Dan Salomone: Sunday featured a variety of plays that every Giants coach, player and fan would like back, but the 87-yard touchdown pass from Spencer Rattler to Rashid Shaheed is near the top of the list. To that point, the Giants had stifled the Saints, who entered Week 5 with a league-low four plays of 20+ yards. That was the fifth.
While it was the only explosive play the Giants allowed all game, the Saints used it as a launching point to 23 unanswered points and their first win of the season.
"Obviously we want the big one back," defensive coordinator Shane Bowen said Monday morning. "We can't give that up, especially backed up there with how the game was going. I felt like that swung the momentum right there for sure. We've got to do a good job of understanding our leverage as that thing gets down the field and where our help is and making sure we had two guys back there, and he broke really across our leverage, and we were unable to get him down."
On the ensuing drive, the Giants had a chance to quash the comeback. They dialed up a flea flicker on third-and-short from near midfield, but after Jaxson Dart took the pitch back from Cam Skattebo, the rookie quarterback was unable to connect with Darius Slayton.
"I think those are the ones that you wish you had back," said Mike Kafka, the assistant head coach/offensive coordinator and play-caller. "I certainly know Slayton wants that one back, and Jaxson wants that one back as well, but we were being aggressive at that point on the field, at that point in the game, and we just didn't get it done. I think those guys are going to be, I know they were kicking themselves on the airplane."