A newcomer and a rookie saved the Giants on Sunday.
You probably won’t see anyone wearing their jerseys anytime soon outside of their family members. But make no mistake, the Giants probably aren’t 2-1 if not for Jordan Stout and Dominic Zvada.
Zvada made all four of his field goal attempts to account for the entirety of Big Blue’s scoring, and Stout repeatedly pinned the Titans deep in their own end in the Giants’ 12-7 win at a rain-soaked MetLife Stadium.
“I see it in practice. There’s a reason why he won the job,” right guard Francis Mauigoa said of Zvada, an undrafted rookie out of Michigan. “He earned all of our trust.”
Zvada wasn’t asked to make any long kicks in poor conditions, but he was still very valuable, and has shown impressive poise for a 22-year-old. He was good from 39 yards twice, 30 and 27. So far, he is 6-for-6.
In the offseason, the Giants made Stout the highest-paid punter in the sport, giving him a three-year, $12.3 million deal to join his old coach, John Harbaugh. He was just as important Sunday.
Stout, a first-team All-Pro last season, averaged 50.5 on six punts, including a 74-yard blast. Three times, he pinned the Titans inside their 20-yard line. On a wet day, that was significant, especially since the Titans didn’t get going offensively until the fourth quarter.
“How about the punt team? How about the field position that was flipped?” Harbaugh said. “We had numerous long punts with great coverage, even created a few penalties that backed them up even a little further from the top of the catch.”
The conditions made it difficult for the two offenses, and the respective coaching staffs didn’t push it. It became a field-position game. The Giants were better on special teams, and are above .500 as a result.
“I didn’t expect there to be a — what do you call it? — a nor’easter? I didn’t expect one of those to come through this early,” Stout said. “Hopefully it’s gonna keep getting better, the weather.”
— Additional reporting by Paul Schwartz
