Giants rookie QB Jaxson Dart answered Shedeur Sanders’ strong NFL debut in Cleveland with an impressive first game of his own.
The Giants’ first-round pick directed a 7-play, 80-yard scoring drive on Saturday in Orchard Park, N.Y., launching a 28-yard touchdown strike to wide receiver Lil’ Jordan Humphrey as a Bills defender was bearing down.
Dart completed 12 of 19 passes for 154 yards and the touchdown, rushed for 24 more yards and quarterbacked three Giants scoring drives. That included a two-minute drill at the end of the first half to set up a Graham Gano field goal in an eventual 34-25 Giants victory at Highmark Stadium.
Fellow first-round pick Abdul Carter also looked ferocious with a couple pressures in limited snaps with the Giants’ first-team defense.
“I thought both of those guys did a good job,” GM Joe Schoen told the NBC broadcast during Saturday’s third quarter. “I saw Abdul, he looks like he got a couple pressures. Jaxson did a good job operating the offense, and I was glad he was able to get a two-minute drill in at the end there. I’m happy with where both those guys are.”
All eyes were on Dart especially after Sanders had completed 14 of 23 passes for 138 yards and two TDs with 19 yards rushing in Friday night’s start for the Browns.
The Giants were hot on Sanders’ trail at Colorado before pivoting late to Dart and passing on the eventual fifth-round pick. So Sanders’ and Dart’s progressions always will be monitored and compared both inside and outside the Giants’ facility.
Dart looked composed, though, and elevated his play from practice once he replaced starter Russell Wilson. The most impressive stretch came on Dart’s second drive after his first possession ended with a punt.
Dart hit running back Dante Miller for an 18-yard screen pass. Then Montrell Washington helped Dart out by breaking two tackles for a 29-yard gain after a short completion.
Dart caught a break on second down at the Bills’ 28-yard line when a near-interception, batted by Bills defensive lineman Joe Andreessen, fortunately hit the ground as linebacker Michael Hoecht caught it a half-second too late.
But Dart wasn’t fazed. On 3rd and 6, Dart stood in, took a big hit from Bills defensive lineman T.J. Sanders and delivered a perfect touch throw down the left sideline into Humphrey’s hands for the touchdown against corner Dane Jackson.
Dart wasn’t perfect. He tossed a couple off-target incompletions. Washington also had two costly drops. Otherwise, Dart’s stat line would have looked even better.
But it was an encouraging debut. And just as intriguing as Dart finding the end zone was his attitude at the end of the first half.
Dart could be seen dropping expletives on the sideline after his offense settled for a field goal and then the defense allowed a 58-yard Mitchell Trubisky completion to Tyrell Shavers against O’Donnell Fortune to set up a Buffalo field goal just before halftime.
The rookie cared about the result and is trying to help raise the team’s standard. On Saturday, he did his job.
SCHOEN, DABOLL PLAY HEALTHY STARTERS
The Giants surprised a lot of people by playing all of their healthy starters at the beginning of Saturday’s preseason opener. Schoen said it was a decision based on the Giants’ slow start the past couple seasons.
“There’s a fine line,” Schoen said when asked about the risk of playing starters in the preseason. “You gotta play football to be good at football. The last couple years we haven’t gotten off to a fast start, and I think everybody realizes that. So we need to get out here, we need to play, we need to tackle.”
“We need to clean up some of the penalties that you saw, some dropped passes,” the GM added. “And there’s just some rust that we need to kick off. So I thought it was important for guys to play… We gotta be ready to play when September comes.”
Wilson led a field goal drive on his only possession that was short-circuited by two penalties against left tackle James Hudson III. The Giants committed 10 penalties as a team.
The backup quarterbacks Dart, Jameis Winston and Tommy DeVito all threw touchdown passes. Dart was the second QB into the game even though the Giants are listing him third on their unofficial depth chart behind Winston.
Miller, the reserve running back, led the Giants with 102 yards from scrimmage, including seven catches on seven targets for 80 receiving yards.
Rookie fifth-round tackle Marcus Mbow held up well at both tackle spots in extended action. Third-round defensive tackle Darius Alexander had a quiet afternoon.
Seventh-round tight end Thomas Fidone II showed great hands with three catches on three targets for 21 yards, plus a two-conversion snag from Winston. Fidone’s two-point catch and another later on a DeVito pass were both difficult grabs that showed impressive range, wingspan and hands.
LINE STEPS UP
The Giants offensive line impressively didn’t allow a sack on Saturday. Daboll told Giant great Howard Cross at halftime of the line’s performance: “It’s helped by the quarterback play.” It’s difficult to hear that as anything other than a not-so-subtle reference to Daniel Jones’ shortcomings as the former starter in New York.
BANKS STAYS ON
All of the Giants’ defensive starters came out of the game after two series — except corner Deonte Banks.
The team’s leadership is clearly sending Banks a message despite the fact that the first-round pick is on the field and ahead of Cor’Dale Flott in their battle for the second starting corner spot.
Banks failed to get his head turned around on a deep one-handed catch by Bills receiver Kristian Wilkerson on a Trubisky throw late in the second quarter. But the Giants corner fortunately shielded Wilkerson close enough to the sideline that the wideout had only one foot in. The play was ruled incomplete.
“He’s in a battle with Flott for that second corner spot,” Schoen said. “So it was important to get here out and let him play. He played the first half and did a good job. He had that one. I wish we could locate the ball. But he was able to push the guy out of bounds and get us off the field.”
Schoen interestingly mentioned Green, who is injured at the moment, as his fifth corner on the depth chart and a key special teams gunner. That seemed obvious by Green’s play on the practice field when everyone was healthy, but it’s still meaningful to hear the GM say it.
Linebacker Dyontae Johnson saved a touchdown with a key goal line tackle of Bills back Frank Gore Jr. on fourth down in the game’s final minutes.
Players who did not play included left tackle Andrew Thomas, defensive tackle Dexter Lawrence, wide receivers Malik Nabers, Darius Slayton, Jalin Hyatt and Beaux Collins; running back Cam Skattebo, guard Evan Neal; corners Art Green, Tre Hawkins and Korie Black; defensive end Chauncey Golston and linebacker Demetrius Flannigan-Fowles.
TRADING TOMMY OR JAMEIS?
Play-by-play man Bob Papa twice broached the idea of the Giants creating a market to trade one of their four quarterbacks.
“It’s gonna be interesting, because Tommy DeVito won a prime-time game on national TV and has some wins, he’s not getting cut and being put on the practice squad,” Papa said. “Because if you look at it, there’s about five or six teams in the NFL that have really bad backup quarterback situations, which means could there be a trade with teams that have a deep quarterback room?”
Papa and Giants legend Carl Banks returned later to the idea that one of the Giants’ four QBs is or could be trade bait.
“You can’t keep four quarterbacks in today’s NFL,” Papa said. “It’ll be interesting to see how that all shakes out.”
Banks added: “None of them will be unemployed.”
The Giants return home from Buffalo to take a breather before back-to-back joint practices against the Jets: Tuesday in Florham Park, N.J., and Wednesday in East Rutherford.
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