Sterling shepherds Big Blue to victory
Only one active Giants player has appeared in a playoff game wearing the uniform.
He played Sunday like he is tired of carrying the torch.
Sterling Shepard scored the first two touchdowns to lift the Giants to an early 11-point lead that held up down the stretch of a 23-19 victory against the Cowboys. It extended the Giants’ hopes of winning the NFC East for a few hours — until the Eagles tanked and handed the division title to Washington.
“This was the biggest game of the season,” Shepard said.
The win was the Giants’ first over the Cowboys since their last playoff-bound season — snapping a streak of seven straight losses — when Shepard was a rookie in 2016. He came into the league joining a vaunted receiving corps with Odell Beckham Jr. and Victor Cruz and has gone through the many amalgamations since to become the Giants’ highestpaid target.
“We’re a skill group that is out there to make big plays,” Shepard said. “That’s all I wanted to do. That was the mindset of all the receivers. We were able to make some crucial plays to help the team.”
Shepard finished with a season-high eight catches for 124 yards plus two carries for 24 yards on the way to his first career multi-touchdown game: A 23-yard end-around rushing score and a 10-yard reception on which he fought through a tackle to reach the pylon.
Shepard battled through a second straight injury-plagued season to come on strong at the end. Until he had 77 receiving yards last week, he only had topped 70 once in 10 games.
“He’s a guy that this week was very banged up and pushed through for practice,” coach Joe Judge said. “I would say he was limited, but he was really grinding through a lot of pain throughout the week. But you know that when you get to game day, he is going to give you plays and give you production.”
Wide receivers coach Tyke Tolbert said earlier in the week that Shepard had the best season of the Giants receivers even though Darius Slayton was at the top of the chart in receiving yards.
“He’s a guy that obviously we missed a lot early in the season when he was hurt,” Judge said. “Our guys have a lot of confidence in him on the field. He is that guy who in the crucial moments wants the ball, and you want to find a way to get it to him.”
Shepard also showed he understands the rivalries that make fans tick.
While he was rooting for an Eagles upset that did not happen, he said he “won’t be caught dead in an Eagles hat.”
As for beating the Cowboys, “I was super tired of that [losing streak] and going into that game that was actually going across my mind: It’s about time for us to get a ‘W.’ ”
Mission accomplished.