జాక్సన్ డార్ట్ జెయింట్స్‌ను మొదటి ప్రారంభంలో మొదటిసారి గెలవడానికి దారితీస్తుంది, కానీ ఇది ఇక్కడ నుండి కఠినంగా ఉంటుంది

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. — Long after the game was over and the raucous crowd had left, Brian Daboll found Jaxson Dart in the postgame locker room, gave him a big hug, and whispered a few things into his ear. He had done the same thing out on the field as soon as the game had ended, too.

The embattled coach of the Giants just couldn’t let go of the moment, and who could blame him? It was the first career win for his rookie quarterback, and maybe the biggest win his team has had in years. He kept telling Dart that the Giants’ 21-18 upset of the previously undefeated Los Angeles Chargers was a “great f—ing win.”

He wanted to savor it, because Daboll knows it will likely only get harder from here.

“I’m glad he’s our young quarterback,” Daboll said. “But there are going to be a lot of growing pains, I’m just telling you.”

There could be a lot more than expected considering that Dart’s encouraging first start came at a costly price. The Giants lost their No. 1 receiver, Malik Nabers, possibly for the season. He left midway through the second quarter with what the Giants fear is a torn ACL in his right knee.

And if that diagnosis holds up, that will make Dart’s tough job infinitely tougher. Nabers, who had 109 catches for 1,204 yards despite some pretty dismal quarterback play last season, figured to be the kind of weapon who could carry a young quarterback through his expected rookie struggles. Without him, the Giants have some decent weapons — receivers like Wan’Dale Robinson and Darius Slayton — but no one close to being a true No. 1.

That’s a problem because the 22-year-old Dart’s passing is definitely a work in progress. He was far more exciting with his legs on Sunday (10 carries for 54 yards, 1 touchdown) than he was with his arm (13 of 20, 111 yards, 1 touchdown). He struggled to connect with his receivers down the field against the tough Chargers defense. Though he did come up big in the clutch with a third-down strike to tight end Theo Johnson with 2:34 remaining that made it nearly impossible for the Chargers to come back.

“It wasn’t perfect,” Daboll said. “Didn’t expect it to be in this first game. But a tough opponent, 3-0 team with pretty good defense. Thought he made good decisions. I think the young man played well within himself. Made a huge play when he needed to. Happy we got him.”

To be honest, on Sunday everyone in the Giants’ organization was happy they had Dart, the player they traded back into the first round to snag in the draft in April. They’ve been starved for a win and a moment like this probably since their playoff win back in the 2022 season. Since then, they’ve been a franchise devoid of hope, grasping at any positive straw they could find. They understand that Dart represents their best chance at a better future.

And stats be damned, he didn’t disappoint. He opened the game with a nine-play, 75-yard touchdown drive that ended with him darting up the middle for a touchdown, 15 yards on a quarterback draw. That set a tone in the stadium that never really quieted down, even though the offense basically shut down after that, gaining only 175 yards the rest of the way. 

Even Dart admitted “the defense carried us through this game.” But when the offense needed a play, Dart usually made it. Even after injuring his hamstring in the second quarter, even after losing Nabers, he kept finding ways to make his teammates believe they were going to hold on and win.

“He’s willing to put it all on the line,” Robinson said. “He’s exactly what you want in a quarterback.”

Added right tackle Jermaine Eluemunor: “The confidence he carries himself with and the swagger he has is contagious. The way he carries himself and the determination he plays with his huge. It just makes you want to run through a brick wall for him.”

Dart was so confident, in fact, that on that key third-down pass to Johnson late in the fourth, he actually improvised and changed a play that Daboll said has been part of his offense for a decade. The play was supposed to call for Johnson to run down the field. But after studying film, Dart told his tight end that if he saw a certain look from the defense, he wanted him to alter his route and settle in the middle of the field.

And it worked. Of course, it won’t always work.

“I got a lot of confidence in our rookie quarterback,” Daboll said. “But he’s a rookie quarterback, so there’s going to be mistakes that’ll be made. We know that. There’ll be more next week. There was some this week. It’s not going to be perfect.”

It might not even be close to perfect now that Dart is forced to play without a receiver who can really change the game. “Malik’s one of one,” Dart said. “When you have a guy like that on the field you have all the confidence in the world that he can just be a dominant game-changer.”

Without him, the game became more of a grind for Dart and the Giants. But the rookie still impressed his teammates by never getting rattled.

“He showed a lot of heart, a lot of toughness,” Slayton said. “But probably mostly poise. He was extremely poised.”

That poise will come in handy considering the obstacles the Giants will face. After a game in New Orleans against the winless Saints next Sunday, they’ll see the undefeated, defending champion Eagles twice in three weeks. In between, they play at Denver. Then they’ll come home for the 49ers. And the schedule doesn’t exactly get any easier in the second half.

Daboll knew all that, obviously, when he benched veteran Russell Wilson and threw his hand-picked franchise quarterback into the fire — a desperation move with the Giants 0-3 and the coach fighting for his job. And who knows if Dart can actually save it? Daboll, who helped groom Josh Allen as a rookie in Buffalo seven years ago, has said all along the road for his rookie quarterback will be hard.

But for one day, one moment, it was good enough to erase at least some of the gloom and doom that has hung over the Giants for most of the past decade. Even the loss of a player like Nabers couldn’t completely spoil the mood.

“I’m sure he’ll be the first one to tell you there’s a lot he can do better,” Daboll said of Dart. “But I like his traits. I like his toughness. 

“I’m glad we got him.”

Ralph Vacchiano is an NFL Reporter for FOX Sports. He spent six years covering the Giants and Jets for SNY TV in New York, and before that, 16 years covering the Giants and the NFL for the New York Daily News. Follow him on Twitter at @RalphVacchiano.

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