Landon Collins had played four games for the Giants this season, but all were on the road – so Sunday was his first home game as part of Big Blue since 201x.
And boy did he make the most of it, corralling a pick-six that put the Giants up 21-3 late in the second quarter and well on their way to a playoff-clinching win over the Colts.
“I'm a big formation kind of guy, and I watched this play almost six times throughout the week. I saw No. 1 (Colts wide receiver Parris Campbell) breaking out and I had the flat, I just broke my underneath it and took it to the house,” Collins said of the pick.
“It was a good play, the ball was thrown inside and he was on it,” head coach Brian Daboll added. “I was like, ‘This one’s going to the house right here’ before he called it, and it went to the house.”
Collins had one career pick-six before this, but even doing this one in as big a game as it was, he didn’t think it was any bigger than the previous one.
“No, honestly, it's just more of the fact that like, making a play for our team and just making sure we're set. That was the biggest thing and just making sure for the next play,” Collins said. “Just turn the page, and even though I made a pick, now let's just finish it because that team can still come back if anything happens. So, at the end of the day, I just finished this, made a play, on to the next thing now.”
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Big or not, rookie Kayvon Thibodeaux tracked down the ball and gave it back to Collins “because that's a part of his history, that's part of his story now.” And it’s part of a story that has seen Collins, released by Washington last offseason and out of football on Opening Day, accept a role on the practice squad as well as a bit of a position change to a hybrid safety/inside linebacker.
He made enough of an impact that the Giants elevated him three times and then signed him to the active roster ahead of the Christmas Eve game in Minnesota, and now, he plans to be a big part of the Big Blue playoff run, wherever and whenever he plays.
“It's just being humble. Everybody in this locker room is very humble. We know that we've got guys to go make plays,” Collins said. “When your name is called, just do what you need to do to make that play for that team, for that down, for any situation that you're called upon.”
“It's unselfishness,” added defensive lineman Dexter Lawrence. “It's playing for more than ourselves; for a guy just to sit for a lot of weeks and be out and then come in the past few weeks and have make some big plays, it just shows that he cares for us and about the game, and it's a lot of respect to that.”
And come next Monday, Collins will be the only active player with experience as a Giant in the playoffs, and he can add a new role: mentor and leader of a young defense charting unfamiliar waters.
“I’ll just tell them that it’s not just next week, but the sense of urgency is through the roof,” Collins said. “Every little detail, every little fine thing that we need to be perfect on, we have to be perfect on.”
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