Alex Bachman catches two TD passes, is just as excited about his tackle

Call it a comeBach!

Alex Bachman caught 11 passes for 122 yards and two touchdowns – all in the second half – to lead the Giants to a 25-22 victory over the Bengals on Sunday night at MeLife Stadium. The second touchdown came with 35 seconds left on a 15-yard pass from Davis Webb after the Bengals had taken a 22-18 lead.

“[Webb] told me the entire week, ‘Hey, you’re going to have your opportunities this week and I’ll be looking for you,’ ” Bachman said. “I never imagined he was going to look for me as much as he did, and in only a half of football. But we just had that look in our eyes, and after the game, we looked at each other like ‘we made it work.’ ”

Bachman said he was thrilled to have such a huge performance on a night when his parents had flown in from Southern California to attend the game (maybe Webb told them his plans, too). But he was really giddy about a play that had nothing to do with catching a pass or scoring.

After his first touchdown, a 22-yard catch-and-run, Bachman ran down under the kickoff and made the tackle.

“I’ve been waiting for T-Mac to let me loose,” Bachman said of special teams coordinator Thomas McGaughey. “I've been on scout team kickoff for three years now. I kept my mouth shut and my head down and tried to give them a good look but also tried to improve my craft as well. Fortunately, those looks and that hard work paid off for me tonight.”

Bachman celebrated that tackle on the field with as much gusto as he did his scoring plays.

“I actually get frustrated every time I don’t make a tackle,” he said. “I want to be that guy, the penetrator, and cause havoc. Luckily I was able to do that and I was fired up about it.”

By Tom Rock

tom.rock@newsday.com@TomRock_Newsday

Tom Rock began covering sports for Newsday in 1996 and became its NFL columnist in 2022. He previously was Newsday's Giants beat writer beginning in 2008.