Giants not born to run, but Sully’s risk pays off
Mike Sullivan’s first game as Giants play-caller was no easy task.
The Giants offensive coordinator could not have been handed the responsibility of calling plays at a worse time, with three top receivers injured and facing a Broncos defense that has allowed the fewest yards per game.
Yet, somehow, the Giants won and did it by rushing for a season-high 147 yards on the ground. So how did he do it? He hit the Broncos where they least expected it.
“Sometimes you want to stay away from a team’s strengths, but other times you may catch them off guard by attacking their strengths,” Sullivan said. “Credit to those players who, despite all the adversity and disappointment and frustration, to buying in and knowing early on, ‘Hey, we’re going to grind this thing out and it’s not going to be pretty.’ ”
It took until dropping to 0-5 for Ben McAdoo to relinquish the play-calling duties, but neither he nor Sullivan has said who will call the plays against the Seahawks on Sunday.
McAdoo said it was his decision to delegate that responsibility to Sullivan, but the Giants offensive coordinator added
that McAdoo was still involved in some capacity.
“He was excellent throughout the week, very supportive and certainly on game day as well,” Sullivan said. “There were occasions, just in terms of him giving some feedback and a suggestion here or there. But he was very, very good.”
The Giants threw the ball just 19 times compared to 32 rushing attempts against the Broncos. It certainly was not the typical Giants football fans are used to seeing, and Sullivan even mentioned that they may have benefitted from playing on the road.
“I joked a little bit about how on one hand, having that game on the road may be a good thing so you’re not showered down with boos after second-and-10, second-and-11,” he said. “We just had to be patient and that was the mindset of just trying to grind them down and do something they weren’t necessarily expecting.”
Nobody expected the winless Giants to beat the Broncos, and especially to do it with the success they had in the running game.
Orleans Darkwa’s career day, in which he ran for 117 yards, included a 47-yard run in the first half that helped set up a touchdown to extend the Giants lead to 10-0.
Sullivan pointed to the play of the offensive line that helped make that play happen and for allowing the running game to finally break out.
“It was very good execution up front,” he said. “And then Orleans hit it with great discipline.”
Left guard D.J. Fluker, who had a key block on Darkwa’s 47-yard run, is hoping other teams will now start respecting the running game.
“We don’t want guys to be like, ‘oh, New York Giants, they’re just going to pass the ball,” said Fluker. “We don’t want to be that team. We want to be the guys on the team that we’re going to bring it you, first two plays, the third down happens, but we’re going to bring it to you because we’re going to wear you down.’ That’s our goal.”