GIANTS NO. 1
After 0-5 start, Big Blue stuns Broncos for first win of season, with 10 regulars missing
Eli Manning and Giants figure out secret to success in 23-10 win in Denver — leave half the team home.
DENVER — Ben McAdoo finally gave up playcalling this week with the Giants’ season in turmoil, and his players responded by not giving up on him for their stunningly dominant first win of the season, 2310 over the Broncos at Mile High on Sunday night.
“For the team in general, he was saying that he knows what he has to do,” Landon Collins said of his head coach. “He just has to be affirmative on both sides, not just on one side of the field.”
“It’s more than just today,” McAdoo said of why he made the change. “I need to do what’s best for the team, just like we ask the players, just like we ask the coaches, and I thought the team needed me, the whole locker room needed me this week. I needed to be at my best for the players and coaches this week.”
Justin Pugh, who led a nasty offensive line in handling Von Miller and the fearsome Denver rush, said a win despite only improving to 1-5 “was huge to get that feeling for this team.”
And so it was justified that the Giants, who had opened the week as 12- to 14-point underdogs, were going to soak this one in. With Odell Beckham Jr. and many others out for the season and Dominique RodgersCromartie suspended by their coach, no one else believed they could do it.
“I’m on a high right now. It’s unreal,” rookie tight end Evan Engram (five catches, 82 yards, TD) said of his first career NFL win. “We’re gonna enjoy this one. This plane ride’s about to be fun as hell. Honestly, all week we believed that we were gonna win this game. Nobody else did. That’s how we came in tonight: We all we got.”
McAdoo’s decision to give up calling plays for the first time since taking over as offensive coordinator under Tom Coughlin in 2014, however, was the overriding theme and X-factor, even as the defensive forced three turnovers and got a pick-six from corner Janoris Jenkins.
Offensive coordinator Mike Sullivan called an excellent, balanced game and stayed committed to Orleans Darkwa (117 rush yards) and the run game. Defensive end Jason Pierre-Paul (three sacks), who had a monster game of his own, could see the difference just from the sideline.
“The team was well balanced, man, especially the offense,” Pierre-Paul said. “You don’t know what you’re gonna get. Odell is a great player, Brandon Marshall’s a great player, Shep was out, Dwayne was a great player. But I feel like it was balanced. You don’t know what you’re gonna get. It’s just not on one guy. And I think they did a pretty good job.”
McAdoo even approved so much that when asked if he’ll continue to let Sullivan call plays, the coach said: “We’ll revisit it moving forward but it looks like a pretty good plan.”
Sullivan, whose only other game calling Giant plays had been the final preseason game this summer in New England, guided the Giants on a 13play, 69-yard drive on their first possession capped by the first of three Aldrick Rosas field goals.
And Eli Manning said he was comfortable with the change, no problem.
“(McAdoo) told me earlier in the week that Sully was going to call the plays,” Manning said. “It’s not different for me. I’m used to hearing Coach Sullivan in my ear. He calls plays all the time in practice … I talked to him and we had conversations and knew we were going to have to grind it out a little bit on the run.”
Truly, McAdoo’s selflessness, letting go of that which he is most proud for the benefit of the team, permeated the locker room positively even if the coach only went to it as an absolute last resort following a horrible week. McAdoo’s tardy humility yielded immediate results, especially on offense, and the players were ebullient after the game. ut
Bthe coach didn’t want the spotlight on his big call to not make the calls.
“Give credit to the players,” McAdoo said. And that’s how a coach leads.