Matt Citak: This one hurt the Giants for a lot of reasons. High on the list is that it spoiled the team’s chance to improve to 3-1 with Jaxson Dart as the starter. Now it was far from a perfect outing from the rookie quarterback. He completed just 45.5 percent of his passes and threw a key interception in the fourth quarter that quickly led to seven points for the Broncos. But what he did on the road against perhaps the NFL’s top defense, which included what could have been a game-winning scoring drive in the final minute, should not be overlooked. With that said, it’s all about wins and losses.
Heading into Week 7, Denver had allowed a total of four passing touchdowns on the season. The 22-year-old threw three touchdowns on Sunday while adding a fourth on the ground, finishing the game with a 93.4 passer rating. Dart completed eight of 14 passes for 193 yards, two touchdowns and the interception when the Broncos blitzed, which was the third-most passing yards by any player against the blitz this season. Entering this matchup, the Broncos had allowed opponents to convert on just 27.2 percent of their third down attempts and 28.6 percent of their red zone attempts, both of which were the best in the NFL. The Giants picked up a first down on 40.0 percent of their third downs in Week 7 and found the end zone on both of their trips to the red zone.
“Coming into the game, I knew that they were a top-two defense in the entire league, so I knew it wasn’t going to be easy going out there,” Dart said after the game. “They do a lot of really good things, and they’ve given a lot of people a lot of fits. Looking back, when I try to reflect on the game, there’s probably a few things I wish I would have made this decision or that decision, but we had chances. We just didn’t finish the game.”
Dart has thrown for 791 yards, seven touchdowns and three interceptions while adding 178 yards and three touchdowns on 35 rush attempts (5.1-yard average) in his four starts. He is just the third rookie quarterback since 2000 to be responsible for 10 total touchdowns in his first four career starts, joining Justin Herbert and Deshaun Watson. Since Dart took over at QB, the Giants are averaging 25.3 points per game, including consecutive outings with 30+ points against the Eagles and Broncos. During that two-week span, Dart ranks fourth in the NFL in EPA per play at +0.41, trailing only Patrick Mahomes, Drake Maye and Dak Prescott. Let’s not forget, he’s doing all of this as a rookie – and without Malik Nabers. None of this softens the blow of Sunday’s loss, of course. Now let’s see how he and the rest of the team bounces back in this week’s divisional rematch against the Eagles.
“We’ll play in six days, so you can’t let one loss lead to another,” Dart said about moving forward. “You’ve got to fix the things that you messed up on and we’ve got to finish games. We have to be able to finish the game. We have good leaders on the team, we have good players, we have to find ways to finish the game and bounce back.”