Thursday Night Observations
Well that was a pleasant surprise! Granted Alan Seslowsky and I did a genius
”pot odds” play in our Survivor pool with the Eagles and got bounced, but truth be told, I was still rooting for the Giants.
Jaxson Dart had showed sparks in his first two starts, but this game cemented it in my mind — he’s the guy for the next half decade at least. He’s a fast, decisive runner and made all the throws, including a perfect would-be TD to Jalin Hyatt who dropped it but drew the PI. It’s also refreshing to see someone who looks like he enjoys playing quarterback — even high-fived the ref on a Cam Skattebo touchdown at one point.
I considered sitting Skattebo against the Eagles for Tony Pollard against the Raiders, but thank God I made the switch back. Skattebo isn’t fast, but he’s decisive and hits the hole as hard as he can every time. He’s also a smooth pass catcher. If Dart plays at this level, Skattebo looks like a top-10 PPR back. Tyrone Tracy and Devin Singletary are irrelevant to Skattebo’s workload at this point.
Big Jordan Humphrey led the Giants with eight targets after being signed off the practice squad. That’s the receiving corps with which Dart carved up the Super Bowl champs. Wan’Dale Robinson should be a steady PPR guy, but not sure how much ceiling he has. The Giants got Hyatt (a former third-round deep threat) involved, and it would be a nice bonus if he could step up.
The Giants defense played great. They limited Saquon Barkley (after he started the game with two carries for 30 years), got pressure on Jalen Hurts, limited Hurts’ scrambling and didn’t give up big plays. They are an overtime loss to Dallas away from being 3-3.
Dallas Goedert is yet another of the 10 top-five tight ends. But he’s more or less always been when healthy.
Barkley looks healthy to me, but he just doesn’t have that big a role on this team for God knows what reason.
Hurts just looks a little out of sync to me — he can make the throws, he can move well, but the offense isn’t crisp and consistent, probably because the offensive line has declined year over year. Just as Baker Mayfield, Danny Dimes, Sam Darnold and Jared Goff went from left for dead to thriving, a quality QB like Hurts can go from thriving to out of sync when conditions decline. Keep in mind the conditions on the Eagles merely went from ideal to slightly less than ideal.
The Giants offensive line played its best game of the year too.