For the New York Football Giants, this is a Game of Dethrone on Sunday night at Jerry World, and the news Ezekiel Elliott will be playing has not exactly left them cowering in fear.
And as they keep their fingers crossed Odell Beckham Jr. will be on the battlefield, the Giants hope this Armageddon slugfest will signal a changing of the guard in the NFC East … and beyond.
Ben McAdoo on Wednesday, The Post learned, showed the Giants a clip from “Game of Thrones” that only whetted their already ravenous appetites for that fifth Super Bowl crown.
“It’s the … episode when the dragons came, they saved the people,” Landon Collins told The Post, “so basically we’re coming to be the game-changers in this conference and we’re gonna take over. That’s kinda what I took from it.”
Big Blue dragons, breathing fire and fury.
“Just the clip they showed us today was pretty cool I guess,” Eli Apple told The Post. “With the dragon, that’s something we want to take and be a little bit, kinda just impose our will like the dragon did. I don’t want to spoil anything for any fans out there, but yeah, the dragon went crazy with the fire breathing and all that.”
It takes a dragon to slay Elliott.
“He’s crazy in the head,” said Apple, who played with Elliott at Ohio State. “As a running back, that’s something that you need. He’s not afraid to stick his nose in there, he’s somebody that’s gonna finish every run, very hard runner, speed, quickness, he can jump over people. He just has the whole package. He has that old-school running back mentality.”
Elliott had only 51 yards (and a touchdown) on 20 carries against the Giants in his NFL debut last season and had 107 yards on 24 carries in the rematch. He caught one pass in the opener and none in the rematch as the Giants swept the series.
Asked why the Giants were able to have success against Elliott (1,631 yards as a rookie), Collins said: “Snacks.”
Damon “Snacks” Harrison was a man against ’Boys. A dragon’s dragon.
“They say defense wins championships, so I definitely felt like that was a calling of the defense, the dragons,” linebacker B.J. Goodson told The Post. “If the dragons don’t show up. … We always talk about playing complementary football, so if the dragon don’t show up, the guys are done.”
From the next locker, defensive tackle Robert Thomas chimed in: “It makes a harder fight.”
Justin Pugh is a huge “Game of Thrones” fan.
“53-plus against a whole lot of Dallas fans,” Pugh told The Post. “We’re surrounded. No one’s gonna save us but us. We don’t got a dragon coming to our rescue. They’re all on the outside looking in, but they got 11, we got 11. They can’t get to us, we gotta go handle their 11 when we’re on the field.”
Collins relishes silencing Cowboys fans.
“That’s pretty much what it is, it’s more about shutting the fans up and showing them that we got a better team,” he said.
Asked if he hates the Cowboys, Collins said: “I strongly dislike them, tell you that much. I don’t have no hate in my heart against any team. I don’t even think it’s the players, it’s more of the comments from the fans.”
Elliott is seeking to delay his six-game suspension for domestic violence until next season if he can run to daylight in the courtroom. He is a different animal than veterans Darren McFadden and Alfred Morris.
“Zeke is a he-could-do-it-all kinda back,” Collins said. “You see the other two backs are a one-cut runner. They’re gonna press the hole and they’re gonna try to get what they can. Zeke is gonna try to make something happen every time.”
And he doesn’t like running out of bounds.
“He keeps his feet moving, he has a lot of power behind his weight, and a lot of weight behind him, so you definitely gotta get your butt down and lower your shoulders and just try to keep driving him back, ’cause he’s gonna definitely keep pushing for those extra yards,” Collins said.
The Big Blue Dragons to Ezekiel Elliott: Bring it.
Goodson: “I’m a fan of great competition. You don’t want to hear about a big name not being able to perform ever.”
Collins: “I just had the feeling he was gonna play, it’s a big game, and it’s the NFL. It’s crazy. It’s definitely a business.”
McAdoo: “Whoever suits up for Dallas, we’ll go play.”
Game of Dethrone.