Mike Glennon had yet to take a regular-season snap for the Giants as the second quarter wound down in Sunday’s loss to the Cowboys when he watched Daniel Jones take a helmet-to-helmet hit from a defender and get up stumbling.
"It's interesting, as a backup quarterback, whenever the quarterback gets hit, you're probably staring at him longer than most people do," Glennon said. "I could tell he was a little woozy getting up, but I knew it was about to be fourth down and had a feeling we were gonna go for it, so I ran and grabbed my helmet and got some snaps with [center] Billy [Price], because I haven't really had a whole lot of snaps with him.”
Not necessarily the circumstances under which Glennon wanted to take his first snap, but he did, and handed off to Devontae Booker for a touchdown that made it 10-10 at the time.
“You're concerned for your teammate, for your friend, but it was like, 'we need this touchdown,' so you've got to focus on the game. That's life of a backup,” Glennon said. “I’ve never been in that situation. Not ideal to see him go down but we have to focus on the football game.”
Dallas scored and Glennon’s next snap was a kneeldown, and he got a chance to go in at halftime and see Jones – and while he wouldn’t divulge the starter’s condition, he did double down on the temperature of the situation.
“It’s a tough deal. We came in at halftime shortly after and we saw him, but for that second it’s tough because we needed that touchdown,” Glennon reiterated.
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Jones was one of three starting skill players to go down on the day, as Booker was filling in for an injured Saquon Barkley, and Kenny Golladay was lost for the day after halftime with a knee injury. The scoreboard may not show the effort, but Glennon finished 16 of 25 for 196 yards with one touchdown and two picks, and Booker ended up with two scores on the day.
“I think we handled it well, guys stepped in and did well,” Glennon said. “KT (Kadarius Toney) really stepped up and we didn’t miss a beat at that wide receiver position because he made play after play.”
Added head coach Joe Judge: “Our guys are going to keep playing for 60 minutes, and how our team responded is exactly what I expected. You never want to see anyone get hurt, but there were a lot of good examples of the next man up mentality today.”
Glennon may have had another TD pass, but a late chance to Toney in the end zone was foiled and did not draw a flag despite what seemed to be major contact.
“It was a rollout to the right so I couldn’t see what happened. I saw him get to the top of the route and it’s a trust thing, so I just threw it to the area,” Glennon said of the play.
Alas, Jones is now in concussion protocol, so until cleared, the Giants likely have to work under the assumption that Glennon will start next Sunday against the Rams. Not ideal for a team that’s 1-4 and 0-2 in the division already, but the Giants won’t quit just because of the circumstances.
“You always give the cliché that you prepare as a starter and I’ve been doing that, but probably a little heavier workload,” Glennon said. “All we have to do is keep fighting and come back to work. This is the NFL, you don’t put your head down. Tomorrow we put our best foot forward and business as usual.”
“Mike can run the offense. Our deal is when a guy gets in, we want to stick to the game plan as much as possible. There may be certain wrinkles you pencil in for certain players, but in terms of Mike, we plan for him to go out there and run the offense,” Judge said. “I thought in terms of the eye test he did a lot of things well. He has a lot of experience and he prepares every day as if he’s going to take every snap, and I think that showed up out there.”
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