T.J. Watt seemingly iced a Steelers victory by strip-sacking Daniel Jones late in the Monday night game. But New York still had Brian Daboll. In genius fashion, the Giants’ head coach ensured his team would get one final swing at Pittsburgh in a 26-18 game.
He did it right after Watt’s sack, according to Warren Sharp. The Steelers took possession at their own 28-yard line with 2:59 left. On second-and-3, Daboll put 12 men on the field and got a flag for too many players in a defensive formation. The penalty briefly stopped the clock and, more importantly, gave Pittsburgh an automatic first down – a first down and 10. Instead of needing 3 yards to move the chains and end the game, Daboll forced the Steelers to have to go 10 yards. Pittsburgh couldn’t do it, stopped on three straight runs by the Giants’ defense as Daboll manipulated the clock using his final two timeouts and the two-minute warning.
However, punter Corliss Waitman then capped an incredible four-game stretch by Danny Smith’s Steelers special teams, pinning the Giants at their own 7-yard line with 1:53 left. Beanie Bishop intercepted Jones to end the game but, as Sharp said, Daboll manufactured one more shot.
Unfortunately, the Giants also manufactured disaster on a pair of critical plays. After pulling within one score at 23-15 on Tyrone Tracy’s 45-yard touchdown run, they botched their swinging-gate communication on the ensuing two-point attempt. Then, on Watt’s sack, Jones failed to shift his tight end to Watt’s side, something Daboll noted in his postgame press conference and former Giants quarterback Eli Manning noted live on the ManningCast.
Former Super Bowl quarterback Boomer Esiason said Wednesday morning on WFAN’s Boomer and Gio show that the responsibility for communication falls on the shoulders of the quarterback.
“These kinds of things keep happening,” Esiason said while speaking with Phil Simms. “Our responsibility as quarterbacks, you and I have been talking about this for years, communication. Making sure everybody knows what’s going on. And if there’s a tip that needs to be given, you give the tip to the guy you’re going to throw the ball to. Or, you remind the guys, ‘Hey, guys: Special red alert. Red alert, we’ve got a special play. Get ready, get your heads out of your asses and let’s go.’”
Despite owner John Mara’s vote of confidence in Daboll and Joe Schoen, some are wondering whether Jones and Giants players could still play poorly enough to get their coach and general manager fired. And while Jones and the offense showed improvement on Monday, Malik Nabers seems to be staring at a future with a new quarterback in 2025. Time will tell whether Daboll and Schoen will still have the keys to pick that replacement.
Obviously, their hope is to find someone like the rookie coming to town on Sunday (1 p.m. ET, FOX), when Jayden Daniels and first-place Washington (6-2) make their encore after the rookie authored the Daniels Miracle Victory last week.
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