The New York Giants might have something here.
The Giants have searched for years to try and find the right people and players to lead them out of the morass they have been in for more than a decade and bring the franchise back to the prominent place a four-time Super Bowl champion and an original NFL franchise should have.
They have been through three GMs, nearly a half-dozen head coaches and multiple roster rebuilds while only having fleeting, occasional, success.
In rookies Jaxson Dart and Cam Skattebo the Giants might — finally — have the players not only with the talent but with the attitude, energy and will to pull them up from the depths and set them back on a better course.
That was certainly the case on Thursday night when the Giants, 1-4 and coming off a loss to the previously winless New Orleans Saints, defeated the defending Super Bowl champion Philadelphia Eagles. Check that. The Giants not only beat the Eagles, they demoralized them in a shocking 34-17 beatdown.
Players who have been through some of the recent losing seasons with the Giants, and the public flogging from the media and the fan base that has come with it, recognize what the dynamic rookie duo bring to the table.
“Their energy is contagious – Skatt and Dart, they’re playing fearless. And that’s something I really respect,” edge defender Brian Burns, who has played the best football of any Giants defender this season, said after Thursday’s game. “I hope that as they get older, they age well in this league and they’re going to make more calculated decisions. But right now? Hey man, balls to the wall.”
Cor’Dale Flott, who made one of the biggest plays of the game with a fourth-quarter interception that he returned 69 yards to set up the Giants’ final touchdown, also used the word “contagious” when talking about Dart and Skattebo.
“It’s contagious,” Flott said. “Jaxson and Skatt are two different guys, they don’t even feel like rookies in the locker room. We need the energy, and they help us all out as a team.”
The Giants have been through a period of more than a decade where losing and bad football have been the norm. Dart said he and Skattebo have felt the weight of that even though they weren’t involved in it.
“We can’t be naive to everything. We hear what people say. Definitely lights a fire in us,” Dart said after Thursday’s victory. “Me and Skatt talked about – like last week we talked about it was on us losing that game.
“I just think there’s, at times, some negativity that’s surrounding here. For us, some of the new guys that are coming here, we just got here, so we don’t feel like we were involved in the past. We’ve got a lot of winners on this team, guys who come out every single day, work their (butt) off to put on a good showing on Sundays. I feel like we’re just connected. We just had some games, times and those moments where it hasn’t gone our way. We do feel like we’re a really good team, we have really good players. We’re just trying to win games.”
Skattebo said he and Dart are focused on changing the franchise’s fortunes.
“We do a lot of things on the side together, talk a lot together about getting this turned around,” Skattebo said. “Not doing it on our own, but getting everyone to buy in and continue to stay positive and work to be better.
“The franchise has been a losing franchise the last couple years, but that’s not who we are right now. We need to continue to build and build and build each and every day and have these guys with positive mindsets and get away from that losing mindset.
Skattebo said he “felt the confidence” from his teammates throughout the game on Thursday.
“Everyone else is buying in, we’re pushing each other, everyone’s holding each other accountable and we jsut have to continue that as a team,” Skattebo said.
“I think the entire team feeds off Skatt and Dart’s energy, the way they play the game,” said veteran offensive lineman Jermaine Eleumunor.
Dart took some hits on Thursday and left the game briefly for a concussion check, but Eluemunor said he believes Dart “feeds off” taking, and delivering, hits.
“I think he can be truly special once we truly get this thing going,” Eluemunor said, adding that the rookie is “really good at making something out of nothing.”
Daboll said Dart is “a leader.”
“I’ve liked everything about Dart since we got him,” Daboll said. “Again, it’s not perfect. Not gonna be perfect, whatever it may be. But he’s got toughness, I think he sees the field well, he’s got athleticism, vision, leadership.
“He leads by his play, he leads by his words, he leads by his emotion, he leads by his loose plays. Glad he’s my quarterback, our quarterback. Again, he’s a rookie. As one of my mentors once said, Let’s not give him a gold jacket right now. Coach Parcells. But he’s a good young player to work with.”
The Giants have now beaten a 4-0 Los Angeles Chargers team and a 4-1 defending Super Bowl champion Eagles team in their last two home games.
“We feel like anytime we go out there on the field, anybody we’re playing against, we have a chance to win,” Dart said. “Doesn’t matter what Vegas says. It doesn’t matter what the spread is. I was watching Pat McAfee, they are talking about the point spread of who is going to win the game. We don’t care about that stuff. We feel like we’re confident to go out there, put on a good performance, and win games.”
Those victories, of course, were separated by a loss to a previously winless Saints team in New Orleans. That should remind everyone that things won’t turn around overnight for this Giants team.
“Me and Skatt just have a lot of talks. We sat next to each other on the plane back [from New Orleans],” Dart said. “It definitely hurt us last week a lot because we felt like we absolutely should have won that game. We had talks during the week. We just kept telling each other we got each other; we’re going to lay it all on the line each and every play for each other. We try to message that to our teammates as much as possible.
“We know everybody is going to rally around each other the more we have performances like this. We can’t get too high; we can’t get too low. The most important thing is the next play, the next moment. For us it’s going to be this next game.”
What does beating the defending Super Bowl champions on national television, especially doing so decisively, show the Giants?
“It shows us how good we can be, and how if we’re on our details and on our execution and playing together all three phases we can beat anybody,” said safety Tyler Nubin. “Gives us a lot of confidence, but it also shows us that when we’re not locked in anybody can beat us as well.”
Nubin, a 2024 second-round pick, said there is “100 percent” a different attitude within the Giants this season from a year ago when the team went 3-14.
“I don’t think we’re focused on anything but winning this year,” Nubin said.
Nubin credited Dart and Skattebo, but added Daboll has also been a factor.
“The tone that Dabs set in the offseason and the tone that he’s continued to preach — we’re gonna go win, we’re not just gonna go play, we’re gonna try to go win a game,” Nubin said. “I think the energy he’s brought and the energy the new guys have brought definitely have turned it from what it was last year.”
Maybe, just maybe, years from now Giants fans will remember the drafting of Dart, Skattebo and Abdul Carter, who had a quiet night against the Eagles but is still an extraordinary young player, as what finally turned the fortunes of the franchise.
“It’s a long season, so we have to bring it every single day. We have to try to keep that the culture. We have to stack wins. We can’t have performances where we play really good, next game we turn the ball over five times. That stuff can’t happen,” Dart said. “We have to try to be consistent. From an attitude perspective, it’s kind of the energy we’re just trying to bring here. The intensity of coming to work every single day. I think guys are trying to do that and rally around each other.”
Dart wants to be part of erasing the negativity that has dogged the franchise.
“I love it,” he said. “I understand the most important thing for everybody is winning. As competitors, that’s how we feel, too. I feel like this city is starving for that. We are starving for that. We hate losing. It’s the worst feeling in the world. We just try to do our best, regardless of what outside noise is, we try to keep everything internal between us. I have all the confidence in the world in every single player on this team. We’ve just got to try to do our best to rally and stay consistent.”
Source link
