‘Things I think’: Giants get that winning feeling again, and don’t need to apologize for it

The win doesn’t change the season, but what it meant to players was obvious Sunday night

As soon as you walked into the New York Giants’ locker room on Sunday evening you could feel — and hear — the difference.

The locker room was alive. Players were smiling, not sullen. They were loud, not subdued. They were happy to talk with reporters, not dressing quickly and hoping to get out of the room before someone with a microphone or a camera stuck it in their face.

This was the result of winning a game for the first time in 12 weeks, which is what the Giants did on Sunday when they knocked off the Indianapolis Colts with a stunningly complete 45-33 victory that ended an excruciating 10-game losing streak.

I know that there are fans who are upset that the Giants won, losing control of the No. 1 overall pick in the 2025 NFL Draft and dropping to No. 4 in the draft order behind the New England Patriots, Tennessee Titans and Cleveland Browns.

I know I will probably be getting complaints about that in my social media timeline, my e-mail inbox and the comments here at Big Blue View up until draft day — and probably beyond.

There were sentiments online and in the Big Blue View comments section like this one after the victory:

I’m sorry if you are bummed that your team, the one you root for, won a football game. I’m sorry if you’re upset that they played well. I’m sorry if you’re upset that by scoring 45 points they accomplished something a Giants team had not done since the 2019 season. I’m sorry if you’re upset that your team just played its most complete football game in at least a couple of years.

I’m sorry they upset you by doing their jobs well, and winning. I’m not sorry the Giants won.

You know who else isn’t sorry? Giants players. Tank for a better pick in the draft? Players fighting for their livelihoods are not interested in that.

“I would say about that, you would rather your team go out there and fight for every inch than lay down and just take an ass-whooping and, yeah, you get your (draft) pick that you want, but then what is that player or who they want coming into?,” veteran offensive lineman Jermaine Eluemunor said. “You got to establish some sort of culture, and yeah, look, being 3-13 is not for everyone, but everyone’s out there trying, and we’re trying to establish a culture where it can lead into next year, and then once we get more pieces in here, depending on who those are, like, I see it all. I know who they want, but, that’s why you pay Joe (Schoen) and Brandon (Brown) and all those guys to make those decisions, and I’m sure everything will still work out how they want it and how this franchise needs it to work out.”

Eluemunor said he understood the viewpoint of some fans that losing out would have been best, but “I don’t believe in that at all.”

“I get that when you have a losing season the best thing to do is, in fans’ eyes, just keep losing so you can get to draft position, but then you start to create a culture of losing, and that’s not what you want to do,” he said. “I’m not going to lay down and not fight. I’m going to go out there and claw for every inch I can, and that’s just who I am, and that’s really who everyone in this locker room is. No one’s going to lay down and just let the Colts win.”

Quarterback Drew Lock, whose 17 of 23, 309-yard, five touchdown day (four passing, one running) might have been the best performance of his six-year NFL career, termed the victory “satisfying.”

“It’s really satisfying, especially to be up here and answer questions after those losses and say, ‘you know, we’re not packing them in.’ We’re going to come out and work. We’re going to keep doing the things throughout the week that we need to do to try to put ourselves in the best situations to win. And for that not just to be word vomit, for us to actually go out and do it,” Lock said. “Because you get up here and you say the same things those three games (his first three starts), like, ‘You’ve got to be better at the ball. Can’t give it to the other team. You’ve got to make the plays when they’re there, no, we’re not done. We’re going to keep practicing, going out and give an effort.’ Because that is what we’re going to go do.

“But to be able to go out and do that and have a little proof in the pudding there, it means a lot.”

There were smiles and happy chatter everywhere. There were also players giving each other props, and that is something that shouldn’t be underestimated for a young, struggling team trying to find its way.

Rookie defensive tackle Elijah Chatman, who had a big fourth-down stop in the third quarter, praised the offense.

“That’s what I’m used to seeing,” he said. “That’s the team that I see at practice. Every time we come out to practice, that’s the team that I see.”

Eluemunor gave props to a number of the offensive players.

“To see some of the young guys, see their hard work paying off, like, Leek (Malik Nabers) going for what? I don’t even know how many yards he went for today. Wan’Dale (Robinson) finally getting his fair due, and Slay (Darius Slayton) getting his touchdown, Drew (Lock) putting in all the work and having that pay off, that’s huge,” Eluemunor said. “Then offensive line, obviously, we’ve had to play with four different quarterbacks, different cadences, have people moving around. me personally having to play three different positions this year. For all that to somewhat pay off a little bit, and you’re like, damn, the work I’m putting in is finally starting to pay off a little bit, it’s cool. You want to be better than our record, but it’s hard to win, so to get, to finally get a win, especially at home, the last game was cool.”

The winning feeling was, admittedly, unfamiliar.

“It’s great. With the year we’ve had and all the adversity and what we’ve battled through to get a win and to feel the environment like this after the game. It almost felt like we had forgotten what it felt like, but to be at home and to get one in front of our fans this late in the year, it’s a big deal for everybody,” said linebacker Micah McFadden, who watched from the sideline due to a neck injury.

“It was awesome. I’m so happy for the guys who played great. Obviously Malik and Wan’Dale leading it on the outside, and Drew Lock played great. Got the ball to the guys who were open and made good decisions, and defense, we got the ball back for them a few times so they could get more points. It was a huge team win.”

Robinson summed up the feeling this way:

“It’s really nice. You come in each and every week and you work really, really hard to go out there on Sunday and go in for a win. And so to finally see it come to fruition after, what, 10 weeks of not having won, it’s really, really nice.”

Yes, it is.

Nabers, the brightest star in the future the Giants are striving for, did not want to hear about draft position on Sunday night.

“I mean, I ain’t got really nothing to say about that,” Nabers said of fans disappointed by the victory. “I don’t have anything to say about that. The draft will be the draft.”

The draft will be whatever it will be. There are no guaranteed superstars, whether you are picking first, fourth, 14th or 40th. Yes, the Giants need a young, franchise quarterback. If they believe that quarterback is in this class, they will have to figure out how to get him. That’s Joe Schoen’s problem. At least until, or unless, it isn’t.

Besides, if you are all bummed out about the Giants currently having the No. 4 pick in the draft remember that the last time they had the No. 4 pick and needed a quarterback things worked out pretty well. Ernie Accorsi drafted Philip Rivers, then swapped Rivers and some other pieces for Eli Manning.

The Giants got two Super Bowls out of that, and whether it is this coming February or some time after that Manning will be in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

Remember the 2020 draft? There were Giants fans miserable that the team had beaten Washington at the end of the 2019 season, gifting Washington the No. 2 pick and defensive end Chase Young. The Giants picked No. 4 and selected Andrew Thomas. Young is now a journeyman on his third NFL team. Thomas is the best Giants’ offensive lineman since Chris Snee.

NFL Draft prospects don’t always turn out to be what Mel Kiper or Daniel Jeremiah tell us they will be.

The Giants beat the Colts on Sunday, and were impressive in doing so. The players, justifiably, feel good about it.

As they should.