Andrew Thomas had to be picked up by teammates off the turf on Sunday, when he wasn’t limping in between plays or slowly rising off his knees himself.
“I knew Drew was really hurting out there,” center Jon Feliciano said.
The Giants’ left tackle tweaked his twice-surgically-repaired left ankle a couple times in the first half. But he never came out of the game.
And in the fourth quarter, he sprinted 40 yards downfield to guide Ravens corner Marcus Peters out of bounds on an interception that came back due to a Baltimore penalty.
Why are the Giants 5-1? Well, it doesn’t hurt that their captain on Daniel Jones’ blind side is playing the best ball of his career, and is setting a gutsy example for the team.
“It just starts when we talk about what you’re playing for,” Thomas told the Daily News after Sunday’s 24-20 win. “The biggest thing with this team, the reason why we fight so hard, is just because we play for each other. There’s not really selfishness.
“Nobody’s like: I’m not getting the ball,” Thomas added. “Everybody’s working hard. Receivers are blocking in the run game. Everybody’s putting their body on the line. It’s easy to fight through something like that when you know people are fighting for you, too.”
Thomas, a third-year pro, is the only Giants offensive player who has not missed a snap yet this season. He has played all 396.
He is also Pro Football Football Focus’ highest-graded offensive lineman this season (90.2). He has not allowed a sack yet. He has allowed only nine QB pressures in six games. And he is PFF’s No. 7 O-lineman in zone run blocking (89.4).
Feliciano had played 100% of the Giants’ snaps through five weeks, too, until he tweaked his groin in Sunday’s second half. Still, he only missed four snaps inside the blue tent before returning. Another example of a big-name team leader gutting it out.
“Yeah,” Feliciano said with a smirk. “I wasn’t gonna miss much time.”
And then there was Saquon Barkley in the fourth quarter, shaking out his injured right shoulder, leaving the game for a snap, doubled over in pain on the sideline.
He returned one play later and leapt into the end zone for the go-ahead touchdown, even though his shoulder was so tender, he couldn’t even celebrate with his teammates.
(Look at the replay, right guard Mark Glowinski gives Barkley a playful shove on his shoulder, and Barkley recoils and jogs away).
Thomas, by the way, made the key block on Barkley’s touchdown, crashing down and pushing Ravens edge Jason Pierre-Paul into another dimension.
Rookie right tackle Evan Neal, the bookend to Thomas on the Giants’ offensive line, said it sets a tone when players like Thomas, Feliciano and Barkley are grinding through pain.
“It makes a huge difference,” Neal said. “It makes you want to fight for your teammate that much harder, because he’s out there busting his ass and he doesn’t feel 100 percent. It just shows the grit those guys have and makes me want to play that much harder.”
WHERE WAS WARD?
Giants edge rusher Jihad Ward has been one of the team’s best players this season and one of its emotional leaders. So it was curious to see him sidelined for the final two drives of Sunday’s fourth quarter against his former Ravens team.
Of the eight snaps Ward sat, Kayvon Thibodeaux played seven of those snaps at edge, Oshane Ximines played six and undrafted rookie Tomon Fox played three.
“That’s the package we had in,” head coach Brian Daboll said on Zoom Monday. “Just our rotation.”
Ward didn’t complain after the game. But he didn’t dismiss a question about his absence, either.
“Listen, take advantage of all your opportunities out there,” Ward said. “I don’t make decisions on any of that stuff. They did a hell of a job coaching. So with that being said, take advantage of all your opportunities. I don’t sit around here and cry about why I’m not in there. I need them guys and they need me. So I take advantage of all my opportunities. I’ve been doing that all my whole career.”
Ward is a good teammate. He was pumped up on the sideline as Julian Love and Thibodeaux forced game-changing turnovers.
“Kayvon for President,” Ward said with a smile.
It just didn’t add up to see one of the team’s most impactful players idle on the sideline for eight defensive snaps with the game on the line.
It didn’t appear to be injury related, or Daboll would have said so. Ward had received a veteran rest day on Thursday to get his body right. But he was a full practice participant on Friday and had started Sunday’s game.
STAYING FOCUSED
Wide receiver Darius Slayton said Monday on Zoom that it won’t be hard for the Giants to ignore their 5-1 record and keep grinding because they have so much practice trying to forget their record in previous years.
“We have experience of ignoring our record for bad reasons,” Slayton said. “So that experience is probably gonna pay off, if we continue this trend and just ignore it and keep playing good ball.”
Slayton was asked if it’s better to ignore a good record or a bad record.
“Much better to ignore a good one,” he smiled. “I can attest.”
ODDS AND ENDS
Ximines said Monday that he tweaked his quad on the Love interception play, but he’ll be OK … Ward clamored on Sunday for Jackson to get his big contract from Baltimore: “Pay that man. Pay Lamar Jackson please!”
