Giants gave fans hope with victory over Browns

The Giants were dead and you hadn't even opened your first game day drink. The bean dip was still wrapped, the Frito bag still sealed. It wasn't even 1:15 and you might have been thinking about checking out the other games on TV, maybe watching the Liberty-Dream or Braves-Marlins playoff game on MLB Network.

On the opening kickoff, Eric Gray of the Giants lost the ball. On the Browns' first play, Deshaun Watson connected with Amari Cooper for a 24-yard touchdown. On the Giants' fifth play, Daniel Jones threw the ball directly to Cleveland's Ronnie Hickman, again at the Giants' 24-yard line.

“Oh, look! A 'Matrix' marathon on AMC! I'm in!”

And then something strange happened.

A flag was visible on the field. The 68,616 spectators who had been doing nothing but shouting at Cleveland's Huntington Bank Field fell silent. Greg Newsome's hand had touched Daniel Jones' helmet. In 1964, that might have only increased the noise to absurd levels.

In 2024 it will be 13.7 meters.

And in that moment — in that instant — not only was the game of football turned on its head, but the way we must view these Giants. They scored a touchdown 7 ½ minutes later, Devin Singletary rushing over from the 1. Jones connected twice with rookie wunderkind Malik Nabers before halftime to put the team up 21-7.

They held on and won 21-15. There were a few scary moments along the way, but none of them mattered when they left the field.

“We showed a lot of perseverance,” said Giants coach Brian Daboll. “Especially the way it started. But the guys fought, kept fighting and I'm proud of them.”

Suddenly, they were no longer a punching bag on social media (even though they gave most of their fans heartburn until the final minutes of the fourth quarter).

If the first few minutes inspired any #LOLGiants memes, they were quickly deleted. What followed in the final 54 minutes and 51 seconds was the hardest beating you can give on a football pitch, especially away from home. Forget the result. Remember what you saw. Remember what you watched.

“Once you get going, keep going,” said Dexter Lawrence, who was wild all day and accounted for two of the Giants' eight sacks and one of their five tackles for loss. “Don't lose focus. Now you just have to keep going.”

He meant wins. That was the first one. There will be more if they put together more complete games like the one on Sunday – certainly more than seemed logical after the losses in the first two games. They made Watson more than just grossly ineffective, they made him look scared, unsure of where the next beating would come from.

Jones? Well, he was spared that early pick. He was spared another when Nabers later made an incredible catch for his first touchdown. But he was also great for the second game in a row: 24 of 34, two touchdowns, no interceptions, a 109.4 rating.

And of course there was Nabers, who shook off his big slump of last week, making eight catches (on 12 targets) and giving off an Odell-like vibe on each one that he might be able to do a little more, too.

“When you have a guy like that,” said Daboll, “the opponent doesn't matter. Throw him the ball and he'll catch it.”

What we know so far is that Daboll is not wrong about all this.

“We kept them on their toes,” Jones said. “I thought we did a terribly good job of that today.”

Daboll: “Our boys already have inner confidence. But it’s good to get results.”

They would get them just a pooch punt away from Lake Erie that sunny afternoon, and all the hopeful voices at 1:15 would turn into endless boos by 4, and for the rest of the game in between. Watson was already on the hot seat; it's sizzling at about 212 degrees Fahrenheit now. The Giants dominated the line of scrimmage, on both sides of the ball.

If you couldn't fully exhale until Cedric Tillman landed one of the few accurate balls Watson threw all day, and the ball hit him between the “1” and “9” on his jersey before bouncing harmlessly… well, that's life in the NFL every week.

Believe what you saw. Believe what you saw. And most of all, believe that football season is still around for a team for whom this suddenly seems like a blessing, not a judgment.