Darren Rizzi talks about the Giants’ win, Derek Carr’s injury and the Commanders’ game

One play that proved to be crucial was the goal block on the field by defensive tackle Bryan Bresee. Bresee jumped the line and made the final 35-yard attempt that would have tied the score and sent the game into overtime. Rizzi said Bresee was resting on the sidelines before the game.

“We obviously had the option at that point to ice the kicker if we wanted to,” he said. “I knew he (Bresee) was fresh off the bench. If he had already been out for a few games, this could have been an option to give him a little breather. But we discussed everything during this drive about what our field goal is.” Block call should be me, Phil Galliano, Marwan Maalouf. And then I saw Bryan standing there and I knew he was fresh and ready to go. He said yesterday, “It was an incredible individual effort from him to make that game-winning play.”

After the game, there was speculation that what the Saints did to free Bresee and get over the finish line may have violated the rules, but Rizzi clarified the strategy.

“Let’s go through the rules part because I’ve actually gotten a lot of questions about this in the last 24 hours,” he said. “You are allowed to push on the opponent’s back and push him, that is not holding. You could push him to the ground. You can’t grab the player and pull him down, but you can push him down. This is it.” Payton Turner and Nathan Shepherd did it and they deserve praise because they did a phenomenal job. The second part of this is when the lineman jumps over the line of scrimmage and when a lineman jumps over the line of scrimmage you can’t get a running start. Anyone who jumps over the finish line must be a player who is on the finish line and there are two things they can’t do 1. You can’t take advantage of your own guy or the opponent, which means they don’t have a height advantage can obtain. And 2: If they jump, they can’t land And that’s where Bryan did a phenomenal job of clearing his feet. He landed a little awkwardly, but still had enough strength to get up and raise his hand. And you know, the rest is history.”