Brian Daboll, Giants earn season-saving win with Daniel Jones, Malik Nabers, Brian Burns, Dexter Lawrence standing out

CLEVELAND – Brian Daboll and the Giants are disconnected the mat.

Daniel Jones, Malik Nabers, Brian Burns and Dexter Lawrence, 4 of the franchise’s biggest investments and astir important players, roseate to the juncture successful their archetypal triumph of the play connected Sunday, 21-15, implicit the Cleveland Browns astatine Huntington Bank Field.

Nabers caught 2 touchdown passes and stole distant an interception successful a ascendant 2nd quarter. Jones was astir cleanable successful the archetypal half. Burns recorded a portion sack and perpetually pressured slow-processing Cleveland backmost Deshaun Watson. Lawrence had 2 sacks.

Shane Bowen’s defence had 7 sacks, bouncing backmost from a pugnacious Week 2 nonaccomplishment astatine Washington. And Daboll’s Giants held connected and improved to 1-2, with a speedy turnaround to a Thursday Night Football sojourn from the NFC East rival Dallas Cowboys astatine MetLife Stadium.

There were inactive immoderate tense moments, adjacent though the Giants carried a 21-7 pb into some halftime and the 4th quarter.

Watson deed Amari Cooper for his 2nd touchdown drawback of the crippled and converted a two-point conversion to Jerry Jeudy to constrictive the Giants’ pb to six points with 11:33 remaining successful the 4th quarter.

The Giants’ discourtesy stalled wholly successful the 2nd half, with moving backmost Devin Singletary losing a fumble for the 2nd consecutive game.

But Watson and moving backmost Jerome Ford fumbled a handoff adjacent midfield, and Giants borderline rusher Azeez Ojulari recovered the shot to halt Cleveland’s momentum with 7:40 to play.

New York Giants linebacker Azeez Ojulari (51) reacts aft sacking Cleveland Browns backmost Deshaun Watson during the 2nd fractional of an NFL shot game, Sunday, Sept. 22, 2024, successful Cleveland. (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki)

Then Kayvon Thibodeaux and Lawrence made 3rd and 4th down stops to crook Cleveland implicit connected downs with 3:56 remaining astatine the Browns’ 29-yard line

Then, adjacent erstwhile kicker Greg Joseph severely missed a 48-yard tract extremity that could person iced the crippled with 3 minutes left, the Giants defence escaped again connected a 4th down driblet by Browns receiver Cedric Tillman.

Singletary past escaped for a 43-yard tally and slid down astatine the Browns’ 1-yard line, with a reminder from Wan’Dale Robinson, to assistance the Giants tally the timepiece retired connected their triumph with 3 kneel downs successful triumph formation.

Giants near tackle Andrew Thomas appeared to injure his near ankle with astir 5 and a fractional minutes remaining but returned to assistance Daboll’s discourtesy decorativeness the crippled out.

The Giants were playing from down instantly owed to a catastrophe connected the game’s opening kickoff for a 2nd consecutive week.

Running backmost Eric Gray, a Joe Schoen fifth-round prime successful 2023, fumbled the instrumentality and gave the Browns the shot astatine the Giants’ 24-yard line.

Watson instantly deed Cooper for a 24-yard touchdown walk connected Cleveland’s archetypal play from scrimmage, and the Browns led, 7-0, conscionable 11 seconds into the game.

That marked Cleveland’s archetypal touchdown connected the archetypal play from scrimmage successful a crippled since Nov. 20, 2005 against the Miami Dolphins, according to the FOX broadcast.

The Giants’ discourtesy past went three-and-out and punted connected its archetypal drive. But Lawrence sacked Watson to get the shot backmost connected Cleveland’s adjacent drive.

It marked the archetypal punt forced by the Giants defence since Week 1, fixed Washington’s 7 consecutive scoring drives with each tract goals successful Week 2.

Then, the Giants caught an tremendous interruption to forestall the atrocious commencement from snowballing.

Jones threw an interception straight into the gut of Browns information Ronnie Hickman. But Cleveland slot country Greg Newsome II was penalized for roughing the backmost connected his blitz by hitting Jones successful the head.

That gave the Giants the shot backmost and ignited a 13-play, 81-yard scoring thrust capped by a 1-yard touchdown tally by Singletary to necktie the crippled astatine 7 apiece with 2:07 remaining successful the archetypal quarter.

The Giants scored 21 unanswered points full from that constituent on, taking that two-score pb into the 4th fourth until things got shaky.

In the archetypal half, Daboll steered his discourtesy astir Browns antiaircraft coordinator Jim Schwartz’s blitzes with surface passes, and helium tried his champion to offset the imbalance connected the enactment of scrimmage by keeping runs and abbreviated throws to the outside.

Daboll besides demonstrated the benignant of aggressiveness that worked for him successful 2022, his archetypal twelvemonth arsenic caput coach. He went for a 4th-and-1 astatine the Giants’ 43-yard enactment and converted connected a Nabers pitchy expanse from near to close for 2 yards.

Their archetypal touchdown drive, which lasted 7 minutes and 44 seconds, was the Giants’ longest scoring thrust by clip of possession since their 2022 Wild Card playoff triumph successful Minnesota – a 10 minute, 52-second tract extremity thrust successful the 2nd 4th against the Vikings.

Nabers past dominated Sunday’s 2nd quarter.

He ripped an interception retired of the hands of Browns country Martin Emerson Jr. down the near sideline for a 28-yard gain. Then helium made a terrific 3-yard TD drawback to headdress a 93-yard touchdown thrust for a 14-7 pb with 1:44 to play successful the archetypal half.

Then Burns strip-sacked Watson and gave the Giants discourtesy the shot back, and Nabers finished that thrust with different TD drawback from 5 yards retired for the 14-point pb astatine half.

Cleveland’s Dustin Hopkins missed a 53-yard tract extremity successful the 3rd 4th aft Singletary’s mislaid fumble, keeping the Browns down by 2 scores heading to the 4th – wherever the Giants held connected for their desperately-needed archetypal win.