The New York Football Giants or as I should call them the New York surprisingly good this week at Football Giants won their first game of the season away against the Saints. This game was a surprise win to all football fans, not just in the Tri-State area.
Heading into Sunday’s matchup between the Giants and Saints in New Orleans, all of ESPN’s predictors had the Saints winning this matchup. I mention this because, after the win, the Giants social media team had some fun getting revenge.
The Big Blue squad was prepared for the insane environment within the Caesars Superdome due to the New Orleans Saints’ first home game being played in Jacksonville because of Hurricane Ida.
Daniel Jones
This was hands down the best single-game performance in Daniel Jones’s career. Since week 1, Jones has actually been doing significantly better as a quarterback when it comes to his decision-making. Now, there has been some fumbling trouble a few weeks ago but, when it comes to passes he is on the dot with many throws. Today, in particular, Jones had a seventy percent completion percentage. He went 28 for 40 with over four hundred yards passing. That number set a career-high for passing yards in Jones’s career.
A stat showed on the FOX broadcast that this was also the first time Jones has thrown over three hundred yards with Jason Garrett as his offensive coordinator. That stat seems to show two negatives. One, Daniel Jones has not had many games throwing over three hundred yards in his career. Two, Garrett’s playbook hasn’t helped his quarterback get high-yardage passing games.
Interestingly, Jones has only three games where he has passed over three hundred yards. Could you name them? Including today as one of the three, the other two were back in 2019. The first being when Jones stepped in for Eli Manning against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers where he threw three hundred and thirty-six yards. The other game was when the Giants went up against Washington in what was known as the “Chase Young Bowl.” The Giants were victorious also in an OT victory where Jones threw three hundred fifty-two yards.
Anyway, with the two really nice touchdowns to Saquon Barkley and John Ross while also having over four hundred yards in the air, Daniel Jones with no question marks, is sitting comfortably as the Giants quarterback moving forward.
Offensive Weapons
It was especially crucial for all the offensive artillery to step up in this week’s contest due to the injuries of both Sterling Shepard and Darius Slayton that left them out of this game. Luckily for the G-Men, the remaining options did in fact make their way onto the stat sheet. The most important of them being Saquon Barkley. He was able to get involved in the run and passing game for this Giants offense. In total, Barkley ended with thirteen carries for fifty-two yards and a rushing touchdown. As well as, five receptions for seventy-four yards and a receiving touchdown. Most notably, were the two touchdowns for Saquon Barkley. The first was a beautiful fifty-four-yard catch and run capped off with a juke and broken tackle to get into the endzone for six. The second and more important touchdown was a six-yard run to win the game.
Next up, is none other than the highlight of this past free agency for the New York Giants, Kenny Golladay. This past Sunday, he was able to live up to the number one wide receiver standards that were taken from Detroit. Golladay finished with six catches for one hundred and seventeen yards. That’s just over nineteen yards per catch. Kadarius Toney also had a good game with seventy-eight receiving yards on only six catches.
Finally, John Ross, who just came off the IR at a perfect time when two other wide receivers were injured, had a great over fifty-yard touchdown and two pivotal catches in overtime.
Offensive Line
The Giants offensive line, which has been the surprise of the season so far, allowed zero sacks on Sunday despite multiple injuries. Matt Skura and Billy Price were forced into action due to the injuries of center Nick Gates and guard Ben Bredeson. Despite these struggles, Offensive Line Coach Rob Sale who was brought in over the offseason has managed to fill the gaps excellently. One of the key factors to the rising success of this offensive line is young left tackle Andrew Thomas.
Thomas so far this season has had a PFF pass-blocking grade of 79.0, which is first among second year offensive lineman. In 167 pass blocking snaps he has conceded 0 sacks and only 6 QB pressures. Many were down on Thomas after his poor rookie season despite the reports that he was playing through an injury throughout the season. Thomas is proving the haters wrong so far this season.
Overtime and Final Thoughts
With less than seven minutes remaining in the fourth quarter, Daniel Jones and the G-Men offensive scored eleven points to get the game tied at twenty-one. Graham Gano who missed a kick in the first half was able to drill a forty-eight-yarder to extend the game past sixty minutes. To begin overtime fans witnessed the best celebration of a coin toss in NFL history by Jabrill Peppers.
The Giants drive was seven plays for seventy-five yards. Saquon Barkley was able to cap it off with a run into the endzone that led to celebrations and a perfect locker room speech after the game.
In comparison to last week, the team that Giants fans watched this past Sunday wanted to fight and found a way to win. This game is a huge step in the right direction for the coaching staff and boosts confidence for players as well. Finally, just like in my last recap article I would like to quote Joe Judge from this past week, “We'll be alright, guys. Okay? We'll be alright."
