Giants beat Colts and endanger top spot in NFL Draft

Die-hard Giants fan Joe Becker of Endicott, N.Y., brought a sign to Sunday’s Giants home finale asking that the tank keep going:

“Dear Giants, please don’t score for Shedeur,” Becker demanded, referring to the No. 1 overall pick in April’s NFL Draft and Colorado quarterback Shedeur Sanders.

But Brian Daboll’s team refused to heed the advice.

Drew Lock threw for 309 yards and four touchdowns and rushed for the fifth score. Malik Nabers racked up 171 yards and two touchdowns. The Giants defeated the shockingly uninspired Indianapolis Colts 45-33, ending a record-setting 10-game losing streak and recording their first home win (1-8) in their final game at MetLife Stadium.

And in doing so, the Giants (3-13) have jeopardized their draft position and potentially cost themselves the chance to select their QB of the future in the spring, where Sanders and Miami’s Cam Ward are the top two prospects in the plank.

They also might have gotten the Colts (8-8) staff fired.

Indianapolis GM Chris Ballard, coach Shane Steichen and defensive coordinator Gus Bradley have a lot of explaining to do after losing to the worst team in the NFL with a playoff spot on the line and being eliminated in the process.

The Giants, who finished 1-8 at home this season, have one more game left in Week 18 in Philadelphia against the Eagles and their old friend Saquon Barkley, who reached 2,000 yards in Sunday’s blowout win over the Dallas Cowboys. mark has been exceeded.

Depending on other results the rest of the weekend, Barkley could sit out the regular-season finale while the NFC East is down.

For now, the Giants finally got a win on Sunday by scoring a season-high 45 points. It was the first time this season that they scored 30 or more points and the first time since 2019 that they scored 40 points.

They also scored more points (45) than they had in their last three games combined (32).

Dissension broke out on the sideline late in the second half when cornerback Adoree Jackson threw his helmet and yelled at teammate Jason Pinnock after Joe Flacco’s second touchdown pass cut the Giants’ lead to 35-33 with 6:38 left in the fourth quarter.

But Lock, with help from Wan’Dale Robinson, drove the Giants down the field and finished with a 5-yard rushing TD to seal the game, along with the help of an interception from Dru Phillips.

Ihmir Smith-Marsette’s 100-yard kick return touchdown early in the third quarter carried the Giants’ first-half momentum into the second.

Colts running back Jonathan Taylor immediately answered with his second touchdown of the game and Alec Pierce caught a Flacco TD to make it 28-26 early in the fourth quarter.

But Nabers opened the game with a 59-yard catch-and-run TD as the Colts’ Kenny Moore and Samuel Womack showed little interest in tackling.

The Giants failed to become the first winless Giants team at home since 1974. They led 21-13 at halftime Sunday, their first since their Week 3 win at Cleveland on Sept. 22.

Lock completed 7 of 8 passes for 153 yards and three touchdown passes in the first half alone: ​​a score each to Nabers (31 yards), Darius Slayton (32 yards) and Robinson (five yards).

Nabers recorded 103 receiving yards and a TD on four catches in the first half against a Bradley-led Colts defense that seemed uninterested in making tackles or coverages.

With Sunday’s performance, Nabers and fifth-round defender Tyrone Tracy Jr. became the third rookie duo in NFL history to each have more than 1,000 yards of offense in a season. Tracy crossed the threshold on a 40-yard run, setting up Nabers’ first quarter goal.

The only other rookie duos to each pass for 1,000 yards in NFL history are Reggie Bush and Marques Colston of the Saints in 2006 and Abner Haynes and Johnny Robinson of the Dallas Texans in 1960.

Safety Dane Belton’s interception of Flacco at the Giants’ 6-yard line set a competitive tone on the game’s first drive, despite the Colts marching right down the field beforehand.

And Robinson’s touchdown catch with 5:55 left in the half gave the Giants a commanding 21-6 lead.

Steichen scored on a 4th-and-5 at the Giants’ 8-yard line and converted a 6-yard catch by Kylen Granson with 1:07 left to set up a 3-yard TD run by Taylor with 23 seconds left .

That cut the Giants’ lead to 21-13, their first halftime lead since their 21-7 lead over the Browns in Week 3. It was only their third halftime lead all season, including their 12-9 lead at a Week 2 loss at Washington.