It happened on an unusually warm late December Sunday afternoon, as the cloudy and rainy skies cleared, resulting in blue sunshine as the Giants tasted something they have not chewed on for nearly three months.
They won a game.
And they lost (for now) the No. 1 pick in the 2025 NFL Draft.
Two disparate pathways interconnected as one of the worst seasons in franchise history nears an end. The Giants had a sudden outburst of passing competence from Drew Lock and some greatness on display from rookie Malik Nabers, built a 21-6 lead and then held on for a wild 45-33 victory over the Colts at half-filled MetLife Stadium.
That ended a franchise-record 10-game losing streak and prevented the Giants from becoming the first team in NFL history to go 0-9 at home in a season.
In the here and now, this was good news for head coach Brian Daboll and general manager Joe Schoen, who are down the stretch of such a brutal season that ownership must consider making changes at one of both positions.
Looking ahead, the quest to find the next franchise quarterback took a hit. The Giants (3-13) went into the day owning the No. 1 pick and with the rare victory, they dropped out of the No. 1 and No. 2 spot and fell to No. 3 or 4.
So, for purposes of tanking for Shedeur Sanders or Cam Ward, the Giants took a hit, with one game remaining in their season — at Saquon Barkley and the Eagles — to either win and drop further in the first round or lose and move back into the top two picks.
This was a strange and unusual experience for the Giants, who won a game for the first time since Oct. 6 in faraway Seattle.
With the loss, the Colts (7-9) were eliminated from playoff contention in the AFC — deservedly so, after giving up 45 points to a team that was last in the league in scoring at 14.3 points a game.
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Lock out of nowhere went crazy, completing 17 of 23 passes for 309 yards and four touchdowns. He also scrambled for a 4-yard touchdown that put the Giants ahead 42-33 with 2:57 remaining.
Much of the production came as the result of Nabers looking like the star target the Giants envision him to be. Nabers caught seven passes for a career-high 171 yards and two touchdowns. Darius Slayton and Wan’Dale Robinson also hauled in scoring passes from Lock.
Joe Flacco, starting in place of injured Anthony Richardson, was 26 of 38 for 330 yards, with two touchdown passes and two interceptions.
When Lock hit rookie Nabers on a 31-yard catch-and-run for a touchdown late in the first quarter, it gave the Giants their first lead at home since Week 4 of the season. Lock later found Slayton on a 32-yard scoring hookup and Robinson on a 6-yard touchdown toss after stepping up in the pocket to escape pressure. That eruption of points put the Giants ahead 21-6 with 5:55 left in the second quarter.
The three scoring passes for Lock marked only the second time since Week 16 of the 2019 season that a Giants quarterback had three touchdown passes in a game. Tommy DeVito did it in Week 11 last season against the Commanders.
Lock in the first half was 7 of 8 for 148 yards and three touchdown passes.
When Ihmir Smith-Marsette took the opening kickoff of the second half back 100 yards for a touchdown, the Giants expanded their lead to 28-13. If anyone thought the Giants might cruise to a victory they have not been watching this team this season, or for the past decade or so.
The Colts closed to within 28-20 on Jonathan Taylor’s 26-yard touchdown run and threatened to get even closer on a drive that ended with a fourth-down stop of Taylor by Elijah Chatman. Daboll rolled the dice on 4th-and-2 from his own 42-yard line but Tyrone Tracy was stopped for no gain on the final play of the third quarter.
It got stickier when Flacco hit Alec Pierce for a 13-yard scoring hookup to make it 28-26 with 10:53 remaining. The slim lead held firm when the Colts botched the two-point conversion try, as Flacco passed to Michael Pittman but Pittman’s lateral to Taylor was fumbled away.
Nabers broke tackles en route to a 59-yard catch-and-run touchdown that made it 35-26 and the Giants were safe.