The Giants suffered a 10-game loss to the Colts – and lost the No. 1 seed

Thanks, but no tanks.

That was the message the Giants sent Sunday to anyone out there — you know who you are — who has given up on this miserable season and has both eyes on the 2025 NFL Draft, the pursuit of the No. 1 overall pick and which has been aimed at selecting the quarterback capable of leading this franchise out of the muck it currently finds itself in.

The Giants have finally said enough. And then they did something about it. They eased some of the mounting pressure on head coach Brian Daboll and general manager Joe Schoen and sidestepped some truly embarrassing, worst-case scenarios with a wild and completely unexpected 45-33 win over the Colts at MetLife Stadium.

This ended the franchise’s record-breaking 10-game losing streak and the number 1 pick in the draft is no longer in their possession for the time being.

You can complain about it if you want, but the Giants were so desperate to finally win a game that they didn’t even think about the later season, in the offseason.

“It says we’re obviously not tanking,” receiver Darius Slayton said. “It’s like anything, we have a job to do. This isn’t basketball, it’s not golf, it’s not tennis. Football, you get hit. I’m not going to go out and let people tee off on me just to get gas. “We always tried to win and this fight showed that.”

The Giants saw a sudden burst of passing proficiency from Drew Lock and some great performances from rookie Malik Nabers.

They built a 21-6 lead and then held it. The victory prevented the Giants from becoming the first team in NFL history to go 0-9 at home in a season.

“I feel like the fans that were there deserved to be rooting for something, so it was good,” outside linebacker Brian Burns said.

In the here and now, this was a relief for Daboll and Schoen, who have had such a brutal season that the owners will have to consider changes at one or both positions. The Giants (3-13) entered the day ranked No. 1, and with the rare win they fell from No. 1 and No. 2 to fall to No. 4.

So in order to tank Shedeur Sanders or Cam Ward, the Giants suffered a setback with one game left in their season – with Saquon Barkley and the Eagles – to either win and fall further behind in the first round or lose and potentially come back in the top 2 picks.

“This is more of an upstairs thing,” Burns said. “They’re going to figure out how they want to play those cards.”

The out-of-nowhere lock went crazy, completing 17 of 23 passes for 309 yards and four touchdowns. He also attempted a 4-yard touchdown that gave the Giants a 42-33 lead with 2:57 left.

Much of the production came from Nabers looking like the star target the Giants envision him to be. Nabers caught seven passes for a career-high 171 yards and two touchdowns. Slayton and Wan’Dale Robinson also had passes on goal.

“Pretty good day,” Daboll said. “It was nice to win at home. A lot of guys played well. This is how the offense has to behave. “That’s how the quarterback has to perform.”

When Daboll was asked what this victory meant to him, he repeatedly deflected.

“I’m just happy for the players and the coaches,” he said. “It’s a tough season. But we have a lot of good people, a lot of people with good character on our football team. It’s nice to see smiles on their faces.

“Also for the fans. “The fans that were out there cheering us all on, we definitely appreciate that.”

The announced attendance of 73,164 did not reflect the half-filled building, but those who showed up on an unseasonably warm late December afternoon saw more offensive fireworks in four quarters than this team could muster in months.

“It was a lot of fun,” Lock said. “We clicked. We knew we had it in us. It was just time to go out there and show it and do it. So it was a fun time. “Really good time.”

When Ihmir Smith-Marsette returned the first kickoff of the second half 100 yards for a touchdown, the Giants extended their lead to 28-13.

The Colts (7-9) got within 28-20 on Jonathan Taylor’s 26-yard touchdown run and threatened to get even closer on a drive that ended with a fourth-down stop of Taylor by Elijah Chatman.

Things got even more difficult when Joe Flacco, starting in place of the injured Anthony Richardson, hit Alec Pierce for a 13-yard score to make it 28-26 with 10:53 left. The narrow lead remained intact when the Colts botched the two-point conversion attempt when Flacco passed to Michael Pittman, but Pittman’s swipe at Taylor was deflected.

Nabers broke tackles en route to a 59-yard catch-and-run touchdown that made it 35-26 and the Giants were safe.

“Part of me always knew we were capable of this, and for some reason we couldn’t show it,” Slayton said. “It gets boring saying, ‘We can do this, we can do this,’ but you never actually do it. “We actually did it today.”