The notion that the New York Giants would switch quarterbacks this season had appeared to be a matter of when, not if, since April. Trading up in the NFL draft to select a quarterback in the first round has a way of starting a clock on such decisions.
That change, officially, came in Week 4, and the timing was inauspicious. The Giants, winless and struggling, were hosting the 3-0 Los Angeles Chargers, who had staked their claim to be discussed as a potential Super Bowl contender.
In a game in which each team suffered a significant loss, it was Dart who gave the Giants two things they had been lacking most the season.
A win, plus some hope.
Starting with an opening-drive touchdown capped by a designed run by Dart — the Giants’ first first-quarter touchdown this season — New York beat the Chargers 21-18 in Dart’s first career start.
Dart threw for 111 yards and a touchdown but was sacked five times. He also ran for 54 yards. At one point he was evaluated for a concussion but returned to the game.
One week after home fans booed starter Russell Wilson as the Giants mustered one touchdown in a loss to Kansas City, Dart drew massive applause for bouncing off tacklers after his quarterback sneak appeared to have been stuffed in the fourth quarter, only for him to stay upright and scramble for a first down.
Giants coach Brian Daboll, whose firing some fans had called for after the 0-3 start, pulled Dart in for an embrace at the final whistle.
“Happy we got him,” Daboll said.
New York may have solved its quarterback issue, but it now has a wide receiver problem after star wideout Malik Nabers left the game with what was reportedly a feared ACL tear in his knee, after it buckled while he was leaping for a second-quarter target. Nabers caught two passes for 20 yards before he left.
The Chargers (3-1) could also face a longer-term absence. Offensive lineman Joe Alt, a first-round pick in 2024, was carted off with an ankle injury in the first quarter. The team’s Super Bowl ambitions hinge on the production of quarterback Justin Herbert, but playing behind a patchwork offensive line that already lost one starter, Rashawn Slater, to injury in the preseason — an injury that shifted Alt to left tackle — Herbert had been blitzed 39 times, second-most in the league, through Week 3 and faced the sixth-most pressures.
The hits Herbert took Sunday were “very concerning,” Chargers coach Jim Harbaugh said.
Alt’s injury also comes on the heels of other injuries that have depleted the team’s depth cart, including running back Najee Harris.
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