New York Giants quarterback Jaxson Dart absorbed a crushing hit in the team's preseason opener against the Minnesota Vikings after a protection breakdown that the team attributed to miscommunication.
On the final play of the first quarter, Vikings safety Jay Ward came free and leveled Dart. Running back Tyrone Tracy Jr. was assigned to block the blitzer but later admitted he had his eyes on the wrong side.
“I heard something that made me have my eyes on the wrong side,” Tracy said, via Newsday. “That was really it. I have to get my eyes right and block the guy. I did it two plays earlier. But on that play I heard an alert to the other side, so I had my eyes to the left instead of the right.”
Tracy added that he could only apologize and commit to
fixing the mistake.
“There isn’t really anything I can do at that point besides apologize and tell him it isn’t going to happen again, which it won’t. I don’t have many of those on my film pass-blocking-wise. It ain’t going to happen again," he said.
Dart described the play the same way. Asked whether he had backside responsibilities or simply assumed the protection would hold, he pointed to a communication issue in the scheme.
“I think that we had just a little maybe miscommunication in the protection scheme and stuff like that happens in preseason where we’re not all on the same page in a protection and I think that that’s a moment that we can really look back on and learn from because you have events like that where the group is able to watch it and experience it and make sure that we don’t make that mistake moving forward," he told reporters.
When asked specifically what he saw on the sack, Dart repeated, “We just had a miscommunication.”
Head coach John Harbaugh was asked whether Dart should have recognized the pressure himself given the play call. Harbaugh said no.
“No, he can assume he’s picked up there," the coach said. "I mean, I think he will feel pressure. He has good pocket presence, and he did it on the red zone play. He got himself out, so I think he’s good at that. But that’s one that should be picked up.”
Dart was evaluated in the blue medical tent after the hit, returned shortly after, and threw a touchdown pass to rookie wide receiver Malachi Fields.
The Giants treated the sequence as a teaching moment in the early stages of installing their protection schemes under the new staff.
This article originally appeared on Giants Wire: New York Giants blame 'miscommunication' for crushing hit on Jaxson Dart
