yard performance by Skattebo might have solidified his standing as the Giants’ lead back even when Tracy, who excelled as a rookie, returns from injury.
Skattebo averaged just 3.2 yards per carry. His longest run was 16 yards, hardly the 54 and 29-yard runs Chargers rookie Omarion Hampton had. It is the attitude Skattebo runs with, the aggression, the energy he brings and the way the MetLife Stadium crowd reacts when he touches the ball that is special.
Chargers coach Jim Harbaugh, who loves good, tough running backs, was impressed.
“That’s a good player,” Harbaugh said. “It was a big challenge. He did good.”
There will be a role for Tracy when he returns from injury. I doubt, though, that it will be as the team’s primary running back.
