All 23 of his catches are on his stat log, as are his 271 yards receiving and three touchdowns. The 37 times he was targeted shows he's the center of attention, not just one of the attention. His leaps into the air to grab the ball, his quick turns and spins to evade defenders, are fresh memories for fans who have gone from waiting to looking in the moment to accepting this young man as the real deal.
Malik Neighbors has already accomplished so much in his first three games with the Giants, but there are no stats, no reflections, no achievements to go on against their next opponent. What he accomplished against the Dallas Cowboys is not record-worthy. A catch is a catch. But it resonates more in the hearts and minds of a public that is divided into two groups: those who love the Cowboys and those who hate them.
Odell Beckham Jr. was an exciting, playmaking rookie in 2014. He scored the first two touchdowns of his career in just his third NFL game, a loss to the Giants in Dallas. Five weeks later, at a nationally televised “Sunday Night Football” event featuring the Cowboys at MetLife Stadium, he transformed into the now-famous OBJ with a breathtaking leap and one-handed catch behind his back to catch an Eli Manning pass in mid-air, a meme-worthy, iconic feat that remains astounding in highlight reels to this day. The Giants lost, but Beckham won a standard that would prove impossible to maintain thereafter.
For the first time, national attention was on Neighbors' game against the Cowboys on Thursday night. Anyone who sees this as just a matchup between NFC East rivals tied at 1-2 isn't paying attention. Neighbors recorded his first NFL record in Sunday's 21-15 win at Cleveland, thanks in large part to his first two career touchdowns. At 21 years old, he already looks special. Playing out of this world against the Cowboys leads to perks.
In the 20 seasons since Neighbors was born, the Cowboys have had 13 winning seasons, four losing seasons and three profitable seasons. They've made the playoffs 10 times but have never won more than one postseason game. They have a 4-10 playoff record during that span. Neighbors has never seen the Cowboys play in an NFC title game, much less a Super Bowl. Now that he's preparing to take on the best team in America, he might be wondering what all the fuss is about. [Pretty Good] team.
For a quick lesson, Neighbors can reach out to another former LSU wide receiver for more details. Beckham's epic catch was nearly a decade ago, on Nov. 23, 2014. Beckham's star skyrocketed when LeBron James tweeted, “Yo man I just saw Odell Beckham Jr. make the greatest catch of all time! Amazing!!!” and others marveled in the same way. Since then, OBJ has been all over the place, day and night, and Beckham has been carrying a heavy burden that has left him reeling.
Four years after the catch, Beckham called it a “very special moment” but also said it was a bit of a burden.
“It's bittersweet because I feel like my career doesn't end with one catch,” Beckham said, reflecting on the 2018 season, “but it was such an iconic moment. I don't mind being tagged on Instagram and seeing all the nice catches. It motivates me to do some more crazy stuff.”
Beckham credited the catch with “clearly changing my life forever, for better or for worse.” His time with the Giants was over, and his NFL journey since then has been more nomadic than usual.
Neighbors is a different guy than Beckham, but they play the same position and go to the same school, so it's convenient to link the two. For now, Neighbors feels like he's less at risk of soaring high into the air for the ball and then daydreaming and coming down. But if he does what OJB did, anything could happen.
He helped lead the Giants to a 21-7 lead over the Browns. His 23 pass catches are tied with Anquan Boldin for second-most in three NFL debut games. Neighbors (21 years, 56 days) is the youngest player in NFL history with two touchdown catches in a game; Mike Evans (21 years, 73 days) did it in 2014. Beckham was a 22-year-old rookie that year.
Neighbors blamed himself for letting the team's veteran players down after a tough drop late in the fourth quarter against the Commanders in Week 2. The most experienced players in the locker room made sure he knew he'd been too hard on himself.
“I saw that you didn't let anybody down, and I told him, it happens. We're professionals, we're going to make plays, we're going to make mistakes. All great players do that,” defensive tackle Dexter Lawrence said. “It's all about reacting. That's what great players do.”
It's also about what you do and when you do it, and doing it against the Cowboys is always going to mean a lot.
