Giants Survive Cards, Go 1-0 Again
“One week at a time, one day at a time, one play at a time.”
One month into the season, John Harbaugh’s 1-0 mantra seems to be resonating, as the New York Football Giants have sole possession of first place in the NFC East.
While I’m still feeling the lasting effects of Sunday’s win (and the alcohol consumption that followed), it’s easy to forget that it looked like we were going to get boat-raced in this game. Jacoby Brissett and the Cardinals’ offense marched up and down the field on their first two possessions, while the Giants’ offense continued its three-week trend of running broken 3rd-down plays and settling for field goals.
Before I could finish my 3rd beer of the morning, the G-Men faced a 14-6 deficit, with an Arizona offense on the field that we simply had no answers for. As it turns out, the answer was out there all along, and the 6’4”, 243-pound man described as “Robocop” earlier this offseason would make his presence known.
Arvell Reese single-handedly kept the Giants in this game, causing five straight stops in the second quarter. He hit Brissett’s arm on a blitz, causing a fluttering throw to be intercepted; outran Tyler Allgeier in the flat on 3rd down; batted down a pass while generating pressure up the middle; intercepted a ball batted by Shelby Harris; and then tackled Jeremiah Love for an 8-yard loss on another 3rd down.
I rambled in the game preview about how I wanted to let our defense sink or swim based on the performances of the young players we’re relying on to develop into cornerstones, so needless to say, this sequence of complete dominance by our rookie linebacker tickled me in every which way.
Despite turning in another extremely lackluster two quarters of football, Jameis was able to find Malik Nabers on a 25-yard TD up the seam to somehow give the Giants the lead heading into halftime. I begged for more Nabers the past two weeks, and thankfully, we finally got a proper serving of our elite WR1. Six catches for 112 yards, a tuddie, and only one injury scare is all you can ask for from Malik, and hopefully he can continue to round into pre-knee-surgery form as the season progresses.
Despite the victory, I think it’s important to remain critical of Winston and the offense. People will point to the two heinous picks that led to the 10 points that kept Arizona in the game, but there were plenty of issues beyond those glaring mistakes. Jameis continues to be inaccurate (the Mooney miss really sticks out), uncomfortable in clean pockets, and late on easy 3rd-down reads (I can’t believe how late he was on that one to Berrios!).
Thankfully, he made enough big plays to counteract some of this nonsense, but I’m not sure how many more of those 3rd-and-20 bombs to Malachi Fields we can expect to be converted over the long term. While I’d say this was a marginal improvement for the passing game, it’s going to need to be much more consistent against better defenses.
The ‘Jameis Experience’ is tolerable when you’re winning, but had it not been for the miraculous goal-line stand, we’d be hearing nothing but calls for JJ McCarthy on WFAN this week.
But alas, that remains a conversation for another day thanks to the heroics of Abdul Carter and the much-maligned Deonte Banks. The pair of 1st-round picks have each been the subject of their fair share of criticism — Carter for his low sack numbers and general lack of effort during a losing season, and Banks for his general lack of effort during a losing season while also being terrible at football.
While the box-score watchers and grandparents won’t love the fact that Carter didn’t add a sack to the stat sheet, anyone who watched that game saw his impact on each and every play in the 2nd half. I know people roll their eyes whenever someone references “pressures,” but I’d like these same people to tell me one time Markus Golden and his fugazi coverage sacks impacted a football game like Carter did yesterday.
Brissett was a completely different quarterback when he was forced to release the ball a tick earlier, and the proof is in that delicious winning pudding.
Meanwhile, Deonte Banks was a guy I couldn’t bear the sight of for the past two seasons. He was benched on a defense that couldn’t stop a nosebleed, had his 5th-year option declined, and was relegated to kick returner by the previous coaching staff. And that’s not even an indictment of Daboll — the kid flat-out couldn’t play, and more specifically, could never turn around and locate the football.
After being flagged for one of the softest DPIs you’ll ever see, it appeared that Banks would once again be a catalyst for another crushing Giants defeat. Instead of crying about getting absolutely hosed by the officials, Tae kept his chinstrap buckled and had two of the best plays of his career at the goal line — turning around, playing the ball, and strapping up Trey McBride and Michael Wilson to seal the victory.
I’ll admit, I was one of the bozos watching at home telling him to “GET DOWN!” during the return — but fuck it. This kid deserved to score the touchdown in front of what I assume to be the loudest MetLife crowd he’s ever experienced.
You honestly couldn’t script a better ending to the game. On a week where half the fanbase was clamoring for Schoen to trade for Joey Porter Jr., essentially righting his wrong for selecting Banks over the former Steelers star, Tae comes up with the team’s second walk-off INT at the goal line in as many weeks. Absolute Cinema.
So here we stand: decimated by injuries, written off by fans and media alike, yet sitting at 3-1 and finding ways to win football games.
It wasn’t perfect, and I know it was just the Cardinals, but how can you not be inspired watching this team repeatedly get off the mat? And if us fans are feeling it, how do you think the guys in that locker room are feeling right now? Many of them have experienced nothing but losing throughout their Giants tenure and are finally getting the results they’ve so desperately craved.
Who knows how long this will last, but I urge all of you to enjoy this Victory Monday and then begin preparation to go 1-0 again next Sunday.
