The Giants walked out of Sunday’s 34-26 win over the Arizona Cardinals with a clean result and a messy injury report.
Safety Jason Pinnock was the first to go down, leaving with a concussion after splitting time early with Tyler Nubin. Pinnock was on the field for 17 snaps before exiting.
Braxton Berrios also left the game, this time with a foot injury. He had already been bumped off kickoff returns at the start of the day, with Charlie Jones taking over that job. After Berrios was injured, Jones handled punt return duties as well.
The third hit came on the defensive front, where Chauncey Golston departed with a neck injury. His exit opened the door for more snaps for Darius Alexander.
There was a much brighter note up front for Bryan Hudson, who made his first NFL start at center and held up well. Head coach John Harbaugh said Hudson got the nod because John Michael Schmitz missed practices late in the week after the birth of a child.
Hudson’s performance backed that decision up. According to Pro Football Focus, he finished as the fourth-highest graded center in Week 4 and posted a perfect 100.0 pass-blocking efficiency score across 33 pass-blocking snaps.
Still, Harbaugh stopped short of making any declarations about the center job.
“JMS had missed a couple days of practice, and Huddy had been doing so well,” Harbaugh said. “We kind of felt like he’s got the reps.
He’s made the calls, and we were kind of thinking about starting to work him in a little bit here and there, even some extra line stuff, if possible. And it just made sense.
I mean, JMS, he’d been up, his wife had the baby. He didn’t have a lot of rest.
It just made sense, and I think it paid off. It’s not a long-term thing.
I mean, we just have two centers we really like.”
The win also gave New York something it hasn’t had in a long time: a 3-0 start at home. It’s the first time the Giants have opened a season 3-0 at home since 2008, and because MetLife Stadium opened in 2010, it’s the first time they’ve done it in their current building.
“It means a lot. I think all of us, all of us, the players, coaches, we’re all very, the organization,” Harbaugh said.
“I know Mr. Mara, talked to him after the game, everybody’s very proud of that, very proud of that.
All right, now, next time we come back home, we got to extend it. We got to win the next one.”
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