EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. \u2014 Deonte Banks looked like he might be the unfortunate goat of a game it seemed like was going to slip away from the New York Giants in the closing seconds on Sunday.<\/p>\n
With :27 left, Banks was called for a seemingly bogus pass interference penalty with the Arizona Cardinals facing third-and-6 from the New York 22-yard line.<\/p>\n
Head coach John Harbaugh called the penalty \u201ccrazy\u201d, for which he might end up getting fined, and added \u201cI thought you had to touch the guy for it to be pass interference.\u201d<\/p>\n
After three incompletions, one caused by a Banks pass breakup, the Cardinals were still sitting at the 4-yard line facing fourth-and-goal with :11 remaining on the clock.<\/p>\n
Arizona quarterback Jacoby Brissett fired a slant toward wide receiver Michael Wilson near the goal line. It never got there. Banks, sitting inside and waiting for the slant he had been expecting the entire game, jumped in front of Wilson, caught the ball and raced 98 yards for a game-sealing score.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey was giving me a tight end and a receiver set all day. I\u2019ve been thinking a slant all day and they haven\u2019t been giving it to me,\u201d Banks said. \u201cThat time I just knew they were going to give it to me. It was just a matter of time because they kept running it.<\/p>\n
\u201cI knew I was going to take it. I\u2019ve been calling it all week. I\u2019m going to pick a slant this week.\u201d<\/p>\n
Banks called his shot. And, he delivered.<\/p>\n
Banks picked off the pass, his first interception since 2023, and ran uncontested to the end zone as teammates and a jubilant MetLife Stadium crowd erupted.<\/p>\n
The Giants are 3-1 and in first place in the NFC East. Amazing and completely unexpected.<\/p>\n
The same has to be said for Banks having a starring role.<\/p>\n
After a promising rookie season, things went sideways for Banks the past two seasons. Poor play and maturity issues that led to what looked like poor effort on the field, and made you wonder if Banks was destined to be a kickoff returner and emergency cornerback for the remainder of whatever was left of his NFL career.<\/p>\n
Now, he is a hero. And, he might be the best cornerback on the Giants\u2019 roster.<\/p>\n
\u201cI got a bad pass interference in the first call, I did,\u201d Banks said. \u201cTwo plays later they went at me again with McBride. He got another PBU. I just keep going. The main thing is just to keep going. Finish.\u201d<\/p>\n
Banks admitted that has not always been easy for him.<\/p>\n
\u201cI feel like I always had a problem with sometimes going to the next play,\u201d Banks said. \u201cI just think about what I did last time. Sometimes you just got to flush it. Keep going. That\u2019s what I\u2019ve been doing.<\/p>\n
\u201cI just try to keep going. Alright. Let\u2019s go. Keep going. Keep going. The game ain\u2019t over until it\u2019s over.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Giants have now won back-to-back games in which a defensive back made a game-saving interception in the final seconds. Last week it was Jevon Holland with a last-second end zone interception against Cam Ward and the Tennessee Titans.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt just shows our relentlessness,\u201d Banks said. \u201cWe\u2019re going to keep going and keep going until the game\u2019s over.\u201d<\/p>\n
Harbaugh said he was \u201ccrying inside\u201d when the pass interference call was made on Banks.<\/p>\n
\u201cWas it crying? Was it rage? Maybe it was rage. It\u2019s kind of a mix of those two things, right? You have to play the next play, which is what they do,\u201d Harbaugh said. \u201cYou gotta keep believing and then you got to do. Keep believing, keep doing, keep believing, keep doing, keep believing, keep doing. That\u2019s really what life is. Football is a metaphor for life and that\u2019s the way a football game goes. Sometimes it doesn\u2019t go your way. But the last two times it did go our way and they were rewarded for that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Defensive tackle D.J. Reader wasn\u2019t around for Banks\u2019 struggles the past couple of seasons. He wasn\u2019t surprised by what he saw Banks do at the end of the game.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s the only Tae Banks I know, man. Very confident player,\u201d Reader said. \u201cYou get a BS PI call, whatever. You know how ballsy it is to undercut an out for the game? That\u2019s confidence. That\u2019s a ballsy thing to do, but when you\u2019ve trusted your technique, you\u2019ve watched the tape, and you see it, you can break on it and return it for six.\u201d<\/p>\n
Banks said after the game he never doubted his ability despite the struggles of the past two seasons.<\/p>\n
\u201cI just know what I\u2019m capable of. Let me just prove myself right. I\u2019m going to just keep proving myself right. That\u2019s all,\u201d Banks said. \u201cI really don\u2019t care about last year. We got a new coaching staff, new coaches, new players. I\u2019m just happy to get going.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Giants are certainly happy that he has.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. \u2014 Deonte Banks looked like he might be the unfortunate goat of a game it…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":364547,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[9,24,55,54,7692,56],"class_list":["post-364546","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-city","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-new-york-city-headlines","tag-new-york-city-news","tag-new-york-giants-analysis","tag-ny"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/364546","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=364546"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/364546\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/364547"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=364546"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=364546"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=364546"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}