Tracy on missing block that led to hit on Dart: 'It ain't going to happen again'

Both Tyrone Tracy and Jaxson Dart said that there was a miscommunication in the protection scheme that led to Dart being sacked and briefly leaving the Giants' preseason opener. Tracy lost his footing and that left Dart exposed to a full-speed, direct hit by Vikings safety Jay Ward.

"I heard something that made me have my eyes on the wrong side," Tracy said postgame. "That was really it. I have to get my eyes right and block the guy. I did it two plays earlier. But on that play I heard an alert to the other side so I had my eyes to the left instead of the right."

Tracy didn't see Dart go into the tent and assumed his day was done because it was the last play of the quarter. But he took accountability knowing that blocking Ward was his responsibility and it could've been a far worse outcome had Dart been seriously hurt.

"There isn’t really anything I can do at that point besides apologize and tell him it isn’t going to happen again, which it won’t," Tracy said. "I don’t have many of those on my film pass-blocking wise. It ain’t going to happen again."

Dart took it as a teaching moment. The offense is still learning to jell and learn the nuances of offensive coordinator Matt Nagy's scheme. The Giants' first-team offense, minus left tackle Andrew Thomas being a healthy scratch, had two drives and went 3-for-4 on third down conversions over that span.

There are still kinks to sort out and the Giants have two more games, plus training camp, to figure it out.

"Stuff like that happens in preseason where we're not all on the same page in the protection," Dart said. "I think that's a moment that we can really look back on and learn from because you have events like that where the group is able to to watch it, experience it, and then make sure that we don't make that mistake moving forward."

By Evan Barnes

evan.barnes@newsday.comevan_b

Evan Barnes covers the Giants for Newsday. He previously covered the Brooklyn Nets, Memphis football and the Memphis Grizzlies and also covered prep sports in Los Angeles.