Jaxson Dart shuffled slowly and sorely out of the Giants’ showers to his locker after winning his first NFL start on Sunday.
His voice cracked, his legs were heavy, his eyes drooped. He had just been sacked six times and taken nine more hits.
But he was smiling.
Then head coach Brian Daboll walked over, put his arm around Dart’s neck and gave him a hug.
Together, they had just helped the Giants pull their 2025 season from the ashes for at least one more week.
“He’s the guy that believed in me from day one,” Dart said after the Giants’ 21-18 win over the Los Angeles Chargers at MetLife Stadium. “I think it does say a lot that he made the decision and had the confidence in me. When you have a coach who you know has your back, I’m gonna go out there and do everything I can for him to win.”
Daboll said matter of factly: “I’m happy to get a win, that’s the goal.”
The offense wasn’t primarily responsible for the Giants’ first win of their season. A ferocious pass rush sacked Chargers quarterback Justin Herbert twice, hit him 12 more times and forced him into two interceptions to Dexter Lawrence and Dru Phillips.
“I thought our defense carried us through this game,” Dart said. “Our defense, our offensive line played at a really elite level.”
The Giants (1-3) also likely lost top receiver Malik Nabers for the rest of the season to a torn right ACL, which will be confirmed with an MRI on Monday.
But the important thing for GM Joe Schoen and Brian Daboll is this: A team that seemed skeptical about Wilson’s benching during the week played with belief in their ability to topple the previously undefeated Chargers (3-1) with Dart at the helm.
And a home crowd that had booed Russell Wilson off the field one week ago was chanting “Let’s go, Giants” with eight minutes left in Sunday’s fourth quarter, which cooled the temperature on this regime’s hot seats for the time being.
“I think we’ve been playing with belief every game,” edge rusher Kayvon Thibodeaux said after recording a sack and six pressures. “I think this week we just put it together for four quarters. We’re buying in.
“Having the rook come in and play quarterback, we all were just grateful to be out there to be honest,” he added. “Upstairs felt like that was what was gonna give us the spark, and it did. And we ended up winning the game. So I’m super grateful and super happy.”
Dart made it easier for his teammates to believe by giving the Giants a 7-0 lead with a 15-yard rushing touchdown on his first NFL drive, an 89-yard march.
Lawrence and Phillips then set the offense up at the Chargers’ 3-yard line twice with interception returns, which set Dart and the offense up for an easy 10 points on a shovel TD pass to Theo Johnson and a Jude McAtamney field goal.
“This is just a big confidence builder for us as a team to have a win like this where it wasn’t easy, it wasn’t clean and we had to fight, just like the other weeks,” Dart said. “But this time we finished.”
Nabers’ second quarter injury easily could have taken the fight completely out of a team that had lost 14 of its last 15 going back to last season. But the Giants didn’t flinch when they faced that adversity, either.
“It was sad seeing him go down,” rookie edge rusher Abdul Carter said of Nabers’ injury. “But at the end of the day, we had a job to do. We had to finish, and we finished it for him.”
Brian Burns (sack, six pressures), Carter (eight pressures, per NFL NextGen Stats) and Thibodeaux were the reason why the team persevered so impressively.
Dart said “our D-line knew they had to play at a dominant level for us to win.” Chargers left tackle Joe Alt’s early ankle injury left L.A.’s line especially vulnerable.
And although running back Omarion Hampton gave New York trouble on the ground, defensive coordinator Shane Bowen had answers throughout the day for Greg Roman’s passing game.
Burns sacked Herbert on a late third down to get the ball back and allow the offense to run the clock down with the three-point lead. Herbert threw the ball down to the turf in frustration after getting taken down in that big spot.
“He’s a guy who doesn’t show a lot of emotion,” Thibodeaux said of Herbert. “I think we were able to get to him, and he loves the game. I love when I see an opposing quarterback a little frustrated.”
Dart’s offense failed twice to ice the game late in the fourth quarter, including a turnover on downs in the red zone on a drop by Wan’Dale Robinson.
Still, Sunday wasn’t about winning cleanly. It was about winning any way they possibly could and creating some hope for this season and this team.
The pass rush now can strut into New Orleans next week feeling confident that the Saints (0-4) and every other opponent might struggle to find an answer for the Giants defense when it’s humming.
“S—, buckle up. That’s all I can tell you,” Thibodeaux said.
And Dart and the 2025 Giants now know that a game can end with them on the right side. And maybe that means they have a way to make it happen again and again and again.
“I mean, I was just waiting for it to hit zero,” Dart said. “Because obviously that Dallas game [in Week 2], in my mind we were gonna have that one. So in my mind I was just staring at the clock and waiting for it to count down.
“But [left guard] Jon Runyan was right next to me,” he added. “That was a cool moment to have with him. It was special to get the first one, and this is just the start.”
Originally Published: September 28, 2025 at 4:29 PM EDT