The Giants gave their fans something to be proud of when they came back to win a thriller in Tennessee in Week 1, and to a man, they all asked the fans to bring it on Sunday for their home opener.
Again, Big Blue gave the fans something to cheer about with a win, but well before that, throughout the entire game, the crowd at MetLife was jacked for the new Giants era – and the crew appreciated it.
“I thought the fans were great. Just driving over here from the facility and looking at all the tailgates and all the beverages and all the games they were playing, they were pretty rocked up,” head coach Brian Daboll said.
“They had their jerseys on – some old school ones, some new school ones. They were great on third down. They know when to cheer, and it was certainly helpful to have them out there. And we look forward to next week.”
Of course, it would have been something if the crowd came out fired up and the Giants laid a dud, but they took a quick 3-0 lead, then came back with 13 of the final 16 points of the second half to win it 19-16 in thrilling fashion – which should continue the trend.
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“That's all you want. You want to give the fans something to be proud about. We haven't really done that in the past,” said Saquon Barkley. “You can't look too far into it but it's hard to win in this league. You have to be happy with 2-0 but you can't be satisfied. We have to go back to work, execute a little bit better, learn from the mistakes that we had and get ready for Dallas.”
Next week isn’t just any game – it’s the now 1-1 Cowboys, on a Monday night, a night where several Giants will be inducted into the team’s ring of honor.
That happens at halftime, and the key, as Barkley noted, is to give the fans something to cheer for before all of that takes place…although after this week, Saquon isn’t quite worried.
“I feel like we always had great fans even when we were struggling, but definitely a big credit to them for coming out, being loud. I think we had a couple penalties because of them,” Barkley laughed. “For me, being at Penn State, coming from that environment and seeing it in the NFL with Giants fans showing out and helping us get a win means a lot and hopefully we can keep this thing rocking.”
And no matter what, they’ll always have Sunday, when quite a few long-time Giants saw something special in the stands.
“That was awesome. From the first quarter on, we looked around the sidelines, and I said to the other guys, 'This is awesome seeing this,'” said kicker Graham Gano. “The fans were waiving the towels, bringing the juice and that's special. Hopefully, fans will keep coming and doing that and I don't think they realize how much it really means to us as players having them there and having their support. We couldn't play this game without them.”
Follow Lou DiPietro on Twitter: @LouDiPietroWFAN
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