I don’t know what’s in John Harbaugh’s past, but he seems to have had a severe case of bad karma recently. First, Tyler Loop misses a 44-yard field goal that would have sent the Baltimore Ravens to the playoffs, and it costs Harbaugh his head coaching job in Baltimore. Then he takes the Giants’ job, leads them to a stirring opening win over Dallas, but loses his quarterback for the season in the first quarter of the next game. Then in the next game he loses his best pass rusher for the season. Then last
week he loses a starting linebacker for the season, as well as a starting safety for this week at least.
Whatever the gods were displeased with, it now seems to be over. Harbaugh’s New York Giants played probably there best game of the season on Sunday … and were rewarded with a thrilling 27-21 overtime win over the Houston Texans. The Giants now have won six straight against Houston after losing to them as an expansion team in 2002. Today was the day the Giants were supposed to be exposed as frauds. Instead, it may be time to take them seriously. (Cue the Jim Mora “Playoffs?” meme.) What did we learn from this impressive victory?
Maybe Kevin O’Connell isn’t a QB guru after all?
Last week I shared an X post jokingly pointing out how quarterbacks that O’Connell have tutored have fared much better after leaving the Vikings following J.J. McCarthy’s remarkable fourth quarter in his Giants debut as a real quarterback (i.e., not just RPOs) against New Orleans. This week, McCarthy had a chance to play a full game even up rather than in mop-up duty, and with a week of preparation, against a team with a great pass rush and good cornerbacks. No one would have been surprised if he came back down to Earth.
Wow! If you hadn’t followed the last three NFL seasons, you would have said to yourself, yeah, this guy looks like you’d expect/hope the 10th pick in the draft in his third NFL season to look. McCarthy was lights out vs. the Texans especially in the first half. He cooled off in the second half, but he was getting rushed a lot more by that point in the game. Early in the game, McCarthy looked like the reputation he brought to New York, throwing these fastballs that he’s been criticized for … but being right on target with them. One of them was dropped by Malik Nabers, and that might not have happened with a bit more touch on the ball. But then, with less than a minute to go in the half, McCarthy beautifully layered a throw over the first level of the pass defense to hit Nabers (who had his fourth consecutive 100+ yard receiving game today) and put the Giants into field goal position. Earlier, McCarthy threw one of his lasers with anticipation on an out to Malachi Fields, perfectly placed so the defender couldn’t reach it, and Fields scampered downfield for 47 yards.
For a guy that the coaches were afraid to do anything with except run RPO keepers a couple of weeks ago, McCarthy looks like he is in complete control of the offense. He “only” finished with 252 passing yards this time, and did not have a TD pass, but he looks like the real deal and is one of the biggest reasons the Giants won Sunday. Watching him made it hard to understand how he could have crashed and burned in Minnesota. I have to give props to offensive coordinator Matt Nagy and quarterbacks coach Brian Callahan, who seem to have created an offense that McCarthy is comfortable in and that takes advantage of his strengths in a fairly short period of time. In Nagy’s defense, he did get the most out of Mitch Trubisky in his first two NFL seasons, so maybe he knows what he’s doing.
I’m getting ahead of myself, but if this keeps up, what do the Giants do with him next year when Jaxson Dart returns? And I do mean next year. The Giants are not flipping him to a contender for a high draft pick just before the trade deadline. The Giants find themselves with what could be two of the most exciting young quarterbacks in the NFL. It’s a good problem to have.
What to do with Dominic Zvada?
The postscript to McCarthy’s beautiful layered pass to Nabers is that shortly thereafter, Dominic Zvada missed a 44-yard field goal attempt, after missing a 58-yard field goal attempt earlier in the game. It hurt because the Texans’ kicker, Ka’imi Fairbairn, made two field goals, including his own 58-yarder. Unlike Zvada’s misses in Washington, which came in bad weather and where he seemed to be hooking the ball, there were ideal conditions for a kicker today and both misses were straight and true … but just aimed poorly.
Zvada clearly has the leg, and he’s hitting the ball well, but this game should never have reached overtime. Unfortunately he has two weeks to stew over it, as does Harbaugh. Harbaugh seems to be pretty decisive with underperforming players, but do the Giants want to get into the kicker merry-go-round they’ve been on for the last three seasons? I don’t know the answer. I’d like to hope it’s a small adjustment. But at 4-2-1 and with a two game lead in the NFC East heading into the bye, Harbaugh may be thinking about the circumstances that precipitated his exit from Baltimore and decide to make a change.
Deonte Banks has arrived
There may be nothing more remarkable than the fact that Deonte Banks, who seemed on his way out the door this summer when the new coaching staff arrived, has suddenly become, maybe not exactly a shutdown corner, but not far from it in his fourth NFL season. Banks gave up three receptions on six targets today, and was the responsible defender on Xavier Hutchinson’s 3-yard TD catch. But his three completions against went for a total of … 10 yards. Against Nico Collins, one of the best receivers in the NFL, Banks gave up one catch for 4 yards.
It’s hard to mention just one player on this defense, which played well overall against a potent offense. Abdul Carter continued his really good season with six pressures, and Kayvon Thibodeaux had four of his own and almost had an interception. He was more visible today than he’s been in a long time. The Giants’ run defense is still somewhat suspect, but kept Houston under 100 yards today. They’re more promising with D.J. Reader, who’s having a great season and played well again today, in the middle.
Players stepped up on the run offense
Cam Skattebo was released from the doghouse and responded today with 124 yards and a touchdown. His 42 yard run in overtime put the Giants in position to win, which they promptly did when Devin Singletary followed up with a 30-yard run for the winning TD. Part of the Giants’ successful run game today was having Skattebo back in Harbaugh’s good graces. Part, though, was the Giants’ offensive line blocking better for the run than they probably have all season. Not Jeff Stoutland-Eagles-offensive line good, but well enough for a player like Skattebo to have a fair chance of getting yards after contact (except when he’s flagged for unnecessary roughness for lowering his helmet – ridiculous) and for Singletary to run almost untouched on the winning TD. If the Giants can develop a consistently dangerous running game, their passing game could become devastating to opposing offenses.
