The New York Giants didn’t win pretty on Sunday afternoon, but in the eyes of head coach John Harbaugh and his players, that wasn’t the point. In a game played through heavy rain and difficult conditions, the Giants found a way to defeat the Tennessee Titans 12-7 at MetLife Stadium, improving to 2-1 on the season and starting 2-0 at home for the first time since 2009.
It was a game that demanded patience, toughness and complementary football, and when the Giants needed one final play to preserve the victory, safety Jevón Holland delivered it. For Harbaugh, that final defensive stand represented exactly what he wants this team to become.
“I think the biggest thing is it was going to be that kind of a game,” Harbaugh said. “It was going to be a field position game. It was going to be a turnover game, takeaway game. Run-the-ball game. Try not to put the other team in a short field. That was really the way the game was played. And that’s the way it played out.” The Giants understood before kickoff that the weather was going to dictate how the game was played, and they adjusted accordingly.
Rather than trying to force an offensive game plan that wasn’t suited for the conditions, New York leaned on its running game, defense and special teams while making sure it didn’t give Tennessee easy opportunities.
That formula ultimately worked, although the Giants certainly made things more difficult than they needed to be. Harbaugh acknowledged that there were opportunities to put the game away earlier, particularly in the red zone, where penalties repeatedly took the Giants out of scoring position. Still, the head coach wasn’t interested in apologizing for an ugly victory. “There’s very few wins where you walk in and you’re really happy with everything,” Harbaugh said. “It’s finding a way to win a rough game. They’re never pretty. They’re never perfect.” For a team that entered the game having endured a difficult week and the loss of starting quarterback Jaxson Dart for the season, the ability to overcome those circumstances may have been more important than the final score.
The player who ultimately provided the biggest moment was Holland, who recorded an interception for the third consecutive game. The pick made him the first Giants player since Janoris Jenkins to intercept a pass in three straight games, while also placing him among a very select group of Giants defensive backs who have accomplished the feat during the first three weeks of a season.
Holland has now produced four takeaways through the first three games, including three interceptions and a fumble recovery, and his ability to consistently find himself around the football has quickly become one of the defining characteristics of the Giants defense.
What made the final interception even more significant was that Winston had predicted it would happen. The veteran quarterback told Holland on Friday that when the game was on the line, he believed Holland would make the biggest play. When Tennessee quarterback Cam Ward scrambled out of the pocket on the game’s final possession and tried to make a throw toward the end zone, Holland was exactly where he needed to be. “I told him he was going to do that Friday,” Winston said. “When the play is on the line, you’re going to make the biggest play.”
Holland explained afterward that he recognized himself as the free player once Ward broke the pocket, stayed near the front of the end zone and waited for the quarterback to make his decision. Ward admitted afterward that he saw Holland but believed he could get the ball over him. Holland made sure that didn’t happen.
The interception capped a strong defensive performance that also featured a breakout afternoon from rookie linebacker Arvell Reese. Reese was credited with 12 tackles, a tackle for loss and a pass defensed in the Giants’ official game notes, tying the mark for the most tackles by a Giants rookie in a game since tackles began being officially tracked in 1994. Harbaugh credited Reese with an even higher tackle total in his postgame comments and awarded him a game ball, saying the rookie had “sprang onto the scene.” Reese’s performance became even more important when the Giants lost outside linebacker Brian Burns during the game. Harbaugh said Burns would undergo an MRI, but the Giants continued to play with composure after losing one of their defensive leaders.
That ability to respond to adversity was something Winston repeatedly emphasized after the game. With Dart already lost for the season and Burns leaving the game with an injury, the Giants had two important leaders watching from the sideline, but the team refused to allow those setbacks to change its approach. “We had to find a way to be our brother’s keeper,” Winston said. “But we never lost faith. We kept going. And our objective was to be 1-0. One play at a time.” The Giants weren’t playing simply to win for themselves; Winston believed the team understood the importance of supporting teammates who could no longer contribute on the field.
For Winston, his first victory as the Giants’ starting quarterback was about doing exactly what the situation required. The weather made throwing the football more difficult, and with the Giants defense playing as well as it was, there was no reason to take unnecessary chances. Winston protected the football, worked to stay efficient on first and second down and used his legs when opportunities presented themselves.
His approach was simple: don’t try to make the game bigger than it needed to be. “Every quarterback is really judged off if they won or lost the game,” Winston said. “I’m grateful that I get to be judged off of won not a loss. And I’ve had games where I’ve thrown for 500 yards, right, and the game didn’t turn out the way I wanted it to be. And anytime, any day, I would rather win.”
Winston also received help from a running game that produced 138 yards, led by Cam Skattebo and an offensive line that Harbaugh praised for handling a talented Tennessee defensive front. Skattebo embraced the conditions, explaining that rainy weather can actually be appealing to a running back because it means more opportunities to carry the football. He finished the game grinding out tough yards and also made one of the more important offensive plays of the afternoon when Winston found him during a scramble drill.
Skattebo said the offense executed as well as it could under the circumstances, although he acknowledged that penalties, particularly inside the red zone, prevented the Giants from scoring more points. “We just have to stay away from those and clean that stuff up,” Skattebo said.
If the running game established the foundation, special teams repeatedly changed the field. Jordan Stout was outstanding, punting six times for 303 yards with a 50.5-yard average and a 44.2-yard net average, including a 74-yard punt that tied for the third-longest in franchise history. The punt came one week after Stout launched a 78-yarder, the second-longest punt in Giants history, making him the first Giants punter to record multiple 70-plus-yard punts in the same season. Harbaugh specifically credited the punt team for repeatedly flipping field position and putting Tennessee in difficult situations, while Stout’s performance helped ensure that the Giants could play the field-position game they had anticipated.
Rookie kicker Dominic Zvada then made sure the Giants took advantage of the opportunities they did create. Zvada connected on all four of his field-goal attempts, including a 39-yarder, accounting for every point New York scored. Considering the conditions, the performance was particularly impressive, but Zvada credited the entire operation around him, including the offensive line, long snapper Ben Mann and Stout.
He later revealed that Stout had received the game ball before handing it to him, a fitting moment between two special-teams players who played enormous roles in the victory. “He kicked the crap out of the ball, but he wanted to give it to me,” Zvada said with appreciation.
The Giants’ offense still has plenty to clean up. The penalties inside the red zone frustrated Harbaugh, and the team left points on the field that could have made the final minutes considerably less stressful. But there was also something valuable about being forced to win a game without relying on offensive fireworks. Winston wasn’t concerned about the fact that 12 points might not be enough in every game, because Sunday wasn’t about what might happen next week. “All that mattered was today,” Winston said. “Today is the only day that we have. And today was enough.”
That attitude may have been the biggest lesson from the Giants’ afternoon. They were dealing with difficult weather, a short week, the emotional aftermath of losing Dart for the season, another significant injury to Burns and an offense that struggled to finish drives. Yet the team never allowed those circumstances to become an excuse. Instead, the defense kept Tennessee from finding the end zone until the final moments, the special teams repeatedly flipped the field, the running game controlled portions of the afternoon and Winston made the decisions necessary to keep the Giants out of trouble.
Harbaugh believed before the game that the circumstances would reveal something about his football team, and by the time Holland intercepted Ward in the end zone, he felt he had received his answer. “For our guys to step up in that situation and do that, I think, and see it pay off, is a big step towards where we want to go as a football team,” Harbaugh said.
The Giants still have plenty of areas to improve, particularly offensively and in the red zone, but they also walked away with something that can’t be manufactured on a practice field: confidence that they can win when the game doesn’t go according to plan.
At 2-1, the Giants are learning what their identity can look like under Harbaugh. It isn’t necessarily about dominating an opponent from start to finish or putting up gaudy offensive numbers. It is about remaining composed, playing complementary football, trusting teammates and making the critical play when the opportunity arrives. On Sunday, Holland made that play, Zvada made his kicks,
Stout flipped the field, Skattebo and the offensive line established the run, and Winston protected the football while leading the team through the storm. It wasn’t perfect, and Harbaugh knows there is plenty to fix, but when the Giants needed to find a way, they did exactly that.
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