“The moment, when it came, there was no heart pounding”
The New York Giants turned to their fourth quarterback of the year in the second half of Sunday’s 35-14 loss to the Baltimore Ravens.
New third-string quarterback Tim Boyle got the ball for the Giants after Tommy DeVito was ruled out of the game with a concussion. Drew Lock, the starter in the last two games, had been relegated to emergency third quarterback status due to a heel injury.
Boyle, a former undrafted free agent who was signed the Green Bay Packers out of Eastern Kentucky following the 2018 NFL Draft, has lived the life of a journeyman in the NFL. The Giants are Boyle’s seventh team since entering the league, and he’s spent time with the Packers, Detroit Lions, Chicago Bears, Houston Texans, New York Jets, Miami Dolphins, and now the Giants.
Boyle has been on and off the Giants’ roster since Nov. 19th, when he was signed to the practice squad. He was added to the roster to take Daniel Jones’ roster spot on Nov. 23, was waived on Dec. 7, signed back to the practice squad on Dec. 10 and was signed back to the 53-man roster on Saturday. The Giants named him Tommy DeVito’s backup on Sunday while Drew Lock was made the emergency third quarterback due to heel and elbow injuries.
But the life of a backup is inherently unpredictable and he was pressed into service just before halftime against the Ravens.
Boyle had never thrown a pass to the Giants’ starting wide receivers prior to to his 16-yard toss to Malik Nabers on the third (non-penalty) play of the second half.
“What you saw today was my first time playing with those guys,” Boyle said. “So, definitely a cool learning experience. Feeling the speed, the o-line, I think they really did a good job today. The o-line did a good job. The Ravens presented a lot of tough looks, especially on third down. I think our guys up front handled it really well. So, kudos to our guys up front.”
Wide receiver Wan’Dale Robinson said playin with Boyle was a unique experience.
“Today was definitely a whole lot different. Not really catching one live pass, ever from Tim. You got to go with the flow. It’s the NFL, guys got to step up and whoever may go down. Over on the side, it’s just like, hey, let’s catch a couple passes real quick and see what this ball comes out like and go from there.”
Boyle knew one thing. He knew who the No. 1 receiver was.
“I think when everything’s equal, number one [Nabers] is pretty special,” he said. “So, always in the back of your mind, as a quarterback at the Giants, you kind of always know where number one is if things go a wire, it’s kind of one of those (where you) feel pretty good about your matchup on a 50/50 ball.”
The highlight of the afternoon, for the Giants, at least, was Nabers’ 23-yard touchdown reception on a fourth-and-1.
“He’s one of those special players,” Boyle said. “You kind of just got to throw it up to him and let him do his thing. You always know where number one is on the field. He’s in the back of your mind as a quarterback, if stuff is kind of hitting the fence a little bit, you’ve got to throw it up to number one. I’m glad he made the catch. I threw a couple of balls to him today that kind of got away from me a little bit that he made wonderful adjustments on. Just goes to show how special a player he is. We’ve got to continue to get him the ball.”
That was the Giants’ first receiving touchdown since their win over the Seattle Seahawks in Week 5.
Boyle said after the game that he thought head coach Brian Daboll called a great game. Daboll, meanwhile credited Boyle’s big plays for helping give the Giants a bit of a spark in difficult circumstances
“He [Boyle] had two big plays that helped us, three actually, one to Slayton. Productive,” Daboll said.
Daboll couldn’t commit to naming a starting quarterback next week against the Atlanta Falcons, noting that it’s too early to tell if Drew Lock will be healthy enough to start. It’s possible that the 30-year old Boyle could be the Giants’ newest starting quarterback.
“It’s kind of one of those weird things, Boyle said. “As a backup, you kind of have to go into the game knowing you’re going to play and if you don’t play, it’s one of those, all right, you came out clean. But I’ve been around long enough now, kind of back in my Green Bay days where I’d go into a game and it kind of jumped on me a little bit. I wasn’t really ready for the moment. But as I kind of progressed as a backup in this league, you kind of have to just be ready to play.
“I prepared all week knowing that there was a chance for me to go play in this game, and I had to go play well. The moment, when it came, there was no heart pounding, there was no dry mouth, I just kind of went out there and played ball and got in the huddle. It was really good to play football again. It’s been kind of a weird year for me. I’ve been on three teams over the past, I don’t know, five, six months. So just getting back in the huddle and playing ball, throwing a touchdown pass, it was all very nice for it to come full circle.”
