CLEVELAND — Within 11 seconds, Eric Gray had fumbled away the opening kickoff, and Deshaun Watson had thrown a 24-yard TD pass to Amari Cooper against Deonte Banks.
And the beleaguered Giants fan began thinking aloud:
Game over.
Season over.
And then Brian Daboll went for it on fourth-and-1 at the Giants 43 and asked Malik Nabers to get the first down and Malik Nabers got two yards.
“I feel good that my team expects me to have the ball in my hands on fourth down and third-and-long,” Nabers said.
And the Giants never looked back, improving to 1-2.
Because Malik Nabers would not let the Giants look back.
He imposed his will on this gameday the way Lawrence Taylor always did.
Malik Nabers (8 rec., 78 yards, 2 TDs) is an unstoppable force of nature with the ball in his hands and a beautiful football mind the likes of which few rookies have ever possessed.
He is The Natural, a game-breaking, difference-making phenom who makes Daniel Jones better and Brian Daboll better and gives the Giants the kind of hope usually reserved for franchise quarterbacks.
In the first half of Giants 21, Browns 15, he helped transform Jones into a wildly efficient quarterback.
In the first half of Giants 21, Browns 15, he helped remind everyone what a play-calling whiz Daboll can be.
No job security questions for Daboll.
No cries for Drew Lock.
It wasn’t even the two wondrous catches Nabers made on his way to becoming the first rookie with 20-plus catches (23), 250-plus receiving yards (271) and three TDs in his first three games.
It was having the presence of mind to play defensive back on what loomed dangerously as an interception after Jones got his arm hit at the Giants 10 targeting rookie TE Theo Johnson. Daboll and Giants players couldn’t stop telling him how crucial it was at a time when the offense had lost its rhythm and the Browns, soon to make it 21-15, were hanging in.
“I seen the ball going up in the air, the way it was going I was like, ‘Oh I might be able to catch it,’ ” Nabers said. Until he realized even he could not.
“I was like, ‘Oh, let me just try my best to knock it down,’ ” Nabers said.
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He takes your breath away the way Odell Beckham Jr. did for too short a period. Like the great ones in any sport, you do not want to take your eyes off of him.
To wit:
His 28-yard catch on a deep throw down the left sideline that appeared earmarked for a Martin Emerson Jr. interception with Nabers seemingly boxed out.
“If I throw it up like that,” Jones told him, “it’s you or nobody.”
It was him.
The kid seemed to take it off his victim’s helmet.
MY BALL! Not your ball. MY BALL!
“We both had our hand on the ball,” Nabers said. “I tried to snatch it at the last minute and hopefully keep my foot in, and I did just that, yeah.”
Then came his leaping, spinning catch with both feet somehow inbounds in the left corner of the end zone against poor Emerson, the 3-yard TD catch making it Giants 14, Browns 7.
“I seen where it was going, I was like, ‘ehh,’ ” Nabers said. In other words, he wasn’t sure he could climb for it. He climbed for it, all right. “I just did a good job of just trying to get it at its highest point,” Nabers said.
Air Nabers indeed.
At one point, early in the third quarter, Jones was 20-for-22 for 212 yards with a second TD — a 5-yarder over the middle to Nabers — before finishing 24-for-34 for 236 yards and a 109.4 QB rating.
These may not be the 2022 Giants, so they found a way to keep Deshaun Watson and the Browns alive until Shane Bowen’s surprise pressure defense (eight sacks) held the fort in crunch time.
Nabers beat himself up for letting the veterans down by dropping a fourth-down pass late against the Commanders, and when he was asked how long it took him to get over it, he said: “I’m still not over it. It’s still bothering me. It’s something that I just gotta put in my past. I’m never gonna not think about it. It still goes through my mind every day I talk to [ex-LSU teammate and Commanders quarterback] Jayden [Daniels].”
The Cowboys, up next on Thursday night, have CeeDee Lamb. The Giants have Malik Nabers.
“It doesn’t really matter about the matchup,” Daboll said. “Throw the ball up to him and trust that he’s gonna get it.”
Season saved.
