CLEVELAND — Less than 11 seconds into the game, Eric Gray fumbled the kickoff and Deshaun Watson threw a 24-yard touchdown pass to Amari Cooper over Deonte Banks.
And it got Giants fans in a bind thinking out loud.
game over.
Season over.
Then Brian Daboll, on fourth down and one at the Giants' 43, called for Malik Neighbors to get a first down, and Neighbors got two yards.
“It's good that teams expect me to have the ball in their hands on fourth down and third down,” Neighbors said.
And the Giants never looked back, improving to 1-2.
Because Malik Neighbors never let the Giants look back.
He imposed his will in this game, just as Lawrence Taylor always does.
Malik Neighbors (8 receptions, 78 yards, 2 touchdowns) is an unstoppable force of nature with the ball in his hands and has a great football mind that few rookies have had in the past.
He's “The Natural,” a game-changing, difference-making genius who has made Daniel Jones and Brian Daboll better players and given the Giants the hope usually reserved for franchise quarterbacks.
In the first half of the Giants 21-Browns 15 game, he helped transform Jones into a very capable quarterback.
In the first half of a Giants 21-Browns 15 game, he helped remind everyone just how much of a play-calling master Daboll is.
Daboll has no questions about job security.
Drew Lock has no complaints.
Neighbors even had two big catches on his way to becoming the first rookie with 20-plus catches (23), 250-plus yards receiving (271) and three touchdowns in his first three games.
Jones' coolness as a defensive back in a near-interception situation after he was hit in the arm trying to get at rookie tight end Theo Johnson at the Giants' 10. Daboll and Giants players repeatedly reminded him how important that was as the offense lost rhythm and the Browns soon hung on, 21-15.
“I saw the ball go up in the air and the way it was moving made me think, 'Oh, maybe I can catch it,'” Neighbors said. Then he realized he couldn't catch it either.
“I was like, 'Oh man, I'm just going to go out there and try my best to beat him,'” Neighbors said.
He takes your breath away, much like Odell Beckham Jr. did in a short time, and like all great athletes in any sport, you don't want to take your eyes off him.
In other words:
He caught a deep pass along the left sideline for 28 yards, but Neighbors appeared to be boxed out and Martin Emerson Jr. appeared to intercept it.
“If I throw up like that,” Jones told him, “it's either you or nobody.”
It was him.
The boy appears to have removed it from the victim's helmet.
MY BALLS! NOT YOUR BALLS. MY BALLS!
“We both had the ball in our hands,” Neighbors said, “and I just tried to get it in the last second and keep my feet on the ground if I could, and that's exactly what I did.”
He then jumped, spun and caught the ball with both feet, somehow inbounding it against Emerson in the left corner of the end zone for a 3-yard touchdown catch that put the Giants up 14 and the Browns up 7.
“I saw where it was going and I was like, 'Eh?'” Neighbors said. In other words, he wasn't sure he could make it. He did. “I just tried to get to the highest point,” Neighbors said.
It's truly Air Neighbors.
At one point early in the third quarter, Jones had completed 20 of 22 passes for 212 yards and his second touchdown on a 5-yard pass to Neighbors over the middle, before finishing with 24 of 34 passes for 236 yards and a quarterback rating of 109.4.
The Giants may not be what they were in 2022, but they found a way to keep Deshaun Watson and the Browns alive until Shane Bowen's incredible pressure defense (8 sacks) held the fort in the nick of time.
Asked how long it took him to get over the fact that he let down his veterans by dropping a fourth-down pass late in the Commanders game, Neighbors said, “I still haven't gotten over it. It still bothers me. I have to put it in the past. I try not to think about it. It's on my mind every day, every time I talk to my teammates.” [ex-LSU teammate and Commanders quarterback] Jayden [Daniels].”
Next up on Thursday night: the Cowboys have CeeDee Lamb and the Giants have Malik Neighbors.
“It doesn't matter the opponent,” Daboll said, “you just throw him the ball and trust that he'll get it.”
The season was saved.
