As Burns (cleared a concussion evaluation) returned to rush the passer, Thomas (hamstring) did not.<\/p>\n
Burns was engaged with a blocker when Will Fries came in from the side and knocked him over with a hit that might have flirted with the dirty line and sent him into the concussion protocol.<\/p>\n
The irony is that Burns and Fries could\u2019ve been teammates because the Giants pursued the North Jersey native Fries during free agency last offseason.<\/p>\n
![\"New](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/0-reacts-first-quarter-nfl-117707477.jpg\")
Brian Burns reacts during the Giants\u2019 Dec. 21 loss to the Vikings. AP<\/p>\n
\u201cNo. 76 cleaned me up,\u201d Burns said, later mumbling \u201cFries\u201d under his breath. \u201cJust upset that I didn\u2019t get a chance to get back at you. I wasn\u2019t [happy]. It wasn\u2019t dirty. It was a football play.\u201d<\/p>\n
Thomas left the game with a hamstring injury in the first half and is headed Monday for testing.<\/p>\n
\u201cSore,\u201d Thomas said. \u201cWe\u2019ll see what the diagnosis is. I talked to the training staff at halftime, and they said it was the best thing to do.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"New](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/78-new-york-giants-reacts-116556182_d7a0e2.jpg\")
Andrew Thomas is pictured during the Giants\u2019 Dec. 1 game. Corey Sipkin for the NY Post<\/p>\n
Thomas missed seven games with a hamstring injury to his opposite leg in 2023 and missed the final 10 last season plus the first two this season as he recovered from surgery to repair a Lisfranc injury to his foot.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it\u2019s different,\u201d Thomas said, \u201cbut haven\u2019t got the MRI yet.\u201d<\/p>\n
Thomas was replaced by rookie Marcus Mbow at left tackle.<\/p>\n
LG Aaron Stinnie made his first start of the season as the replacement for Jon Runyan Jr., who missed the game because his wife was expected to give birth Sunday.<\/p>\n
It was a missed opportunity for often-injured draft bust Evan Neal to make his season debut and NFL debut at guard.<\/p>\n
Mbow has only practiced at guard, so he wasn\u2019t really a consideration to jump over Stinnie.<\/p>\n
The Giants played the fourth quarter with three backup offensive linemen because center Austin Schlottmann replaced John Michael Schmitz Jr., who left the locker room with a splint on his right hand.<\/p>\n
CB Cor\u2019Dale Flott suffered a knee injury, which forced draft bust Deonte Banks into the game.<\/p>\n
The Vikings, like most Giants opponents, immediately ran the ball at Banks to expose his poor tackling.<\/p>\n
Banks also allowed a 21-yard completion to Justin Jefferson on third-and-17 during the game-winning drive.<\/p>\n
In his NFL debut, K Ben Sauls became the fifth different player to attempt a field goal or PAT for the Giants this season. <\/p>\n
He made both of his field goals, but his opening kickoff landed out of bounds.<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\tGo behind the scenes with Big Blue\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSign up for Inside the Giants by Paul Schwartz, a weekly Sports+ exclusive.\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\tThank you\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
A few minutes later, Sauls was left on the sideline when the Giants could\u2019ve tied the score on a 28-yard field goal. <\/p>\n
Jaxson Dart took a sack on fourth-and-5.<\/p>\n
\u201cI knew I wanted to stay aggressive in the early part of the game,\u201d interim head coach Mike Kafka said. \u201cWe had an opportunity, and I was talking with our analytics guys and game-management guys, and it\u2019s right there. I wanted to put it in our offense\u2019s hands. You never know how the game is going to declare and be at the end of it.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Giants were left to rue those three lost points.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Brian Burns sounded almost as angry as Andrew Thomas was dejected. The Giants\u2019 best defensive and best offensive…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":77636,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[11651,4507,9,2683,11,10,22,319],"class_list":{"0":"post-77635","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-andrew-thomas","9":"tag-brian-burns","10":"tag-new-york","11":"tag-new-york-giants","12":"tag-new-york-headlines","13":"tag-new-york-news","14":"tag-nfl","15":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77635","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=77635"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77635\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/77636"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=77635"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=77635"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=77635"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}