Rock: Draft be darned, we play to win, Giants players affirm

After every one of his previous eight home games with the Giants, linebacker Brian Burns sat on the chair in front of his locker, stared out at the rest of the team around him, and attempted to process what he’d just experienced. Sometimes it was heartbreak from a close game, other times it was frustration at being overwhelmed. But in all eight of those contemplations, it was a loss on which he was silently chewing. Or maybe it was the losses gnawing on him.

On Sunday, he sat in that familiar seat. Only this time he scanned a room filled with smiles and chatter, the flesh-slappy sounds of high-fives and back pats ringing around him. Malik Nabers and Isaiah Simmons stood near him scrolling through highlights on their phones, sharing the ones they liked with each other. Burns leaned back on the rear two legs of that folding chair, which, like him, had been holding up the burdens of a disappointing season.

Then he did something he’d never done as a Giant at MetLife Stadium.

He smiled the smile of a victor.

The Giants had just beaten the Colts, 45-33, ending a number of ignominious streaks, saved them from an NFL record for home futility, impacted where and who they will draft in April, and may play a role in determining who stays and who goes once this season ends in a week.

But for Burns, the only thing he was thinking about was soaking up the sensation that had eluded him since he arrived here in a huge trade earlier this year, one that had eluded him until this moment.

“It’s just joy,” he said. “We needed that a lot. It’s good to feel that. It’s been a while … It’s something we have to feel a lot more of next year.”

All around him, players and coaches were experiencing the same buzz. There were some, like Burns, who had never celebrated in that space.

“To finally get a [home] win and have all the hard work somewhat pay off, it’s really nice,” offensive lineman and fellow first-year Giant Jermaine Eluemunor said.

Others have experienced it before … only it had been a good long while since.

“I’ve won a lot in my life, so I wouldn’t say I forget the feeling of winning,” wide receiver Darius Slayton said, “but obviously it was nice to get that feeling back today.”

Outside that room, however, a very different vibe was percolating among Giants fans. For many, this result was just as disappointing, if not more so, than any of the ones that preceded it. The hope of landing the first overall pick in April’s draft — at least without trading up to get it — was erased with this victory. Any vision of getting the first quarterback off the board was blurred. The Giants will select very early in the process — they are still only 3-13 — but for those who were rooting for them to lose out, the sentiment was clear:

Tanks for nothing!

“I know,” Eluemunor said of that chatter. “You don’t have to tell me.”

Like everyone else in the room, he understands the instinct. He just doesn’t subscribe to it.

“Look, I get that when you have a losing season, the best thing to do in fans’ eyes is to keep losing so you can get a better draft position,” he said. “But then you start to create a culture of losing. That’s not what you want to do.”

He said it’s up to the current players to focus on winning and let the front office deal with the draft and free agency and “getting people in here who can help us go from 3-13 now to friggin’ 13-3.”

So the Giants celebrated … even if their fans did not.

They mocked the cataclysm that would have happened if they had become the first team in NFL history to go 0-9 at home. “We ain’t there now, so we good,” Burns said.

They recounted their standout plays, from Slayton’s stumbling touchdown to Ihmir Smith-Marsette’s 100-yard touchdown on the second-half kickoff to Elijah Chatman stuffing Jonathan Taylor on a critical fourth-and-1 in the third quarter.

They marveled at Drew Lock’s performance and Dru Phillips’ interception and Kayvon Thibodeaux’s strip sack that sealed it.

They reveled in the history of a rivalry that reaches all the way back to the 1958 NFL Championship Game at Yankee Stadium. Thibodeaux was told that was called “The Greatest Game Ever Played.” He admitted this one was not, but christened it “A Pretty Good Game” nonetheless. Unlike the 1958 version, the Giants won this one.

They wondered what impact this game will have on the future of the organization, from a possible carry-over for those who will be back in 2025 to the potential of it saving the job of Brian Daboll.

“That wasn’t just for us,” Burns said of his head coach, “it was for him, too.”

Mostly, though, they just enjoyed the win itself no matter how it happened, what it took to get here, or what the consequences of it will be in the coming months.

“The win feels great,” Thibodeaux said. “It definitely does feel worth it. It’s worth it, I’ll tell you that.”