A new Orleans run game for Blue

DENVER — Orleans Darkwa and the Giants so rarely run the ball this well that Darkwa was asked to take a drug test after rushing for a career-high 117 yards on 21 carries in Sunday night’s 23-10 win.

Not really. Darkwa’s drug test was random. His success on the ground, though, was not.

His 5.6 yards per carry and the Giants’ season-high 148 rush yards as a team were the result of offensive coordinator Mike Sullivan’s commitment to the run and to Darkwa, and the offensive line’s best performance of the season, maybe of the last two years in fact.

“That’s what you dream of as a back, you know, you want to get fed, and that was our game plan going in,” said Darkwa, 25, finally breaking out in year four as a Giant. “It was going to be a grind-it-out game, and we were able to have success off of that. And the O-line, tight ends, wide receivers, they did a hell of a job blocking. That’s on them. All of that yardage is on them, because there were a lot of plays I didn’t get touched. I owe them all the credit for that.”

Darkwa’s 47-yard run in the second quarter to set up Evan Engram’s 3-yard touchdown catch epitomized how, as right guard D.J. Fluker said, the Giants “set the tone” at the line of scrimmage.

Fluker pulled left on a trap block and buried his man, sending Darkwa off to the races.

“The play was supposed to come to my side but they shifted and we switched it, and I was like cooool,” Fluker said, giddy. “It was cool. (Offensive line) coach Solari was talking about, ‘Be physical! Be physical!’ the whole time. I’m like all right Coach, dang. He was all fired up. Saying it before we got on the field.

“Luckily the play came and I was like let’s go,” Fluker continued. “I didn’t know I was gonna tilt him, most guys don’t fall over like that. But I erupted on him and jumped over top of him and was like oh yeah, let’s go, let’s go. I was all excited to see a big run like that. We set the tone That play set the tone for the rest of our game.

“The more you run it, the better we got at it,” Fluker concluded. “That’s my take. You’ve gotta believe in it.”