What a difference a week makes for New York Giants rookie quarterback Tommy DeVito.
In his second career start, the undrafted rookie free agent completed 18 of 26 passes for 246 yards and three touchdowns against the Commanders(4-7). Two of his touchdown passes went to Saquon Barkley, and the third went to Darius Slayton. The Giants (3-8) forced a season-high six turnovers, including an Isaiah Simmons pick-six to seal the game late in the fourth; New York would end their three-game losing streak and defeat Washington 31-19 at FedeXField on Sunday.
DeVito gets his victory as starter in the NFL.
“It means a lot. It means a lot to a sports team, right?” DeVito said after the win. “After the last couple weeks of not getting the result we wanted, just to have that feeling in this game which is not getting the result we wanted in the end, you know, it means a lot. We’re going to enjoy it. We’re gonna celebrate it but we know what it takes.”
The Livingston, New Jersey native, who became the first Giants quarterback with at least five touchdowns in his first two NFL starts since 1950, took a beating on Sunday. He was sacked nine times. This is the first victory in Giants history in a game when their quarterback(s) was sacked at least nine times.
“I hate to put it back to my college days, but I got beat up a little bit when I was in college,” DeVito said. “So I’ve kinda been in some similar situations like that before but I mean that’s part of the quarterback position. You have to stand in there and you’ll take those hits and deliver the ball to your teammates and do that element of it. I mean, I continue to trust in those guys.
Giants head coach Brian Daboll added: “Yeah, I mean, he’s tough. He’s a tough guy. Again, when you have that many sacks, and they weren’t all on the offensive line, I’ll tell you that right now. We could have done some things better, but we did a good job of sometimes capitalizing on them. In terms of getting backed up, a lot of times we had to punt the ball because we got behind the sticks, but he’s a tough-minded guy.”
Despite DeVito’s struggles against the Jets and Cowboys, the Giants stuck with DeVito, and Daboll has been happy with his work ethic and progress.
“Yeah, I mean I was asked a fair amount of questions about bringing in some older guys and thought this guy was a good young player to work with,’ Daboll said. “Again, he’s played in two and a half games, so there’s a lot of work that needs to be done, but he certainly has put the work in… There’s a lot of things he did good and a lot of things we can help him improve on.”
Notes:
The Giants improved to 2-2 in NFC East games. Including their 14-7 victory last month in MetLife Stadium, the Giants swept the season series against Washington for the first time since 2020. The Giants are 8-2-1 in their last 11 games against Washington. Both losses occurred in 2021.
The Giants last had three interceptions in a game on Nov. 21, 2021, in a victory against Philadelphia. Darnay Holmes had one of the picks in that game and one Sunday. *The Giants’ three fumble recoveries were their highest total since they had three on Oct. 2 2022, against Chicago.
