The New York Giants suffered a trio of injuries during Sunday’s 34-26 victory over the Arizona Cardinals.
Bryan Hudson starts at center
Bryan Hudson played well in his first NFL start at center. Head coach John Harbaugh said that Hudson started in place of John Michael Schmitz because the latter missed practices at the end of the week due to the birth of a child.
Per Pro Football Focus, Hudson was the fourth-highest graded center in Week 4, and had a perfect 100.0 pass-blocking efficiency score in 33 pass-blocking snaps.
Harbaugh did not anoint Hudson as the new starting center.
“JMS had missed a couple days of practice, and Huddy had been doing so well,” Harbaugh said. “We kind of felt like he’s got the reps. He’s made the calls, and we were kind of thinking about starting to work him in a little bit here and there, even some extra line stuff, if possible. And it just made sense. I mean, JMS, he’d been up, his wife had the baby. He didn’t have a lot of rest. It just made sense, and I think it paid off. It’s not a long-term thing. I mean, we just have two centers we really like.”
Sunday’s victory marked the first time since 2008 that the Giants have started a season 3-0 at home. MetLife Stadium opened in 2010, so that is the first time in their current building.
“It means a lot. I think all of us, all of us, the players, coaches, we’re all very, the organization,” Harbaugh said. “I know Mr. Mara, talked to him after the game, everybody’s very proud of that, very proud of that. All right, now, next time we come back home, we got to extend it. We got to win the next one.”