{"id":83269,"date":"2025-12-29T06:56:10","date_gmt":"2025-12-29T06:56:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/83269\/"},"modified":"2025-12-29T06:56:10","modified_gmt":"2025-12-29T06:56:10","slug":"deonte-banks-teammates-were-fired-up-after-he-left-stamp-on-giants-win","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/83269\/","title":{"rendered":"Deonte Banks’ teammates were fired up after he left ‘stamp’ on Giants win"},"content":{"rendered":"

LAS VEGAS \u2014 The most maligned player on the Giants roster made the biggest play of the game for them in Sunday\u2019s 34-10 win<\/a> over the Raiders at Allegiant Stadium.<\/p>\n

Deonte Banks, the team\u2019s third-year cornerback, has spent more time in the doghouse, being benched and criticized, than he has basking in the success the Giants had planned for him when they drafted him.<\/p>\n

The Raiders had just cut the Giants lead to 20-10 in the third quarter and the touchdown that shaved into the lead was Banks\u2019 fault.<\/p>\n

He was late to follow Raiders receiver Tyler Lockett toward the back of the end zone and Geno Smith played pitch-and-catch with his receiver.<\/p>\n

On the ensuing kickoff, Banks made everyone forget about his coverage gaffe when he took it 95 yards to the house for a TD<\/a> and a much more comfortable 27-10 lead with 18 seconds remaining in the third quarter. \u201cIt was a 14-play drive and these guys were defending every blade of grass that they could,\u2019\u2019 Giants interim head coach Mike Kafka said. \u201cGeno made a nice play on the scramble to find [Lockett]. And Tae just kind of put that play behind him and then attacked the next play, and made a huge one for us.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe had the ability there to kind of shut [the TD play] out mentally and really put a stamp on the game for himself. That was a huge play in the game. I can\u2019t understate how big that play was for us.\u2019\u2019 Banks\u2019 teammates were so fired up for him, the Giants drew a penalty for their celebration in the end zone after the TD.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s just great to see him have some success,\u2019\u2019 edge rusher Brian Burns said. \u201cTae is an unbelievable athlete, a great player. It was great that so many guys shared that joyful moment with him when he returned that thing 95 yards.\u2019\u2019 Linebacker Bobby Okereke praised Banks \u2014 who was starting only because Cor\u2019Dale Flott was out with a knee injury \u2014 for his play on defense.<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought Tae played extremely well all day, especially in coverage,\u2019\u2019 Okereke said. \u201cHe was isolated a lot in our cover-nine coverages and he came up and made some big open-field tackles.<\/p>\n

\"New Giants cornerback Deonte Banks (2) celebrates his touchdown with teammates during the second half of an NFL football game against the Las Vegas Raiders Sunday, Dec. 28, 2025, AP<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd then, to come back and respond after that long drive on defense and really just give the team the juice \u2026 that\u2019s the type of player he is and that\u2019s what we expect from him.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n

The win for the Giants was the first for Kafka as a head coach after losing his first five after being elevated.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt felt great, Kaf in here passing out game balls to certain guys,\u2019\u2019 WR Wan\u2019Dale Robinson said.<\/p>\n

Robinson said game balls were given out to him, S Dane Belton, who had an INT in the second half, edge rusher Burns, who had 1.5 sacks, LB Okereke, who had a huge INT in the first quarter that led to a TD.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd we gave one to Kaf for his first win,\u2019\u2019 Robinson said. \u201cHe puts in a lot of time and effort especially on the offensive side of the ball making sure we\u2019re in the right position and he probably felt last week [in the loss to Minnesota] he didn\u2019t do his best job.<\/p>\n

\"PeteCoach Pete Carroll of the Las Vegas Raiders and coach Mike Kafka (Interim) of the New York Giants shake hands after the game at Allegiant Stadium on December 28, 2025 Getty Images<\/p>\n

\u201cBut this week, he came in with a really good plan. We love playing for him. He\u2019s going to do everything he can for us so why not go out there and give everything I got for him?\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n

Kafka refused to soak in any attention on his win, pushing it toward the players.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m just really excited about the guys, because that\u2019s really who I\u2019m thinking about,\u2019\u2019 Kafka said.<\/p>\n

Giants rookie LB Abdul Carter continues his strong push to the end of the season. Carter, who\u2019d been punished twice this season for being late to meetings, had a big first half Sunday. He shared a sack with Burns, dropped Raiders RB Ashton Jeanty for a 10-yard loss on a run and drew a holding penalty that nullified a Raiders first-down pass play.<\/p>\n

Burns continues to show himself as the best player on the Giants, adding to his career-high sack totals with 1.5 more takedowns Sunday to give him 16.5 sacks this season.\u2026 Giants DT Darius Alexander had a sack in the second half. \u2026 Belton, who started for the injured Tyler Nubin (out for the season with a neck injury), picked off a Smith pass in the fourth quarter to help seal the victory with the Giants leading 27-10.<\/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

The Giants defense did a strong job defending Raiders rookie RB Ashton Jeanty, who entered the game leading the team with 828 rushing yards and five TDs. Jeanty was held to just 16 yards on 7 carries in the first half and finished with 16 for 60.<\/p>\n

For all of their issues at the kicking position this season, Ben Sauls, their fourth at the position in 16 games, had a strong day.<\/p>\n

He kicked field goals of 32 and 23 yards and he made a 47-yard PAT after the Giants were called for unsportsmanlike conduct celebrating the Banks kickoff return for a TD.<\/p>\n

The Giants lost S Jev\u00f3n Holland to a knee injury on the opening kickoff of the second half while in kick coverage. He didn\u2019t return. They played the game down two starters on the offensive line with LT Andrew Thomas and C John Michael Schmitz Jr. having been placed on season-ending IR.<\/p>\n

Thomas was replaced by rookie fifth-round draft pick Marcus Mbow and Schmitz was replaced by Austin Schlottmann.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LAS VEGAS \u2014 The most maligned player on the Giants roster made the biggest play of the game…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":83270,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[21019,2679,15252,9,2683,11,10,22,1558,319],"class_list":["post-83269","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-deonte-banks","tag-las-vegas-raiders","tag-mike-kafka","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-giants","tag-new-york-headlines","tag-new-york-news","tag-nfl","tag-ny-sports-minute","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83269","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=83269"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83269\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/83270"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=83269"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=83269"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=83269"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}