One quarter. One bad quarter for the New York Giants was the difference between a third statement win in four weeks and another heart wrenching loss. This time, it was the Giants surrendering a 26-8 lead over the Denver Broncos and falling 33-32.
The turning point in the game was rookie quarterback Jaxson Dart’s interception in the fourth quarter. The Broncos quickly turned the pick into their second touchdown in just 2 minutes, 24 seconds of game clock. Like a flash, the Giants’ 26-8 lead was trimmed to 26-23.
The interception came on third-and-5 at the Giants’ 35-yard line, as the Giants were trying to protect a 26-16 lead with 4:56 left in the game. Conventional wisdom holds that the Giants should have run the ball three times to minimize the risk of turnover as well as keep the clock moving. However, they elected to throw a pass after picking up 5 yards on the ground with their first two downs.
It was an aggressive decision, and one born of the coaching staff’s absolute confidence in rookie quarterback Jaxson Dart.
“I think those decisions always come down to just your confidence level in the quarterback and in the players,” offensive coordinator Mike Kafka said.
“I have a tremendous amount of confidence in Jaxson and the ability to put the ball in his hands in certain situations, whether it’s third down, whether it’s fourth down. You saw that in the Chargers game, third down in the Chargers game to Theo (Johnson), big play. You saw it at the end of the game against Denver, first and goal at the one, putting the ball in his hands.”
Kafka also said that a similar situation came up in the Giants’ game-planning during the week, and he said that their confidence in Dart made it an easy call.
“When we talked about it as a staff early in the week, you look at the ‘gotta have its’ and the plays that we like, that was the one that was high on our list,” he said. “We talked about it, really, two drives before that even came up. And in the four-minute ‘gotta have its,’ we talk about it on Saturday night. It’s the same thing. We go through the checklists and walk through those plays and talk about them. So, when you get in that situation, it’s an easy, fast call. The guys can get up and go, and then go operate it.”
Kafka noted that his confidence in Dart comes from watching every pass he’s made as a member of the New York Giants.
“I have a lot of confidence in putting the ball in his hands there and putting the ball in our offensive line’s hands and having the ability for our skill guys to go,” he said.
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While Pro Football Focus may have graded Dart as the worst player on the Giants’ offense against the Broncos, others noted that Dart has made incredible progress over the course of his young career. We all knew that he was athletic and has high-level arm talent, but the most impressive improvement has been in his ability to process at the line of scrimmage. That’s come as a surprise to those who judged him by Lane Kiffin’s offense, but it was on display against the Broncos’ sophisticated pressure packages.
The evolution of the mental side of Dart’s game is another — or perhaps another aspect of the — source of Kafka’s confidence in Dart.
“Jaxson does a great job,” Kafka said. “It starts with his preparation, just identifying his keys that we go through, man coverage IDs, zone coverage IDs. And then on top of that, it’s putting together a good plan for him so that he can go execute. But he has to see it, he has to feel it. And then all the guys around him have to go do their jobs as well. So, it’s never about one guy, I always see it as an 11-man operation. I think Jaxson is carrying the mental load in terms of understanding what we’re trying to get done and take advantage of the certain looks, and he’s going out there and executing.”
Even after the interception, Kafka noted Dart’s resilience to lead the Giants back down the field for a go-ahead touchdown with less than two minutes on the clock.
“it was really a great execution all the way around, across the board,” Kafka said. “We were taking some shots downfield, guys were tired, they had to dig deep. And obviously, several guys made plays on that drive, whether it was downfield, getting there, or getting the flag. But yeah, it was cool to see those guys go down there and get it.”
“I got a lot of confidence in Jaxson and the whole group,” he added. “And so for Jaxson to step up in that environment against that crew and everyone else around him too to kind of raise their game and go and step up and make plays as well is impressive. That’s something that I told him I was really proud of for those guys to go in there and compete and battle all the way to the end.”
Sure, in retrospect the Giants might have called a different play on the interception. And they may have wanted the offense to burn more clock before scoring the go-ahead touchdown.
But as Kafka said, “…it’s hard to tell an NFL football player to not score at the one.” That’s what Dart did, and he put the Giants in position to win.
That’s really all the Giants could ask from their rookie quarterback in his fourth start, and against no less than the (arguably) best defense in the NFL.
