Diehard Giants fan Joe Becker of Endicott, N.Y., introduced an indication to Sunday’s house finale that pleaded for the tank to proceed:
“Dear Giants, Please Don’t Score for Shedeur,” Becker demanded, along with his eyes on the No. 1 general decide in April’s NFL Draft and Colorado quarterback Shedeur Sanders.
Giants fan Joe Becker poses with an indication encouraging the Giants to lose exterior MetLife Stadium on Sunday.
However Brian Daboll’s workforce refused to heed the recommendation, even when it shot GM Joe Schoen within the foot on Daboll’s method out.
Drew Lock threw for 309 yards and 4 touchdowns and rushed for a fifth rating. Malik Nabers racked up 171 receiving yards and two TDs. The Giants beat the shockingly uninspired Indianapolis Colts, 45-33, to snap a franchise-record 10-game dropping streak and document their first house victory (1-8) of their ultimate recreation at MetLife Stadium.
And the Giants (3-13) threw their draft place into jeopardy, probably costing themselves the prospect to pick out their QB of the long run within the spring, the place Sanders and Miami’s Cam Ward will await as the highest two prospects on the board.
Not that the gamers had been nervous concerning the draft, the place the Giants had fallen from the No. 1 spot to at greatest No. 3 by late Sunday afternoon.
“Not one bit,” extensive receiver Wan’Dale Robinson mentioned after catching 5 passes for 71 yards and a TD. “That’s not talked about. Coaches aren’t coming to us saying we have to lose this for a certain pick. Guys are fighting for their livelihoods.”
Daboll included, which was more and more evident after the sport.
The Giants’ third yr coach, who’s seemingly on the verge of being fired at season’s finish, gave the impression to be sending a forceful message about this roster’s shortcomings to co-owners John Mara and Steve Tisch by way of his postgame press convention.
“That’s how the offense needs to perform,” Daboll mentioned. “That’s how the quarterback needs to perform.”
He repeated later: “If you get good quarterback play, then you have an opportunity in every game.”
It sounded just like the coach was saying that the Giants’ mismanagement of the quarterback has undercut him — from the Giants’ re-signing of Daniel Jones, to not drafting a quarterback final spring or signing Russell Wilson in free company and including Lock as an alternative.
Daboll undoubtedly is conscious that nationwide leaks from the Giants’ constructing proceed to emphasize that possession will consider Schoen and Daboll independently and never as a bundle deal. It’s clear that some folks with energy within the Giants’ constructing, due to this fact, choose to fireplace Daboll and retain Schoen.
Tisch’s title instantly is being talked about extra incessantly within the public dialog concerning the upcoming Giants reckoning, although. So that would imply the opposite 50% of possession is ready to flex its muscle groups and take this in an anticipated route.
Perhaps it should imply that the Giants really will clear home.
It wouldn’t be stunning if the Giants used Sunday’s meaningless end result as justification that this whole failed program is heading in the right direction, although, both. They main in misevaluating themselves as a corporation.
Within the locker room, in the meantime, gamers had been simply relieved to lastly get a victory Monday off from their coach. It had been some time, since Oct. 6 in Seattle to be precise, when Jones was nonetheless the workforce’s franchise QB.
Nobody breathed a bigger sigh of aid than Lock, who bounced again from a turnover-filled loss in Atlanta with a ton of household within the MetLife Stadium stands.
“It was a lot of fun,” Lock mentioned with a smile. “We were clicking today. We knew we had it in us. We just had to go out and show it.”
Lock’ relations really had booked flights house after Christmas for Saturday at first, not realizing if his shoulder harm would sideline him from the sport. However as soon as he bought the medical go-ahead, they cancelled their plans and caught round for the present.
Backup Tommy DeVito smiled when requested why Lock is able to this type of efficiency in such a troublesome spot.
“I think it’s the same reason why me and him are friends,” DeVito mentioned. “Excuse my language, but we just have a little bit of ‘F–k it.’ We’re just gonna go out there and play no matter what the situation is.”
DeVito additionally mentioned Lock “plays in the gray a lot,” so “sometimes you have to deal with some of the things that goes with that,” however while you “let him go and play as himself” just like the Giants did on Sunday, this outburst of factors can also be “a product of it.”
Humorous sufficient, whereas Schoen and Daboll are nonetheless on the recent seat, this Giants efficiency additionally might need gotten the Colts (8-8) employees fired within the course of.
Indianapolis GM Chris Ballard, coach Shane Steichen and defensive coordinator Gus Bradley have a variety of explaining to do after they had been eradicated from playoff rivalry by the worst workforce within the NFL.
The Giants, who completed 1-8 at house this season, have one recreation remaining in Philadelphia in Week 18 in opposition to the Eagles and outdated pal Saquon Barkley, who crossed the two,000-yard dashing mark in Sunday’s blowout win over the Dallas Cowboys.
Barkley would possibly sit out the common season finale with the NFC East wrapped up relying on different outcomes the remainder of the weekend.
For now, the Giants lastly bought a win on Sunday by scoring a season-high 45 factors. It was the primary time they scored 30 or extra this season and the primary time they scored 40 factors since 2019.
It additionally marked extra factors (45) than that they had scored of their earlier three video games mixed (32).
There was some discord late within the second half on the sideline with nook Adoree Jackson throwing his helmet and yelling at teammate Jason Pinnock after Joe Flacco’s second landing cross lower the Giants’ result in 35-33 with 6:38 remaining within the fourth quarter.
However Lock drove the Giants downfield with Robinson’s assist and completed it off with a 5-yard dashing TD to seal it, together with assist from rookie nook Dru Phillips’ first interception since highschool.
Nabers was the star of the present, scoring 59-yard and 31-yard touchdowns on catch-and-run bursts by way of Colts arm tackles.
“That’s what it should look like,” the first-round decide mentioned after growing his season stats to 104 receptions, 1,140 yards and 6 TDs.
Ihmir Smith-Marsette’s 100-yard kick return landing at first of the third quarter carried Giants first half momentum into the second for a 28-13 lead.
“I tried to tell them if I get a chance, I’m going to the house,” he mentioned afterward.
Colts operating again Jonathan Taylor answered along with his second landing of the sport instantly, and Alec Pierce caught Joe Flacco’s first TD cross to attract inside 28-26 within the early fourth quarter.
However Nabers broke the sport again open along with his 59-yard catch and run TD because the Colts’ Kenny Moore and Samuel Womack confirmed little curiosity in tackling. That helped the Giants keep away from changing into this franchise’s first winless workforce at house since 1974.
They led at halftime on Sunday, 21-13, for the primary time since their Week 3 win in Cleveland on Sept. 22.
Lock accomplished 7-of-8 passes for 153 yards and three landing passes within the first half alone: one rating every to Nabers (31 yards), Darius Slayton (32 yards) and Robinson (5 yards). Nabers racked up 103 receiving yards and a TD on 4 catches within the first half.
With Sunday’s manufacturing, Nabers and fifth-round again Tyrone Tracy Jr. turned the third rookie duo in NFL historical past to every have 1,000-plus yards from scrimmage in a season. Tracy crossed the edge with the assistance of a 40-yard run to arrange Nabers’ first quarter rating.
The one different rookie duos to cross 1,000 yards every in NFL historical past are the 2006 Saints’ Reggie Bush and Marques Colston and the 1960 Dallas Texans’ Abner Haynes and Johnny Robinson.
Security Dane Belton’s interception of Flacco on the Giants’ 6-yard line set a aggressive tone on the sport’s opening drive regardless of the Colts marching straight down the sphere prior. And Robinson’s landing catch with 5:55 to play within the half put the Giants up a commanding 21-6.
Steichen went for a 4th and 5 on the Giants’ 8 yard line and transformed on a Kylen Granson 6-yard catch with 1:07 remaining, although, to arrange a Taylor 3-yard TD run with 23 seconds left.
That lower the Giants’ result in 21-13, their first halftime lead since their 21-7 benefit over the Browns in Week 3. It marked solely their third lead at half all season, together with their 12-9 benefit in a Week 2 loss at Washington.
That was again when the Giants had been nonetheless making an attempt to make one thing of this season, nevertheless. That was after they thought they had been competing for one thing greater than draft positioning.
Now they’ve earned a win that may solely harm their capacity to land the participant they covet most within the NFL Draft — the quarterback who they imagine can put this mess of a puzzle collectively.
And so they’ve additional muddied the image of precisely who will probably be making and training that decide.
Initially Revealed: December 29, 2024 at 4:49 PM EST
