The fear and, yes, the expectation was that the sights and sounds would be incriminating, that at the end, the Giants would be defeated, again, hearing the jeers from the few fans who remained, another ugly day in a season filled with them.
At the end, though, there were sights and sounds never before seen and heard this season at MetLife Stadium.
“Players, coaches, the guys on the sideline and the crowd were all kinda in synch,’’ linebacker Jonathan Casillas said. “The crowd stepped up in big parts of the game and they were loud at the end of the game, you could hear ’em. It wasn’t 100 percent capacity, but we all did it together.’’
No, it was not 100 percent capacity — nearly three months of losing cannot be undone — but there was also fight and spirit, traits so often missing in these Giants. There was yet another defensive stand and, in this slog of an outing on offense, finally a breakthrough play, a 34-yard floater from Eli Manning that Roger Lewis, rolling on the turf, secured despite being interfered with by cornerback Phillip Gaines. That set up rookie kicker Aldrick Rosas — whose missed extra point helped push the Giants and Chiefs into overtime — to hit a redemptive 23-yard field goal with 1:54 remaining in OT for a 12-9 Giants victory that few, if anyone, saw coming.
“We need to feel good and get the crowd going to help us out,’’ Manning said, “so it’s a big win.’’
There might not be any “big wins’’ for the Giants, who were 0-4 at home this season and are now 2-8 overall after they ended a three-game losing streak. For a team that now must gear up for a short workweek before a Thanksgiving night road game against the Redskins, it is a temporary hush from the ear-splitting drumbeat of losing.
“Just a tremendous team win,’’ Ben McAdoo said. “Fought through a lot of adversity against a good football team.’’
The Chiefs came in with a record of 6-3 and Andy Reid had been 16-2 in his head coaching career coming out of the bye week. The Giants came in off a beyond-humbling 31-21 loss to the previously winless 49ers and, seemingly, were unraveled. McAdoo on Wednesday put together a film session highlighting the worst plays from the game in Santa Clara, Calif., the most egregious examples of bad technique and lackluster effort.
McAdoo showed three plays by Landon Collins, topped only by four plays by Janoris Jenkins that McAdoo deemed worthy of team-wide scrutiny.
“He put my mistakes on there, I’m ain’t gonna lie to you, I was kinda upset,’’ Collins said. “I kinda just took it personally, I’m not playing how I played last year.’’
How interesting was it, then, that Collins played his best game of the season, with 15 tackles and an interception, and Jenkins picked off Alex Smith, setting up a Rosas field goal with 1:38 remaining in regulation that put the Giants ahead 9-6.
“After the week we had, guys being called out, everybody responded well,’’ Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie said.
This was in many ways a throwback performance to the 2016 season, a victory fueled by relentless defense and just enough points. The Chiefs (6-4) were held without a touchdown and Smith was harassed and horrendous.
“We played tremendous defense,’’ McAdoo said, noting Jenkins “played his tail off — he was all over the field.’’
It was clear McAdoo knew he had to help out his quarterback, playing without his top receiver, Sterling Shepard, who missed the game with a migraine headache. And so, McAdoo emptied the playbook in the first quarter. A fake punt — yes, a fake punt — picked up a first down on a direct snap to safety Nat Berhe. On the same drive, there was a halfback option in the red zone, though Shane Vereen’s pass was intercepted.
McAdoo said “to beat them, you’re going to have to think outside of the box a little bit and not be afraid to pull the trigger on some of those things.’’
A big hit on Kelce by Jason Pierre-Paul on a Smith shovel pass late in the first quarter led to the first career interception for Damon “Snacks’’ Harrison, helping to set up Darkwa’s 1-yard touchdown run early in the second quarter but Rosas, kicking in wind gusts, missed the extra point.
Smith completed a 32-yard pass to Kelce to set up Harrison Butker’s 23-yard field goal with one second left in regulation. The Chiefs got the ball first in overtime, but the Giants forced a punt. Manning then engineered his 35th career regular-season fourth-quarter (or later) comeback with passes of 13 yards to Tavarres King and 10 yards to Lewis before Lewis’ sensational grab made things easy for Rosas.
“The energy was there, the crowd was there,’’ Casillas said. “Can’t really ask for a better ending than that.’’