Giants show they actually have some depth at wide receiver
The Giants entered Thursday night’s game against the Eagles shorthanded at receiver, with Darius Slayton out with a hamstring injury suffered on Sunday and No. 1 Malik Nabers already out with a torn ACL.
The way the Giants operated, though, you would have never known it.
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Lil’Jordan Humphrey, a journeyman receiver who was called up to the 53-man roster before the game, caught four passes for 55 yards, including a huge 34-yarder on third-and-12 that led to the Giants’ first TD.
On that play, Humphrey outleaped Eagles cornerback Kelee Ringo for the ball and made the catch — one play after committing a false start penalty.
It was his first catch as a Giant.
“How about that one double move on the sideline?’’ Daboll said, referring to Humphrey 34-yarder after the Giants’ 34-17 blowout win over the Eagles. “That was somebody that I know Jaxson [Dart] had a lot of confidence in throwing to him from the preseason. And we had Jalin Hyatt cause the DPI (late in the game in the end zone). That was huge for us.
“Just the next guy stepping up. We had someone that was on the practice squad [Humphrey]. We got Jalin Hyatt out there, who hasn’t played a lot for us. You’re down Nabers, you’re down Slayton, no excuses. Just go to work.’’
The Giants were lifted, too, by dependable slot receiver Wan’Dale Robinson, who caught six passes for 84 yards and a TD.
On his 35-yard TD, which gave the Giants a 13-3 lead, Robinson made a nice spin move on Eagles safety Andrew Mukuba, who whiffed on the tackle at the Philadelphia 24 and he ran down the sideline for the score.
When the rookie Dart was sacked and sent to the tent to be evaluated for a concussion in the fourth quarter, Russell Wilson came on in relief and promptly threw a third-down pass intended for Hyatt into the dirt. He was booed on his way back to the sideline.
Daboll was seen yelling at a team physician on the sideline, clearly wanting to get Dart back into the game to go for it on fourth down.
“Have you ever been on an NFL sideline?” Daboll said. “There’s a lot of emotions, and I certainly am an emotional guy. I apologized directly to our team physician. I just wanted [Dart’s] ass out there if he was OK, because we were getting ready to go for it on a potential four down. I would have burned a timeout if he could have came out there.
“So, I was asking, ‘How long is it going to take?’ You want your guy out there, not at risk of anything else. [The doctor], when he came out [of the tent], said, ‘I think he’s going to be good.’ I’m like, ‘He’s going to be good or not, because I’m going to call timeout on fourth down and go for the som’ bitch.’
“I apologized to our team physician. I love our doctors. I was in the wrong. Hey, we hugged and he’s all right.”
The Giants lost starting center John Michael Schmitz Jr., who suffered a concussion in the third quarter after being bloodied on his nose. He was replaced by Austin Schlottmann.
Earlier, they lost defensive lineman Darius Alexander to a knee injury in the second quarter. He was taken off the field in a cart and did not return.
The Giants’ opening-drive TD put Dart in the same category as Chiefs superstar Patrick Mahomes.
According to ESPN, Dart and Mahomes are the only quarterbacks since at least 1991 to lead their team to a TD on the opening drive in each of their first three NFL starts.
Perhaps the only blemish in this dream game for the Giants was kicker Jude McAtamney missing the extra point on the Giants second TD. In the end, the point didn’t matter.
The Eagles began the game like they planned to make up for their lack of Saquon Barkley use (six carries) in Sunday’s loss to the Broncos.
The former Giants star running back, on the first two plays from scrimmage, rushed for gains of 18 and 13 yards, amassing 31 yards on the first two plays.
He would run 10 more times in the first game for 27 yards.
“We got out of our gaps a couple times, but just had to be more disciplined,’’ Giants defensive tackle Dexter Lawrence said.
Barkley was playing against his former team for the second time. He rushed for 176 yards in the teams’ first meeting and sat out the season finale with Philadelphia already having clinched the division title.
After his first season with the Eagles in which he rushed for 2,005 yards, Barkley entered Thursday night ranked 25th in rushing yards per game (53.4) and 39th in yards per rush (3.2).
“Every year is not going to be like how I had it last year,” Barkley told reporters this week in Philadelphia.
Beginning with O.J. Simpson in 1973, there were eight running backs who eclipsed the 2,000-yard rushing mark in a season, and according to ESPN, none of them reached 1,500 yards the following season and all eight saw their yards-per-rush drop by an average of about a yard and a half.
Entering Thursday night, Barkley’s 5.8 yards per carry in 2024 was down by 2.6 yards.
“[Teams] could be teams scheming for him,’’ Lawrence said before the game. “It happens, but you don’t want to be the team to let him get hot, so, you’ve got to stay disciplined.’’
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