Jaxson Dart was so devastated after Sunday’s collapse, holding his hand over his mouth as Will Lutz’s field goal sailed through, that Denver safety Talanoa Hufanga had to lift the Giants quarterback off one knee just to shake his hand.
“It’s just really frustrating,” Dart said. “I’m trying to put it all together. We had chances to win the game, and we didn’t do it. It’s frustrating.”
The good news was that Dart scored four touchdowns against one of the best defenses in the NFL.
The great news is that the Giants never seem to be out of a game with Dart at quarterback.
He’s so inevitable in key moments that when Broncos quarterback Bo Nix scored to give Denver a 30-26 lead with 1:51 to play, a person close to Dart sent the Daily News a text:
“They gave Jaxson too much time,” the person said.
They were right. Dart drove the Giants downfield 65 yards in 74 seconds for a go-ahead TD with 37 seconds remaining.
“I never felt like we’re gonna lose the game,” Dart said. “I looked at the clock, and they scored. I said, ‘Dang, we’ve got a lot of time left.’ And I had no doubt that we were gonna go down there and score.”
At the same time, Dart’s fourth quarter interception to Broncos linebacker Justin Strnad with 4:47 remaining was a backbreaker.
The Giants had a 99 percent chance to win at the 5:21 mark, per NFL NextGen Stats, and the turnover snowballed New York’s fourth quarter struggles into an avalanche.
“Absolutely,” Dart said. “I can’t do that. We were in full control of the game. In that situation, you can’t do that. That was an unacceptable mistake.”
Broncos coach Sean Payton, while he complimented Dart’s ability, admitted the interception “probably was the difference in winning and losing the game.”
Dart said of the ill-advised throw: “My feet got a little stuck in the ground. That’s just unacceptable. I’ve got to be better.”
The reality is that while Dart played encouragingly from a long-term outlook, he and the offense were party to this historic collapse just like the defense and special teams were.
Dart overthrew some deep shots in the fourth that could have helped put the game away. Theo Johnson’s late touchdown only was possible off a fluke drop by Wan’Dale Robinson.
Dart should have been intercepted on an underthrown deep shot to Beaux Collins on the final drive, but two Broncos defensive backs collided in the air.
And the Giants were gifted a phantom pass interference call on the goal line against Broncos corner Riley Moss to set up that last-minute Dart 1-yard rushing touchdown.
Dart and the offense were flagged with a stunning three delay of game penalties. And as left guard Jon Runyan Jr. said, when they had a chance to put the game away, they went three-and-out twice, including the interception.
That allowed a bad quarter to snowball into an all-time defeat.
“It feels good knowing that you got guys in this locker room that are gonna compete to the very end,” Runyan said. “It didn’t go our way, and that’s very unfortunate. I felt like we played really well on offense, and I’m just really sick about those previous two drives where we couldn’t get a first down to basically end the game.”
The balance of Dart’s first four NFL starts, of course, is filled with positives.
The Giants have gone 2-2 with Dart at quarterback after losing all three of Russell Wilson’s games to open the season. And they’ve had leads in all four games.
That’s something the Giants haven’t done around here in a while.
On the other hand, both of the Giants’ losses with Dart, to the Saints and the Broncos, have been catastrophic collapses.
In other words, Dart may look promising, but it is too much to expect him to overcome the dysfunction and poor personnel and game management of Joe Schoen and Daboll.
The question, then, is how to proceed with Dart’s development after 2026.
Daboll is the one who banged the table for the Giants to draft Dart in the first place and then start him in Week 4 at 0-3. So he would make the argument that he deserves to continue to develop the QB.
On the flip side, Dart would be better off playing for a coach and a team that has a better understanding of how to manage a roster and games, that drafts better and that puts players in better positions to succeed.
“I just can’t stand losing,” Dart said.
All of that is to say Dart’s future looks bright, but as long as he plays for this version of the Giants, he’ll be subjected to gutting losses — to a lot of losses.
The best he can do for now is learn how to minimize his part in them until sea change comes to the Meadowlands.
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