E-GIANTS
Dave Klein was the Giants' beat writer for The Star-Ledger from 1961 to 1995.
He is the author of 26 books and he was one of only three sportswriters to have covered all the Super Bowls until the past few. Dave has allowed TEAM GIANTS to reprint some of his articles.

DID IMPOSTERS FILL IN FOR GIANTS' REGULAR STARTERS?

By Dave Klein
There is no word yet, but the Giants are continuing their search for the imposters who crashed into their locker room at halftime yesterday, put on various players' uniforms and took the team to an impressive 29-20 victory over Seattle.

There was this guy who impersonated quarterback Daniel Jones at his best, completing 23 of 34 passes for 257 yards, a pair of touchdowns and a 109.6 QB rating.

And who was that guy who put on rookie running back Tyrone Tracy's uniform and rushed for 129 yards in just 18 carries? Oh, that really was Tracy?

And that couldn't have been Darius Slayton, the veteran wide receiver, since the guy filling in for him caught eight passes for 122 yards and a touchdown.

Defensively, was that really reserve linebacker Isaiah Simmons, who jumped about nine feet in the air to block a 47-yard field goal try that would have tied the game in the final 1:05? Nah, another pretender, that's who it was.

And this guy who replaced kicker Graham Gano, some kid named Greg Joseph? He ran his Giants' record to eight-for-eight, making three last night. And speaking of kickers and field goals, when Simmons did his high jump and smacked the ball down, it was Bryce Ford-Wheaton, a backup wide receiver, who picked up the ball and returned it 60 yards for the touchdown and the game's final points.

It was, all in all, a spectacular night for the Giants, who are now 2-3, and fans can only hope the team identifies the pretenders who stepped in and sign them immediately.

But in the final result, it was the offensive line that propelled the team to its rarified heights. The blocking for Jones was exceptional, and in the words of Joe Don Looney, "a great running back makes his own holes, he doesn't need help. Anybody can run where the holes are."

As usual, Joe Don was wrong - but entertaining.

Brian Daboll, the embattled head coach gave the line credit in his post-game interview.

"Yeah, it starts up front," he said in Giants.com. "Those five guys seeing the game through the same set of eyes. Without those guys, you're not getting plays downfield or an efficient passing game and pass protection or the screen game.

"And it's the same with the run game. That's where it starts, but you need everybody on offense doing their job. But again, I've said this before, this is a veteran group. They mesh well together. They meet a lot. They're smart. If they make a mistake on something, usually it's corrected by the next play or the next game.

"They know how to handle themselves in the classroom to get ready for a game. And then the communication part of it during the game is important. And I'll lean on those guys, just like I ask some of the receivers about routes and things like that. I'll go to them once the game gets into a flow and ask what do they want to block? Sometimes it's outside, sometimes it's inside, sometimes it's pin and pull, sometimes it's gap. But they got a pretty good feel and they're good communicators. They're a good group to work with."

And finally, Daboll felt compelled to highlight the team's newly-found unity and togetherness.

"It takes all 11 people to be successful offensively," he noted. "Execution on the offensive side of the ball is obviously at a premium. So, you can have 10 people doing it right. And one guy getting beat, or maybe not on the same page and you have a breakdown, but yesterday needed the truth in terms of 'here are the plays that we ran, here were the breakdowns. This is what we need to improve on.'

"Whether it was perimeter blocking or inline blocking, running back reads, all those types of things. And you try to get better. One week has really nothing to do with the next week. So we just went to work and identified some things that we wanted to try to get to and work on in practice and guys did a good job."

Surprisingly, running back Devin Singletary and wide receiver Malik Nabers were both out due to injuries, yet their absence was more than made up for by the imposters.

And it was the absence of the rookie Nabers that produced this anonymous line on Reddit, courtesy of Aaron W. "As predicted, Daniel Jones runs a damned efficient game when he isn't being held back by Malik Nabers."

See, when you win, it's all fun.

EXTRA POINTS - The Giants return home to play Cincinnati next weekend in the NFL's Sunday Night game. ... Rookie tight end Theo Johnson had five catches for 48 yards, running back Eric Gray had three for 50 yards.

The Giants had seven sacks (eight two weeks ago in Cleveland) and have 49 for the season. ... DT Dexter Lawrence leads with 7.5.

Questions? Comments?
Send it over to davesklein@aol.com

You can subscribe Dave's newsletters which run much more frequently than what is available here. - Team Giants

NOW - Send a request to davesklein@aol.com for a free week's worth of news!