The Giants keep finding ways to make people doubt them, and this week they’ve got fresh fuel.
At 3-1-1 and sitting in first place in the NFC East, New York is somehow a 1.5-point home underdog against the desperate New Orleans Saints, who arrive at MetLife Stadium at 1-4. Defensive coordinator Dennard Wilson made clear the Giants have noticed.
“We love playing at MetLife Stadium and being underdogs,” Wilson said. “Everybody counts us out.
We like playing with a chip on our shoulder. That’s what it is.”
That edge matters, but the bigger reason the Giants keep giving themselves a chance is Jameis Winston. He’s been steady enough to keep the offense alive through injuries and late-game swings, and last Sunday he was the one dragging New York back into a 27-27 tie at Washington.
Winston’s 28-yard strike to Malik Nabers in overtime should have ended it. Instead, it became one more example of how much responsibility the quarterback is carrying. He even bent down to tie Nabers’ shoe during a drive to keep things on schedule, and when the Giants went to tempo, he was calling some of his own plays at the line.
“I just think the coaches are doing an incredible job catering to our playmakers,” Winston said. “I think that’s so important.
Football can be very simple when you say, ‘Hey, this is who we have. How can we make them look good?’
We make them look good, we in turn will look good.”
His numbers backed it up. Against Washington’s blitz, Winston threw for 145 yards, two touchdowns and no interceptions.
He also caught a break or two, including one dropped interception and another erased by a Commanders penalty. Still, the performance was strong, and it came with plenty of help from offensive coordinator Matt Nagy, who loaded up targets for the Giants’ two biggest weapons: Nabers and tight end Isaiah Likely.
Nabers got a massive 20 targets, after wondering aloud afterward if it had been about 12. Nagy couldn’t resist poking at that.
“He’s full of crap,” Nagy said with a laugh. “He knew.
He knew. He’s funny, man.”
Nabers appears to be heating up, and the Giants know it. The more immediate issue is that the run game has stalled. Cam Skattebo’s fumbling problems have added to a ground attack that’s averaging just 3.7 yards per carry, leaving the offense too dependent on the pass.
Senior offensive assistant Greg Roman, the man widely associated with the Giants’ run scheme, was not made available to the media Friday. Roman doesn’t have to speak regularly because he isn’t technically a primary position coach, but he and Nagy sit together in the box on game days and share the responsibility for what happens on offense.
There’s no mystery about what Nagy wants to see this week.
“We have to be better on first down running the football,” Nagy said. “We can’t stay in this second and eight, second and 10, second and seven.
But we know that. So what are we going to do about it?
How are we going to fix that? And that’s our number one challenge is to do that.”
“But then we also can’t be predictable,” he added. “So that’s my job as a play caller: To make sure that I protect us that way and protect the players.”
The Giants believe they have a path to doing exactly that against New Orleans. The Saints have been vulnerable inside and are giving up 4.9 yards per carry, almost matching the Giants defense’s 5.2 yards allowed per rush. That opens the door for New York to lean back into a physical approach at the line of scrimmage, possibly with Devin Singletary back involved and even fullback Pat Ricard getting handoffs.
The numbers with Ricard are hard to ignore: the Giants are 3-0-0 when he plays at least 45% of the snaps, and 0-1-1 when he doesn’t.
If the Giants can control the line, keep the home crowd rolling after a 3-0 start at MetLife and get the offense moving on the ground, the building can become part of the edge again.
“Grateful for our fans representing, showing up, showing out,” Winston said. “We had two resilient wins the past few times that we were at home.
And such a magical win on the anniversary of Sept. 11.
We’ve had some passionate wins at home, and it’s really because we have passionate fans. So we got to keep that energy coming in MetLife.
And we just got to keep on being our best for them.”
The Saints, though, have their own quarterback problem to worry about. Tyler Shough, the No. 40 overall pick in 2025 behind Jaxson Dart at No. 25, comes in with something to prove against a Giants team that passed on him. He also arrives with GM Mickey Loomis and head coach Kellen Moore under pressure after Saints owner Gayle Benson called them out publicly this week.
That said, New York’s focus has to stay on its own formula. The Giants need Dominic Zvada to make his kicks.
They need Winston to keep operating with confidence. They need Wilson to keep dialing up pressure.
And they need the kind of energy that’s turned MetLife into a place where they’ve already found a way to win.
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